Jaz’s Experience (Participant) [she/her]

Before doing this work I felt like a stranger to myself, and 10 weeks on, I’m only starting to befriend her. I gained a deeper sense of self-awareness, one that doesn’t just involve my thoughts, but also my physical self, my body. Doing the work made me realise the parts of me that I’ve never spoken to or even discovered before. The parts that I chucked aside in my attempts to fit into society’s mould. The parts of me that I felt guilty acknowledging. The parts that made me a stranger to myself. 

WOTS sessions are very raw, genuine and sometimes confusing. There is no pretending, no standards to follow and no trying to fit into anything. During the sessions, I experienced one of the simplest yet hardest thing to do, which was to just be. I overthink the labels and standards that exist in society, and the more I tried to fit nicely into these categories, the harder it was for me to find myself. The work has given me tools to un-learn and re-learn what it means to just be, and how to stay grounded through the “self” when being placed in society. But I can tell you, there is too much to learn and it will always be a work-in-progress because the world around us will always change. 

Hence for me.. WOTS has ended but the work continues on!