Best and worst. How was your week?

by REBECCA SPARROW

“Rebecca!” called out a voice from somewhere behind me.

My insides crumpled. Had I left my ATM card at the cash register?  Had I dropped my driver’s licence and not noticed?

You see I was in the supermarket carpark of  a small South Australian town. The type of town that has a population of 13,000 people. A town where I knew nobody. So when somebody calls out your name … it can only be a bad thing. Right?

“Rebecca!”

I turned.

And there in front of me was a woman with blonde hair and a wide generous smile.  A woman who looked about my age.

‘Are you Rebecca?”

“Yes,”  I said, possibly sounding weary. Or skeptical. Or both.

And that’s when the blonde woman – a woman I’ll call May* – gripped my arm, got tears in her eyes and started to talk.

About Mamamia.  And how the site makes her feel connected to the world.  About the fact she too has lost a child.

And we talked – for maybe 10 minutes or so – while Fin gurgled in the trolley and Ava hid behind my legs (and, you know, attempted to pull my pants down) about how much May loved the site.  What it meant to her life.  Even though she didn’t agree with all the opinions expressed (Me neither, May!).  Even though she’d watched the site change so much since she first started logging on years ago.

It didn’t matter.

“It’s a place for me to just plug into the world, to read opinions, to feel a part of things, ” she said.

And I knew exactly what she meant.  Because that’s how I used to feel (and still do feel) when I first started logging on to Mamamia back in 2008. Long before I ever became part of the Mamamia team.

Sometimes when you’re doing a job – day in, day out – you forget exactly what you’re doing it for. And who you’re doing it for.  And on New Year’s Eve in the carpark of a small town, I was given a great reminder.

So May if you’re reading this (and I know you will be!) I want to say thank you for taking the time to follow me out of the shops into the carpark and for not making any mention of the fact that I looked completely FERAL in real life.

You made my New Year’s Eve.

Now as for the rest of my Best and Worst for this week …  there are two posts that particularly stuck out to me this week.  The first was Mia’s pull-no-punches post on Tony Abbott and why the Mamamia crowd are sceptical of  his current “I’m Tony Abbott and I dig chicks”  campaign strategy. I actually didn’t agree with Mia’s post but I always relish the chance to debate politics with Mia, the Mamamia team and our readers.

The other highlight of the week was a post written by a sixteen year old Mamamia reader Aparna Balakumar who wrote about her persepctive  – as a young Australia-Indian – of the vicious rape and subsequent death of the 23 year old New Delhi woman last week. Aparna’s post was just so articulate and insightful and I learnt so much from her.  I really sincerely hope we get to read lots more from Aparna on Mamamia this year.

My worst is more personal.  Some of you will remember a post I wrote about being an emotional eater a few months ago and my success at getting my binge eating (particularly my sugar addiction) under control. Yeah. That.  I’ve fallen back into really bad habits over Christmas. How bad? Put it this way. I ate a chocolate chip biccie for breakfast yesterday. Anyway … I’m hoping to regain control this week. Wish me luck. And if you see me in a supermarket carpark with a chocolate bar in my hands – feel free to do a citizen’s arrest.

So how’s your week been? What have been your highs and lows?  Is there anything you’d like to get off your chest?