To say I was disappointed would be a massive understatement.
Devastated, shocked, bewildered, angry, upset, frustrated … there aren’t any words that could come close to describing how I felt when I woke up on Friday morning and heard the results of the referendum. The one word that I definitely wouldn’t use to describe my feelings that morning is resignation.
I knew it would be close. I knew that although most of my friends would vote remain, almost everyone else I spoke to was going to vote leave. And yet a part of me refused to give up hope.
The EU is far from perfect and I could understand many of the reasons given by people wanting to leave. However, I just couldn’t (and still can’t) see how leaving will resolve any of these issues.
As the leading Brexit campaigners immediately started to renege on everything they’d said and promised I felt angry. I also felt angry at the people who said they’d voted leave because they’d believed them. Yes, they’d lied, but the lies were so obvious it wasn’t exactly difficult to see through them.
And then there are the people saying they’d only voted leave as a form of protest and didn’t actually want to leave at all. WHAT??? Did they think this was some kind of a joke? Or a game they could just play again – ‘Ha, got you! Now let’s do it again and I’ll be serious this time’. If they’re not mature enough to take the most important ballot of their lives seriously they should never be allowed to vote again!
I don’t want to give up my EU passport. I want to be able to travel where I want without restrictions. I want to know if I find somewhere I quite like I can stay and live and work there. I want an EHIC healthcard. I want my money to still be worth something. I want my country to come out of austerity, not plunge deeper into it. I want my worker’s rights to be protected. Hell, I want my HUMAN RIGHTS to be protected (yep, we have a government that isn’t too keen on human rights and wants to abolish them). I want the children I teach to grow up with a future. I want unity, peace and working together for the greater good.
Can you tell yet that I’m a bit upset about the result?
I arrived in school on the Friday full of doom and gloom. As the pound was rapidly losing value I kicked myself for not having booked my flights for the summer.
I’d originally planned to go to Armenia with a friend, but as we never seemed to get the chance to get together to plan and book it and as it got closer to the summer holidays and prices started to rise, I started to look at alternatives.
I decided that if I wasn’t going to Armenia, then I’d return to Sweden and finish my walk along the Kungsleden. I checked out flights and the prices weren’t too bad. I didn’t book as I thought I’d better check with my friend first just in case it wasn’t too late for Armenia.
Now I was in panic mode knowing that having to pay in Sterling would cost me more than it had the day before. I jumped on my computer and refused to do anything else until my flights were booked.
It cost me £50 more than it would have done the day before.
Then I kicked myself a bit more for not having taken my money out of my bank account and transferred it into dollars and euros before the referendum. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Except I didn’t really need hindsight as playing around with currencies and living in countries with massive inflation during my travelling days had taught me to be savvy with things like this. I’d just been so busy I’d not even thought about it.
Somebody else please kick me. I can’t kick myself hard enough.
At least I now know where I’m spending my summer.
What does Brexit mean for you? Leave a (polite!) comment below.
Share this:
