Not that anyone asked …
I saw that Sia’s former employer established a scholarship fund in her name.
It makes sense. She gave everything to them. It’s good that they can help her memory live on. It was the right thing to do. It’s more than most would do.
But …
A college scholarship? In the era of Bernie Sanders and “free college for everyone except you assholes still drowning in student debt 25 years after you graduated because you were unfortunate enough to borrow at a 10% interest rate”?
Also, it’s to sponsor aspiring writers. Because that’s what she wanted to be, they say.
Look.
I say this with love because that’s all I have in my heart for our girl and anyone else who loved her.
She and I both knew you can’t be a writer anymore. Everyone’s a writer now. Even with lousy grammar, poor sentence structure and this b.s. called FK scores that makes you dumb everything down so even a Trump voter can comprehend it.
Those of us who were classically trained have had to find niches. Health. Finance. Sports. Policy. You can write … but you’ll probably be subbing in for people who have the knowledge who can’t hold a conversation with a normal person without you as their translator.
You know how to honor her?
1. Raise a bunch of money and donate it to the people of Greece. The ones who are eating out of dumpsters because there are no jobs.
2. Help the pensioners whose whole families have moved back into their basements. Who now all have to make do with one meal a day because they suddenly have seven more mouths to feed.
3. Send a bunch of people into the Peace Corps and keep the volunteerism spirit alive. Have them build a village and name it after her.
She was going to join the Peace Corps, for those of you who didn’t know. I can’t remember the timing — I’m pretty sure it was after I was tossed from that last company and she was saddled with my job for her pay.
It was a total fluke that the job she DID take (and stay at for the next five years) opened up when it did.
She wasn’t going to apply because none of us are allowed to apply at competitors. I mean we are but we catch hell for it and who wants to jeopardize what you DO have in favor of something you might not get?
No wonder everyone’s a walking anxiety attack, when you put it that way.
Anyway. You want to honor that beautiful girl, you make the world a better place. We don’t need more writers. (Wait, yes, yes we do. < / weary editor here > )
We need more Sias. That’s what we need. Full of love and hope and deep thoughts and compassion for our fellow man.
Anyway.
Maybe, with that, I’m starting to see how I can best memorialize her.