Year: 2026

Life in Progress | April 2026

Posted on by Ellie Rose McKee

Things I am actively trying to do, big and small, in no particular order:

  1. Learning how to curl my hair
  2. How to do my make-up well, and consistently
  3. How not to make the world a worse place
  4. How to make the world a better place?
  5. How to complete this art degree
  6. How to find a job/how to make money/how to support myself/how to stop my partner drowning in financial responsibility
  7. How to show my partner all the love in my heart (shut up, I know it’s corny, I don’t care!)
  8. How to be an artist
  9. How to “find myself” (yes, it’s cliché, but it’s also a struggle. It makes the list)
  10. How to write again
  11. How to finish this damn novel
  12. How to get people to read my work
  13. How to get people to *engage* with my work
  14. How to make an impact
  15. How to live a good life
  16. (Re)learn French
  17. Learn Igbo
  18. How to figure out what that means and juggle it all and not crumble under the pressure

…

Wish me luck?

Trying – A Cultural Difference

Posted on by Ellie Rose McKee

Here, in the so-called western world—in the UK. In the US—when you say, “you tried,” it has unspoken context. “You tried,” translates to, “You tired—you ultimately failed—but you put in a little effort. We’ll grudgingly give you that.”

Not so in Nigeria! I can’t speak for the rest of Africa, because of course I can’t, but when a Nigerian* says, “you tried,” what they mean is, “Hey, you did your best, well done.”

I definitely prefer this outlook better. It’s the one I’m trying to take forward in my whole “Trial and Ellie” life experiment.

You can decide for yourself which camp my efforts fall into. (Though if it’s the former, maybe don’t tell me? At least not yet.)

 

*Upon re-reading this, it occurs to me that I perhaps shouldn’t assume this “worldview” is common among all Nigerians. Maybe it’s just my Nigerian. Regardless, you get the point.

Two Weeks to Get My Sh!t Together

Posted on by Ellie Rose McKee

All right, here’s the sitch: I hinted in my previous post that I have some things I need to be doing, and that I want to document my attempts at said things, so it’s time to get a lot less vague about this endeavour.

As my “Trial and Ellie” series of posts progress, I’ll get into more complex goals and projects, but for now, I have (almost) two weeks of Easter break from university in which I need to get caught up on my university work and, hopefully, find some paid employment.

The “find paid employment” task is intimidating me, so I’ll circle back to that one and outline the uni work first. It’s a start, right?

University Tasks:

  • Read through the current draft of my Art History essay
  • Complete the reading for my essay and pull out the quotes I’ll need
  • Insert quotes into the draft
  • Finish drafting the essay around the quotes (yes, I really break tasks down to this extremely basic level)
  • Select the photos for my “studio book”
  • Compile research for my studio book
  • Put all the photos and research in the book
  • Make sketches—some in my sketchbook, some larger
  • Update my list of pieces to complete once I’m back in the studio

Apologies to anyone who finds this post (or this type of post) boring. This is actually the kind of stuff I like to consume, and what I plan to write more of—AND what I think I need to write more of, as it’s also genuinely helpful to me. Anyone else out there, working on stuff? Please tell me I’m not alone.

Trial and Ellie

Posted on by Ellie Rose McKee

I didn’t know whether to post this here, on my blog, or on my newsletter; so I’m sharing it in both places and hoping that doesn’t bug anyone. As I will cover below, I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing, I’m merely trying.

Where do I begin? That is the question. And the issue is that I don’t feel ready, but I’ve come to understand that “ready” is a fallacy. We’re never ready for whatever life has to throw at us, because we can’t be. Not fully. The important thing, though, is that we try.

That’s what this post about. And, honestly, that’s what my life is about. Trying my best, f**king up, and trying again. Because I want to make the most of things. I don’t want to wake up one day at sixty or seventy or eighty years old and lament all the things I could have done if only I’d had more time, or more money, or more energy; if only more people had believed in me, or whatever other excuse/reason I’m currently hanging on to.

All we have is the moment we’re in, and the most we can give is our best. It might not be enough, and probably it isn’t, but what’s the alternative? Give up? Never find out “what if?” Screw that! Even though it’s scary, and even though I don’t fully know what I’m doing, or if I’m going to do it right, I want to try. I *need* to try. I can’t live my life thinking that some elusive tomorrow is when I’m going to give my goals my best shot.

So, in the words of Taylor Swift, this is me, trying.

Tune in tomorrow to see what that actually means in the harsh light of day.