Reply from The Lassies

Every year I attend a Burns Night with my Dad put on by a friend of his in Codicote, Hertfordshire. We've gone for the last 3 years now and last year I was asked if I would do 'The reply from the Lassies'. 

For those who aren't familiar with Burns Night, its a celebration of the Scottish poet Robert Burns birthday on 25th January each year. Traditionally its an evening filled with his poetry, a meal of 'haggis, neaps and tatties' washed down with whisky. Its increased in popularity in the last couple of years and is now something of a thing, even in small south English towns. I for one am quite glad, because its a different and enjoyable evening. Anything that perks up January gets my vote. 

Part of the evening includes 'A Toast to the Lassies' which is a thank you to the ladies from the men of the evening and 'The Reply' is the ladies response. 

I wasn't sure about doing the Lassie's reply as I've never been much of a public speaker (get me 1:1 with a cup of coffee and you won't shut me up however). Its only really being a Run Director at parkrun that has got me used to and *almost* alright with speaking to a large crowd. 

I thought I would post my reply here as a little reminder to myself that I did something last year that I have actively spent my entire life avoiding and for future reference for anyone else. 

With a good slosh of prosecco and wine down me, here was my reply:

My name is Holly Finnigan and I am a millennial. 

*Pause*, now I have purposely left a note to myself saying ‘pause’ to leave a moment for a reaction as I wasn’t sure what reaction I would get this evening to that statement.

I am actually a terrible millennial. I can’t stand avocados and and when I checked this morning, my one and only cactus was definitely dead.  True story. 

I was born in 1986 so I am a millennial, but it has not escaped my notice that this is something of a dirty word in the press and in groups of people that are, I shall politely say ‘predecessors’ of millennials. But I hope in my short reply this evening, that you may see that actually we are no different to any other generation.

Imagine the world today without women’s sufferage, the women who kept the country going and didn’t want to just get back in the kitchen after WW2 ended, the invention of the pill, the Beatles, changes to marriage laws to make the right to marry the person you love equal for all, the people who said this happened to me so we could say metoo! Imagine if we all just listened to those who don’t want change, where would we be? Probably stuck in Robert Burns time, in fact we probably wouldn’t as the average age in Rabbie Burns’ time was 35. So we’d all be ‘deid’ as the Scots would say.

Both as a millennial and a woman, I’m told that ‘we don’t know hardship’, that we’re ‘snowflakes’ who are too easily offended and can’t cope in the real world. Like the generations before us, we’re not always going to get it right. But we want to try. We want to learn from the past and celebrate what is good and improve what isn’t.

My generation has shown me that it is ok to challenge someone who is treating me unfairly due to my gender, to challenge men at work who address me differently because they are being lead by woman. In 2019, this is still a challenge that I face personally and I know theres plenty of others that would say #metoo

My generation has shown me that we still have a long way to go in terms of equality and educates me on how I can use my white privilege to challenge inequality and stand with those that face oppression.

I also see equality in action in my generation, with no better example than my beloved parkrun. Whether I’m running or volunteering the challenges are the same, the expectations are the same and I’m not treated differently because of my gender or anything else for that matter. It is one of the most positive parts of my week, largely for these reasons. I believe that one day the rest of my week will catch up.

The desire to grow, make positive change and our world a better place doesn’t belong to millennials, it belongs to us all.

I hope that my reply has give you a little smashed avocado on toast for thought. They say the future is female, but I like to think the future is us all. Men, we need you. We need you to cheer us on from the sidelines, love us and support us and we need to do the same for you. A toast to the wonderful laddies in our lives, may we know them, raise them and love them.  

Happy Burns Night

Best wishes

Holly

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