bye 2016

Lately, it seems like days, months, weeks are whizzing by.

Guess what? Another year is almost over. And 2017 is right around the corner.
I’m not one for New Year’s resolutions, but I did promise myself one thing last year: that I’d do everything in my power to live my life. 2016, you have been fun, busy, frustrating, filled with laughter, tears, full of adventure, pain, sadness, and happiness. Well, it has been an up and down year for me, but I learned a lot of new things this year. I learned a lot about how people are in society, myself, my strengths, new experiences.
Now, let's see what 2017 has in store for all of us and what will occur.

wait...what?

Wait...what? Are you sure? December? Already? This must be some kind of joke!

I can’t believe it’s December already. Is it just me or is this year simply flying by?
Anyone else is completely shocked that we’re in December 2016 already? It’s madness!
Also, it’s hard to believe that this semester is almost over already. Where did the time go? 

I’m currently working on finishing up an essay, a presentation, and other things. Work, university, work and university (God, help me). What can I say? There are a lot of things to do (so much to do, so little time).

Can somebody please tell me where this year has disappeared to? 

This year went by fast for me. 

The picture on the left basically represents me. Oh my, oh my. 

trust?

Trust doesn't come easy. Everyone has that feeling about whom to trust or how much to trust. Every day we make choices about whom and how much to trust. Trust is such a valuable item. It takes a lot of time to build trust but it can be also lost in a moment.
Most of us don’t have to think very long or hard to remember the last time our trust was shattered. Once trust is lost, it’s very hard to get it back. Actions speak louder than words. Nothing seems more difficult to recover from then when someone whom you have trusted suddenly, and without warning, does something you didn´t expect. The shock of the betrayal of trust from someone whom you expect to be trustworthy, whatever the case may be, when trust is broken, something deep inside of us is changed. It’s not just that we lose trust, we also lose a part of our security and respect for the other person. We want to be able to trust, but trust must be earned. It takes time to build it, and a lot longer to regain it once it’s lost. I have learned the hard way that trust is not something you simply give away. It must be earned.

in my secret life

So, Leonard Cohen died.

Many of you know him, well, know his song "Hallelujah", a majestic ballad which was recorded by many other artists.

I was just a teeneger and it was my dad who showed me his music (thanks a lot, dad!). "Dance me to the end of love"- very first Cohen´s song I´ve heard. And I feel in love.

It was the first time I heard this incomparable voice that epitomized gravitas, passionate aliveness, and sensual power. After listening to many of his songs scores of times over the years, I still find new layers. His words speak across the changes and evolving stages of our lives. He understood things on so many levels and was able to communicate them in ways that informed lives. Thank you for making me appreciate how putting words together can say so much unspoken and spoken. Thank you for helping shape my (young) mind. Thank you for your words, your songs, your life. Thank you for looking so deeply, for sharing your time giving us your finely wrought diamonds, for lighting the dark corners where the soul lives.

A voice like no other.

rainy days

Today I woke up and the sky was grey. I opened the window and the air was cold and foggy.
And, to be honest, I fully expected to feel grumpy. I thought I’d want to retreat back beneath my covers before unwillingly forcing myself to put my feet on the floor and begin my day.
But the strange thing is, none of these things actually happened. In fact, I sprang right out of bed. I looked right out the window and breathed in the cold air.
To be honest, I like it when I don't have to go anywhere, can stay home. Curl up with a book. Otherwise, I hate it. Hate driving in it, hate walking with an umbrella. And I love it when it rains at night, it's soothing.
Today is rainy, but I'm not complaining . Why? Because I don't have to go out. Rainy days the best for reading books, listening to music, sipping coffee, taking naps, watching movies, crocheting, and whatever you love to do on rainy days. 

Anyway, they are the BEST sleeping days. I like to spend mine cuddled up on the sofa with tons of blankets reading books or watching movies.

put that phone down and talk

Put that phone down and talk, for God's sake.
Sometimes I just want to yell those words at almost everyone.
I first noticed this when I was sitting in some café. I was distracted by a group of teenage girls who walked in silently. They were not talking to one another. Uff, teenagers, I thought. And why was I distracted? Because they sit down and continue to ignore one another while they had their noses buried in their smartphones. I swear they proceeded to text each other. That’s right, they were texting instead of talking. I was shocked.
It’s scary how technology is taking over. The other day in a hotel, I saw this couple checking in. After dropping off their backpacks in the room, they came back down, both with a laptop and they spent the rest of the day sitting next to each other (proabably chatting on Facebook), and not speaking to each other. The first question somebody asks these days when looking for a room: Do you have WiFi? Well, sad but true.
As I really don’t mind that we all have technology now and can stay connected but I DO hate it if you’re checking your phone at dinner, or during a conversation with me – what the hell are you doing? I mean, if you can’t pay attention, why should I?
I have on friend in particular who will come over to my flat, we'll sit and start having a conversation and the next thing you know he's on his damn phone texting back and forth, like having a full-on convo. Really? Can we talk? Are you married to your smartphone or what?
How sad.
And that situation where you are having dinner with a friend or colleague who can’t help but look at their phone every five minutes and reply. They smile as they type. I just hate that. Like, hello, I'm sitting right here in front of you!

One solution to this problem I’ve heard of is the phone pile game. Everyone puts their phones on a pile in the middle of the table. Whoever breaks and picks up their phone first has to buy the drinks or pay for the dinner. Seems like a good plan to me.
Any thoughts?

autumn is here

Yes, I'm back!

And I just wanted to "finally" get my blog up. As always, I'm going to throw on here whatever I find interesting, or drive me crazy.

So, summer is finally over. In case you hadn't already guessed from the greyer sky, colder weather, autumn is here. The temperature have definitely dropped in the last few weeks and it is getting darker too. But,  the only thing I don’t like about this time of the year is the fact we have shorter days. I don’t get the seasonal depression like some do but just prefer the lengthier, brighter days. 

Here are some things I love about autumn that I’m really looking forward to: 

hot chocolate

cosy socks

autumn leaves

scarves and boots

apple goodies

pumpkin goodies

no more pesky bugs (what can I say, mosquitos love me)

and many other things

And how do you feel about autumn?


P.S.: This is my first post back. (And yes, I've missed you too).

i was supposed

I was supposed to study today. Yes, I was supposed... I had full intentions of spending the whole day reading my materials. But... when I sat down I just couldn't bring myself to do it. True story.
I don't know. I just can't focus on my materials today. My mind wanders and I just find myself wanting to do other things even though I plan to study the entire day and I really, really want to do well on my exams.
Today was a weird day (a little bit). I can't even keep my eyes open while I'm wiritng that post. I guess it's time to go to sleep. It's 12am.Well, 12:10am. Yup, it's time to sleep.

I was supposed to study today.

I gave up trying to be a good student.

success

People are different and everyone has his own formula of success. It's something very personal and something within each of us. What success is for one person might be completely different for someone else, much like happiness.

To understand what success means to you, you have to first know your authentic self, you have to re-connect with your values and what is important. When you do that, you can begin to define your own success. When you know yourself and who you are and how you can serve others, then you can better define what success looks like for you.

Everyday before going to bed, when you can brave seeing your face in the mirror with a satisfaction of living that day to the fullest without any regrets, that is success.

For me, succes isn't money or about having stuff. Succes is living your best life. It is simply living my dreams and surpassing my "imaginary" limitations. Success is a journey and not a destination.

traveling

I am sure most of us love to travel. Traveling is one of the most incredible things of life. It's to get out of the daily habits, to go and see other part of the world, other sides of life experience. Travelling is just about enjoying the very moment, not thinking about the past and future.

And what does traveling mean to me?

Hmm... Freedom - the freedom to explore, to learn, to discover and experience the unknown. That's what traveling means to me. And it’s a really good way to meet new people!

And I really enjoy learning about the various cultures, on how they do things and what is important to them. I am big on observing (so I can learn) and also participating (so that I can really feel the experience). Also, by meeting other cultures I think we become more understanding, which leads you to being a better person.

As long as you are traveling, you are learning. There is no way to escape it.

failing

Failing sounds so scary, right?

It seems that sometimes people are afraid of failure because they assume that failure shows something is wrong with you. Honestly, it doesn’t mean anything is wrong with you. It's not a disaster or something like that.

The truth is, everyone has failed. Because failing is a part of life. And life is all about taking risks. Without trying we never have a shot at succeeding.

People are not perfect. And don’t give up even you fall down. Failure always leads towards success. Because after failing once people try hard to win.

Although this is true and we all must face failure with sucess, it is very frustrating at times knowing that you are given restrictions that most others don’t face due to circumstances you have no control over. 

I strongly believe that success happens through learning. I have failed in many ways and I'm still focussed on the future. And the reason I am who I am now is because of my past failures ( and my future ones). The fact is success has no value if its opposite is not recognised.

Expecting is based on preparation. Accepting is after action. Plan well, and act on it. If success, you got experience; if fail, you still got experience. Just don’t give up.

it's okay

What a day! Two post [on the exact same day!] on that blog which is slowly dying. I'm so sorry for that. I know that I should be posting here [once a week, yup], but I don't have time or I just don't know what to write about or the weather is so nice that I prefer to be outside rather than inside.
So, the second post. What a madness.
Well...
I just want to say that it's definitely okay to feel down from time to time. Or to have a thought or feeling that not everything is 100% positive. In fact, it's something normal.

Life is fantastic, but it’s also messy and sometimes just hard. Sometimes I think that we’ve become so caught up in that cult of personality, you know what I mean - always looking good, perfect hair, charisma, being judged well by others, having it all and being successful. And our society seems to dictate that we shouldn’t feel and just “be positive”. Always. But that’s simply not realistic. Not at all. Guys, everyone has ups and downs, unless they have the perfect life. But...what does anyone learn when life has no challenges, and no emotions?

It seems to me that being sad sometimes is out of bounds, something you’re not allowed to feel or do. Because it's a weakness and weakness is not cool and a lot of people find it bloody weird, which in itself, is odd. It’s okay to be sad, it’s okay to be happy, it’s okay (well, recommended) to be a person, and if people can’t deal with it, it’s their problem.
Do not feel guilty of being sad. Realise that everyone, no matter how they try to hide and minimise it, still experiences it. 

I’m telling you that it’s okay to feel sad sometimes. So have a cry if you need to on those days when you feel sad. Then wipe your eyes, and keep going. 

Sunday

Sunday, Sunday.

Yesterday (actually by chance) I found a live stream of BGT. It was the tenth series of Britain's Got Talent! Incredible!

Britain's Got Talent live final saw 12 contestants battle it out for a chance to perform for royalty at the 2016 Royal Variety Performance.

Anyway,what I saw during that show, I mean, WOW. Absolutely stunnig!

The tenth Britain's Got Talent competition won a magician ( for the first time!).
And here you have his first audition:

But!
I was absolutely thrilled by Wayne Woodward’s stunning performance on the BGT final.
After watching BGT, I found his earlier performances and he is amazing.
If there’s one thing I love about Wayne, aside from the fact that he’s a brilliant singer, it’s his cheeky chappy personality. He’s got such an infection personality – he’s naturally funny, very charismatic, very talkative… they’re all good boxes to check as a performer.

Here you have his performance from semi-final:

making mistakes

Have you ever regretted doing or not doing something? 

You might regret it because you didn’t want to take any risks. Well, the truth is that majority people take a risk every day. Yes, some make mistakes, but who cares? Some can usually take that mistake and brush it aside or learn from it. Then others take the risk again without making mistakes the next time. 

Because everybody makes mistakes (but only the wise learn from them). Although I regret some mistakes I have made, now I perfectly know that if I didn’t make them, I wouldn’t have learned from them. Life is full of unexpected events that cannot be predicted. And there is nothing wrong with making a mistake. We are only human. 

Making mistakes is not always bad. When we make a mistake, we think all the outcomes are going to be terrible. Some time ago, I used to be that way; I regretted of every (bad) decision and every mistake I made. I just stayed sit waiting for the daunting consequences to come knowing that all they will bring until I started to look things differently. I decided take the most of everything, also of making mistakes. I realized that every mistake helped me to not repeat the same mistake. Not only my experience, but also others’ experiences agree that making mistakes is a great way to learn.

Each day life sends you chances to learn, grow and step into your best. 

So embrace failures, mistakes, screw ups because they not only make us uniquely who we are, but also teach us powerful lesson.

when doves cry

2016 seems to have opened a strange portal where all true creatives and legends are crossing over to the other side.

Prince. A phenomenal artist, and a great songwriter and musician who provided a wonderful soundtrack to many childhoods and individual lives. And sometimes the music was absolutely bloody elevated. If the only thing he ever did was play the bass, he would have been acknowledged as one of that instrument's greatest exponents. His song-craft is simply perfect. He reached out across the world.
And his efforts against "the system" were useful. He had a great dislike for the Internet and made mention of the problems with piracy and copyright laws. I think that, in the music industry, the biggest thieves evolved into the record labels and music corporations themselves, wedging out profits over and above the paid rights of the actual artists.
This man was indeed a musical genius, and he did push the boundaries (of course musically).

The world will miss your talent. Thank you for showing us your very best. And thanks for all the great music you brought into our reality.

what a beautiful day

That's true, people. I struggle with finding time to write something here. I was committed to updating it every week but I see that I have been completely remiss. I have so many things to do and guys... it's April already! Wait... it's almost May! I don't know, I think that I live in completely another hm... let's say spacetime. I can't believe that.

I wanted to write something really interesting here, but as I have some free time today, I've decided to do some spring cleaning. Everything is better of studying, right? 

 And now my flat is a mess. But it's fine, I just needed to do that.

procrastination

I spent most of my life procrastinating. Everything is last minute and my life is filled with deadlines. Why spend ages doing it now when you could get it done later, right?

It's a habit. I always seem to procrastinate. I wait to study for a test like three days before I have to take it. Or night before. I do projects the weekend before it's due. I'm telling myself " Okay, in 15 minutes I WILL go start that project." Fifteen minutes go by and I'm still doing whatever I was doing 15 minutes before and I end up saying the same thing but never get to do it until later or the next day. Sometimes it frustrates me, but I just can't get out of the habit... maybe it's just a real bad case of laziness? But here's the thing - I actually like working. 

a vicious cycle.

Sunday, Sunday

So, it's Sunday and I just enjoy doing nothing. I enjoy this more than anything. Even if I know that I have some work to do. Oh God, I wish I could get paid for this. It would be amazing!

To be honest, I think that we all need days to ourselves at times. I have never found a rule that says we have to be busy every minute of the day every day. 

I love lying in my bed and listening to music. No worries, no rush, only me and music. Why? Because listening to music is like feeding your soul and it's the best way to escape from one's problems even for a while. Music is like a friend that will always be there.

I guess, the love of music comes from being free to express yourself and say, how and what you feel and know that someone somewhere can relate. Music can feed your soul so seems like I like the emotional attachment that music can give.

That's the power of music.

As I enjoy doing nothing, just lying in bed and listening to music, I'm also watching some videos on YouTube. 

So, I found this - James Corden's Carpool Karaoke in which Corden drives around with some of music's stars singing their biggest hits. It's absolutely hilarious! 

just a Monday

Monday. It's just a Monday.

To be honest, I forgot that today is MLK Day. Martin Luther King Day is a federal holiday held on the third Monday of January every year and it celebrates the life and achievements  an influential American civil rights leader. He is most well-known for his campaigns to end racial segregation on public transport and for racial equality in the United States.

So...
Instead of studying, I'm watching some movies. Actually, today's movie is Selma. It's the third time, I think so, that I decided to watch it. I don't know, I'm just so stunned by that movie that I could watch it all the time. And still, I don't know why. I honestly don't have any words to describe the effect that Selma has had on me.
Actually, Selma isn't only a documentary about Martin Luther King Jr. It's called Selma because of the famous "Bloody Sunday" march on March 7, 1965, in Selma, Alabama. Over six hundred marchers gathered and marched to Montgomery, facing the threat of violent police. A second march was held, where Dr. King called for civil rights supporters to join him.


As I said, that movie doesn't just focus on Martin Luther King Jr. It's about the town. It's about the people, their bravery and altruism. It's about fighting for what they believed in: justice for each other.
The people in Selma came together for the greater good.
When I saw Selma for the first time, I admit that I started weeping almost immediately. I had no idea my reaction would be so sudden. I don’t doubt that there were many others who had a similar reaction. This staggering film puts the tension, the fear, the courage, and the tragedy in perspective, and dramatizes it through the struggles of people. It's a powerful examination of one of the key moments of the Civil Rights movement and the man who sacrificed made it possible.
And the soundtrack is just amazing. The sequence of songs and musical selections is well-positioned. Listening to them takes me on an inspirational journey. The powerful song from the movie "Glory", which I truly love, won best song at Oscars last year.
I believe that Selma is a major moment in cinematic history, not just because of the achievements that it has had, but because of the effect it has had on its audience.

the "new year, new me" thing

Every year we have the same story with the new year 's resolutions . " This year , I change everything about me!" I think New Year’s resolutions are bullshit. 

I’m sick to death and beyond of hearing people about how this year is their year.  "New year,new me!" When they steady been saying the same thing for the last 5 years. Like seriously. Less talking, more doing. I mean okay, sometimes people are actually serious about it and they go on to do great things throughout the year, (  I’m sure there are  people who have had great success with that, but they’re like unicorns. I’ve never seen one ) but the majority are just full of lies, filling themselves up on false pretence that this year is gonna be splendid and wonderful compared to last.
So please, stop talking and just make it happen! When you make it happen, it’ll be evident that 2016 was your year.

Happy 2016!