Life update, being a teenager..

So tired, but for some reason I feel ready to write something. About what you may think.. I don't know yet. What an intro to this "hey, I'm still alive although I've haven't shown the slightest sign of life since February" post... Shame on me.
Hope you're well, you, reading this. Has your life been busy too? What have you been up too? Have you experienced anything life changing since February?
I, sure have lived moments I won't forget. Not because they were in any way extraordinary but because it's been such a different year for me.  Change is so good from time to time. I wonder what my ninety year old self (hey let's be optimistic,eh?) will still remember from this year. I've helped myself by writing a diary. 365 pages of gossip about my 18 year old life. Boring for some, entertaining for me. After spending a year socialising at work with adults who seemed to have their life together, I'm not going to lie, I'm quite looking forward to being surrounded by 18-20 years olds who get that lifestyle of  " wasting time, being a lazy human slug on week-ends, watching crappy TV, eating junk food"  I live, and love... Or maybe that's just me. (I think) that's the life at my age. Except next year I'll get to partyyyy more, which tops things off perfectly!
You know that saying "Oh teenage years are the best years of your life?". Bullshit. Excuse my rudeness.. I remember being 16, hearing that and thinking "Are you kidding me? Does that mean the rest of my life will be even worse? Nooooooo". Although, looking back, things weren't as bad as I thought, when you're a teenager everything feels like the end the world. Teenage years were in my case anyway, the hardest, worst years of my (well..kind of short) life. Only now (with 2 years left of being a teenager) is it starting to get really good. Teenage years are confusing and frustrating because you don't know what you want, who you are and are expected to act like an adult. You make mistakes. You find out stuff. You see things from a different perspective. You cry at your deadlines and workload. You cry over stupid fights. Also, hormones...enough said. You feel insecure about everything and at the same you're trying to keep it all together. But only now am I starting to realise that all those nights worrying about every piece of existence were quite understandable. I'll have more of these life crisis, I guess, but I can now truly believe that they aren't permanent and life can be pretty damn good, in between :)
Teenage years are also a time when people expect you to know what you want to do with your life, what job career path you'd like to take etc. It's nice and scary at the same time to think that it is now you can show people what you're capable of. Your own attitude to work will make such a difference. A quote I'll keep reminding myself of is "The harder you work, the luckier you get".

Whether you've got a job or you're studying; at work, if your show full commitment and a hard working attitude, it most certainly will make you look good and more trust worthy and more opportunities will line up for you. If on the other hand, you're studying, you're then working on some job you would like to do in the future... whatever it may be, the more you work, the more choice you'll have. I still have a lot to do myself. Easier said than done, of course. But I'll be studying hard for the next three years so as to have that freedom of choice. So if older me is reading this again, CHOP CHOP work that butt off :)
On that note, I will let you think of what you'd like to do with your future.


Also, as it's still exam time for some people, I hope that's been a bit motivational :)

Thanks for stopping by xx

                                       
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Everything doesn't happen for a reason.

You know that famous saying "Everything happens for a reason"? Well I don't agree.

Here's why.

I hear this saying, all the time. When people say something like: "Oh don't worry, just remember that everything happens for a reason", although that saying might be comforting for someone, they mean that your life is somehow planned and has a guaranteed happy ending. No matter what horrible things you go through, these events will guide you, they say, to the place you're meant to be. Although it would be nice if it were the case, I don't think it is. I don't believe in destiny. If you do, that's fine but I believe that things don't magically end up well just like that. I believe you make your own destiny. You want a good ending? Well you need to do whatever it takes to get one. It won't happen if you just wait for it to happen. When people use that saying, they probably think of a time they felt bad, upset and then how that particular experience enabled them to meet people that changed their life for the better or go to places they would not have gone to without having gone through that certain bad experience etc. Although yes, I'm glad I got to do good things I could not have done if I hadn't gone through some of my bad experiences, I wouldn't go on to say, though, that these bad times were justified by the good ones.
Some things happen in life.. some horrible things.. things that are so horrible that no matter how happy you are in the future, you'll never be able to say " Oh, I'm happy that actually happened to me because look at where I am and how happy I am now." Some horrible things in life just simply cannot be justified by that saying unless the "reason" is that life is unfair and cruel at times. Sure it's a rather pessimistic way to look at it, but my point is that if we are happy (long) after some tragic event, for example, it's not because it happened, it's because we somehow managed to find a way to cope and accept it a bit more everyday. It does not mean we're glad it happened and does not mean that a tragic thing won't be as tragic if something good will come of it.
What would you say to someone who has just lost their child? Or to someone suffering from cancer? Or to someone who has just lost a loved one in a car accident? These are just a few examples of horrible things that happen everyday, unfortunately. Would you tell them "Oh, don't worry, everything happens for a reason"? No. I should hope not. Because none of it should have happened and nothing good would ever justify what happened to them.

Let's be more positive, now. Although we might not be able to control everything that happens to us, I think whatever we do to try to make good things happen in our lives does make a difference. Saying yes to opportunities that are given to us, working hard, and being willing to see what happens usually makes us discover great things, and that way we can meet great people too. There's nothing wrong with having a little hope that things will work out. Because most things do.

Even though life is full of tragic moments it is important to remember that is also full of good ones. Although it would be nice and reassuring to think that someone could protect us at all times from suffering and that we would only get things we deserve, I don't believe that the world works like that. Life is an uncontrollable, mysterious thing we cannot find a instruction guide to. All we can do is work on ourselves and make sure we do good things, and surround ourselves with people who inspire us and work together to make the world a little better everyday.

I'd love to hear your opinions about it so if you feel like writing a comment down below or telling me in person your thoughts on the subject, then please don't hesitate. I just felt like writing about this as I've been thinking about it a lot lately. Thanks for stopping by and for reading this xx

25 Random Facts About Me

Do you want to know 25 random facts about me? Well, if interested, here they are! 


1. What is my middle name? I don't have one.
2. What were my favorite subjects in school? English, Art and Sociology
3. What is my Favorite drink? Lemonade
4. What are my favorite songs at the moment? "Elastic Heart" by Sia and "Love me like you do" by Ellie Goulding
5. What app do I use the most? Instagram 
6. What sport do I practice? I took dance lessons for 12 years (AND YES, IT'S A SPORT).
7. Favourite book? Harry Potter books
8. What is my favorite color? Burgundy
9. What are my favorite animals? I love butterflies and deers
10. What are my favorite perfumes? Miss Dior or Burberry fragrances (they smell SO good)

11. What is my favorite holiday? Christmas
12. What is my favourite number? 24
13. What countries have I been to? France, Belgium, England, Scotland, Germany, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Ireland and The United Arab Emirates
14. Do I speak any different languages? Yes, I speak English and French fluently and then a little bit of Dutch and a teeny tiny bit of Spanish.
15. Do I have any siblings? One brother, Louis
16. What is my favorite store? New Look 
17. What is my favorite café? Little Bettys (in York, England)
18. Did I like school? I loved primary school, then secondary was haaard.
19. Who are some of my favorite YouTubers? The Michalaks, Will Darbyshire, Sprinkle of Glitter (Louise), Tyler Oakley, Zoella (Zoe), and the rest of the gang haha 
20. What are some of my favorite films? I love the Harry Potter films, "The Fault In Our Stars" and "Billy Elliot"
21. What are some of my favorite tv shows? Friends (my all time favourite!!!) , How I Met You Mother and Gossip Girl
22. PC or mac? Mac !!! Once you go mac, you never go back.
23. What phone do I have? Iphone 5s.. it's my little baby 
24. How tall am I? 1,73m / 5'8 ft
25. Do I have any pets? I used to have two goldfish called Bob and Finn

PS: thanks for stopping by! xx

 ❤

Oblivion

I'd be a liar if I said that I'd never, at one point in my life, wanted to be remembered by a very large number of people. When I was little I wanted to be famous so that people would be aware that I existed. I didn't want to be just a "temporary thing", that would not leave a mark. I used to care so much about what other people thought of me and I used to want people to know my name. But these aren't things that are essential to me anymore. 

What's more important: dying and knowing that you have lived a fulfilled life and have done good things, and know that you have helped people, or just being famous? Of course you can do both. But just being famous is surely not what I would consider a life well spent. Maybe it's in human's nature that we want to stand out. We want to say "hey, I exist. Don't forget about me". But so even if you were, say, known by these 7 billion people that live on this planet, they all knew your name and who you are... would that really make you a happy person? 

In the book/film, "The Fault In Our Stars", one of the main characters wants to be remembered, so badly. And his girlfriend tells him: "There will come a time when all of us are dead. All of us. There will come a time when there are no human beings remaining to remember that anyone ever existed or that our species ever did anything. There will be no one left to remember Aristotle or Cleopatra, let alone you. Everything that we did and built and wrote and thought and discovered will be forgotten and all of this will have been for naught. Maybe that time is coming soon and maybe it is millions of years away, but even if we survive the collapse of our sun, we will not survive forever. There was time before organisms experienced consciousness, and there will be time after. And if the inevitability of human oblivion worries you, I encourage you to ignore it. God knows that’s what everyone else does.” I thought this passage of the book was brilliant. Another one along the same lines is: "You say you're not special because the world doesn't know about you. But that's an insult to me. I know about you." 
It shouldn't matter how many people know our names or how long we have to do things on this planet. As long as we remind ourselves to always live in the moment and be the best person we can be, we would accomplish, in my opinion, a successful life. Nobody can be remembered forever. Even the greatest people of our centuries who have revolutionised our world will be forgotten, whether it's when the human race will cease to exist or because their name will be forgtotten with time. It doesn't matter because the world we live in at this very moment, will have completely changed in millions of years. Completely. Something else will replace everything that we know with time. 

At the end of the day, we should mainly focus on the people we do know; the people we meet throughout our lives, our friends and family, and make sure that we help each other and create things and inspire others without feeling the need  to be immortalised. In some way we all are anyway. When you participate in life, when you share your ideas, when you create, you do something; you change the world. On your own scale. No matter how small of a change it might make, the world wouldn't be what it is now, without you. I hope that when I grow old, I can sit back and think about all the things I'll have done in my life and be proud of them. If I have had a positive impact on someone, and inspired someone and loved the people I care most about and I helped people in need and always tried my very best in everything that I'll have done.. I will be a content little human. I don't need a million people to know about me. Whether I influence one person or a thousand or a million, if I manage to influence one person, in a positive way, that would be good enough for me. Of course, if I were to become famous and get to reach more people, then great. If I don't, that's ok too.
In our society I feel like people make a bigger deal of numbers. They want as many likes on a photo or video as possible for instance but why should one person not be enough? Someone that actually really cares about you. Someone that, without you, wouldn't be who they are today.
It's a big world out there. We all have different qualities and flaws, which makes us able to relate at the same time. I believe we all complement each other. We need each other. We're stronger together.

As long as you're happy with who you are, and what you do and try to improve the world you live in, I'd say, you're doing a pretty good job. And thank you - we need you. 

PS: thanks for stopping by! xx

 ❤

Let's catch up a bit :)

How is it February already?!

In the last 2 months I have been quite busy working and then on my days off, I've been spending a lot of "energy" doing absolutely NOTHING. But you need to do that sometimes. Maybe, not on every single day off. I should work on that. So if, you're reading this.. hi. I hope you're well and I hope you've done some pretty cool stuff recently. It's 2015, but I'm sure you already know that. But that's cool. Another year. Another adventure. I have some pretty cool things coming up this year. You'll hear about them soon, I'm sure. Winter has been fun this year. My first winter without exams. OH YEAH.




Here are a few things I liked this winter:

1. Sunsets
2.Christmas lights everywhere.
3.Christmas (which meant stuffing myself with food and taking naps all throughout the day.. who knew eating so much was so exhausting?).
4. Iceskating (in London.. highly recommend!)
5. Les Misérables (saw the musical in London. It was brilliant!). Oh and you can see it anytime. Not just in winter. I just happened to see it recently.

I'm still waiting for snow. Of course, the one year I'm not in Belgium, it had to snow a lot over there. I like snow, it makes the whole area look like it's been covered in whipped cream. Weird imagination...I know.



This year I look forward to living life a day at a time. Not worrying about tomorrow. I look forward to meeting new people and seeing old friends. I look forward to travelling to new places.
I look forward to learning more things about the world I live in. Let's hope 2015 will be a happy year. Let's make it special.

I'll talk to you again soon.

PS: thanks for stopping by! xx

 ❤