18 Things I Learnt While 18

In true consistent fashion, I have turned one year older this July. I did one of these last year and so it continues.

1. Hard work ALWAYS pays off
2. The things that scare you the most transform into the best life experiences
3. There is a difference between taking a leap of faith and running into something headlong
4. Patience is the key to everything
5. Always be kind to people
6. EVERYONE has problems and struggles
7. Always put yourself first- self care is everything
8. It’s okay to say no
9. It is possible to be kind and firm at the same time
10. Life is very short
11. Don’t get too caught up in this world and its worries
12. The best is yet to come
13. If there is goodness in your heart, you will always attract goodness in return
14. Without failure you won’t know what success tastes like
15. If people can’t accept you for your unapologetic self, let them go
16. Your people will always accept you for who you are
17. Always stay true to yourself and take your time, this is your life
18. If you didn’t achieve what you set out to achieve, know that there is something better in store. MUCH BETTER

 

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Winners Don’t Quit, Quitters Don’t Win?

So I’ve taken it upon myself to blog every day in June.

June guys! we’ve reached the middle, the halfway point, we’re halfway there!

Somehow it still hasn’t hit me that it is the middle of the year. I mean time is just a social construct and reality is an illusion after all.

Anyways, so the point of this post?

See I’ve got exams coming up and I feel like a lot of people have similar experiences where they get told not to be too hard on themselves this time around and to take it easy and that university is a long process blah blah.

See, the way I see it, you get one shot at this one subject so you might as well go all out or go home you know?

I like walking out of exams knowing i gave myself the best possible chance at success and if I don’t get the results I was hoping for?

Well, sometimes your best isn’t good enough but at least you’re not regretting the fact that you watched Netflix instead of doing that practice exam.

Also, if you hustle now for just s little bit, whether it be exams or a project or just life, then I’m sure when you do get to relax it’ll be totally worth it and you won’t be guilt tripping yourself.

So, that’s my philosophy when it comes to exams

Of course it’s important to give yourself regular breaks and go for walks and things

But in the end it’s your hardwork you’ll be taking into that examination room and not your procrastination so get hustling cuz winner don’t quit and quitter don’t win!

5 Things To Consider Before You Move Out

Moving out. That daunting leap of faith that everyone dreams of at least once in their life. But dreams aside, there are certain practical questions you need to ask yourself before taking the big step

Why Are You Doing It?

Before you do anything else, you gotta have your intentions straight. Why exactly do you want to live alone? for some it might be personal family matters which I won’t delve into. But for others:

is it life experience you’re looking for?

Is it because you wanna study in a certain place?

Is it because (like me) you think there’s something bigger and better waiting for you out there?

Look inside yourself first

How are you gonna do it?

While it would be desirable for Santa to come down the chimney and pay my rent, unfortunately that’s not how things work

Will you be able to afford rent? electricity? petrol? food? (yeah it’s a long list)

If you’re still in school and have some time before you make the big decision, I suggest you start saving up from today. Even a dollar a day is gonna go a long way

Who’s gonna help you?

The survival of human beings is built on the support systems we create around ourselves.

Are your parents, friends, colleagues or pets gonna support you in this endeavour?

If you’re unfit like me who’s gonna help you lug that mini fridge up to your new bedroom? (thanks dad)

There might be times when people will tell you not to do this or they won’t necessarily beleive in you. But you know what? that’s even more reason to do what you want and at the end of the day you have to be there for yourself

Are you ready?

Responsibilities and debts and expectations and having to cook your own food when you’ve got 15 hours of study to catch up on and making money otherwise you won’t be able to pay rent.

But with all that dread comes independence and freedom and being able to call something “your place” and looking around and having the ultimate satisfaction of saying to your non-existent audience

“I created my own life”

Photo Diary | India

I am here with a few more photos of my travels in India! Happy Blogmas day three! 



Going Back To Your Roots

The plane descends to a rough landing and as I recall all the times I have taken my life for granted, I see lights, cars, congested infrastructures and there is no doubt that I am finally in Mumbai.

As many of you may or not he know. I was born and brought up in Mumbai. A city which, unless you’ve actually lived in it, seems insane! I’ve often heard people describe Mumbai as being too much to handle or something they have never experienced before.

For me, coming home was like travelling back in time. Everything is the same yet so different. There still remains the juxtaposition between poverty and the working class, the daily hustle in the 16 carriage Mumbai local and the costant honking with a dollop of air pollution.

I often find myself wondering how people find ther purpose in this city overloaded with dreams and aspirations. It always comes down to one thing and that is: the people of Mumbai. There is so much life around you that you can’t help but live. This city makes me feel alive like no ther city has.

How incredible is it that some people here spent their entire lives living in a one bedroom flat and working day in day out and they still find a reason to get up in the morning?

Mumbai, you really are a sight to behold. 

New posts going up every second day in Novemebr and every single day in December.

An Open Letter to High School

They always say that there is life after high school, as if high school is some trap we need to escape in order to enjoy the real glories of life.

Dear High School,

For me, you felt like being thrust into a social experiment I hadn’t consented for and coming out the other end I’m much wiser and confused.

Year 8 went by in a mix of feeling lost in this huge castle made of endless brick corridors, the pushing and hooting of kids who were much taller and older, and the constant struggle to find my crowd and weed out all the mean girls and snarky boys.

Year 9 was a blur where the only thing that stands out is camp. That camp which involved finding Slender Man in the woods and deciding to share bunks with this girl who would later become one of the most important people in my life.

Year 10, the end of middle school, was full of grown ups telling us we need to have everything figured out. It was funny how we were supposed to be old enough to figure out our life careers but not old enough to legally cross the road and get Subway during school hours.

Year 11 was one of the most challenging periods of growth I have ever experienced in my life. While I was hateful towards school and life, I’m now grateful for this year because it made me who I am today. Most of it revolved around making sense of what I wanted in a man and from a relationship. But year 11 was also when I took the biggest risks like travelling alone overseas and deciding to become a Prefect.

Year 12. Sigh. My last year went by in a blur of assignments and stressing out over where I want to see myself next year. I spent so much of my year thinking about next year that I’m left confused when I’m finally at the end. Where am I supposed to go from here?

High school was like a contained safe haven where you had rules and guidelines, even for the smallest things in life, you got the next five years of your life handed down to you. So now, free of responsibility or direction, I await my fate to take me to the next five years of my life and the next and the next.

High school, you’ve been good to me but now it’s time to say goodbye

Love,

Aasma

Blogging for the sake of blogging

Hello my dears, remember me?

It’s weird how time in the real world is so distinct from time in the internet world. I’ve been absent for about two weeks and it feels like an eternity doesn’t it? at least to me it does.

I cannot stress enough how busy and stressed I’ve been because of Year 12 and there comes a point in your life where you have to prioritize and put some things on the backbench such as this blog.

For a while now, I haven’t been able to get through a book and that’s because my mind is so caught up on my future and my assignments and what my friends are doing AHH it’s all a chaos

I entertained the idea of just whipping up some content and publishing it but my heart wasn’t in it.

The thing with me is, I can’t bear the idea of publishing something on here when I’m not genuinely excited to share it. I can’t publish a Cover to Cover unless I absolutely LOVE the pretty covers, I can’t review a book unless I have an honest opinion I want to share etc.

So, the point of this rambly post is, I don’t want to blog for the sake of blogging, I want to blog so we can all be excited about the same things together. So bear with me while I try to get through some of the toughest times and am back with renewed passion and energy because I will be. Soon

 

Photo Diary | Melbourne

I spent the past five days driving to and from Melbourne with my parents. We had a lovely family holiday and Melbourne is one of the hippest places I’ve ever been.

  
    
    
    
   

My Memory Box

I’m a huge fan of memories and recording memories whether it’d be through photography or writing.

A while ago I started collecting memorable things in my life and over time I’ve accumulated quite a few important bits of my life in this now huge box

Here is an overview of what’s in my memory box. Please note it’s a bit vague for obvious privacy reasons

Journals 2009-present 
I’ve always been a huge believer in journaling. Being an over thinker I find it makes life much easier if I can just write everything down.

Of course we can’t forget the dreadful times when you go back and read those journals and realise what a goof you were

Travel memories I recently went to France and basically hoarded all the brochures/ postcards/ tickets/ souvenir coins. These ended up in here too.

Movie tickets   I initially began this memory box to collect movie tickets so this is where it all started I guess

Event tickets 
Concert and event tickets are also part of the mix

Photographs    Although I create albums of my photos. My memory box has the more important photo booth photos of myself and my friends

Birthday cards  All the birthday cards received from friends and family reside in here

School achievements 
  Although most of them are kept with my parents there are a few school achievements in here that I’m highly proud of such as my award for French/ my Prefect acceptance letter and my Peer leader badge.

Bits & bobs We can never forget the little things such as travel souvenirs bought home by friends

Those are the weirdly un-interesting things inside my memory box.

The purpose of this post was to maybe inspire you to start collecting the important things in your life.

You never know, one day when you’re ninety years old with nothing to do you could sort through your memory box!

Take A Leap Of Faith

I live in a world of possibilities where nothing is impossible.

Those were the words, spoken by some rather successful person attending one of our many school assemblies that did it.

The process started a long while ago, before I even left for France but it was Monday the 26th of October that it had been leading up.

Let me paint a picture. 

My school is prestigious in a sense. With a prestigious school comes a prestigious student leadership body. This involves:

• putting your name down
• speaking in front of the entire student body and teachers which adds up to more than a thousand people
• them voting for you and electing you as their leader.

So, it’s basically a popularity contest disguised as  an”upholding and representing school values” kind of thing.

Back to Monday the 26th of October. Being an over-achiever I obviously put my name down, I obviously stressed over, cried and asked every human being within hearing distance for reassurance about my speech.

When it came to writing down the speech, the words just flowed out of me, as they would with any writer.

So what’s it like speaking in front of one thousand people? Terrifying 

I imagined every worse case scenario in my head before-hand. These involving:

• tripping on stage (always happens)
• being too short for the podium
• forgetting my lines or stumbling on my break-through line.

I watched motivational speakers on YouTube, I read tips on how eating protein for breakfast would help.

When it came down to it, it was a really”in the moment” kind of experience, there’s something about public speaking that numbs my senses and it’s just me and the words. So I did.  Then came the election.

I am not by a millionth of a second “popular” in my school. So the chances of me winning this popularity contest? Low low.

I stressed over it all week, I promised myself I wouldn’t come to school on results day because it would be too humiliating if I didn’t get in.

As my wise friends told me, it wouldn’t be humiliating at all if I didn’t get in, it would be Life. I tried and that’s all that really matters.

But

But

I did get in. 

I got into the school’s most prestigious student leadership position by not being half as popular.

I’d like to say I knew all along I was going to get in but truth is, people around me had more faith in my success than I did in myself.

What’s the point of this story you ask?

Well, I’m here to tell you as the title of the post kindly says.

Take a leap of Faith 

If you’ve been meaning to do something for a long time or an opportunity presents itself. Go for it. You never know until you try and trust me, you don’t wanna regret not trying. Worst feeling. And hey, it won’t always work out in your favour but that’s okay it’s just life and there are better things waiting for you.

Remember I live in a world of possibilities where nothing is impossible