Apreciate the little things in life

Tonight I was out in the garden with my dogs when the sun was starting to set. It was beautiful. That was the moment I realised how incredibly lucky I am to live somewhere where I can see beautiful sunsets, breathtaking scenery and suroundings. 

I had no idea how much I took this for granted untill last week when I took my self for a walk to explore a little. I don't think anyone realises what beauty lies on their doorstep unless you go out and see it for yourself. It's all very well having people tell you what's out there and showing you photos, and although photos capture the beauty of the land, it can't convey it fully. 

Go out and see it for yourself. Become an explorer for the day and go and seek the beauty that lies on your door step. Sunshine, rain, snow, fog; the land can be outstanding in so many different weathers so go out whatever the weather and see true beauty for yourself. 

Just make sure before you go out, the land you want to explore is public, and if it's private ask the land owner for permission to walk on their land. If you don't ask and go on the land anyway it is trespassing, so make sure to ask for permission from the land owner before you go out walking. If you don't want to ask for permission to walk on private land, then find land that is open to the public. 

Like I said, you'll never know what's there's if you don't go looking it. 

Everyone is beautiful

This is just a quick post as this week I've been in so many rehearsals for a show I'm in, Grease, which our first performance is tonight and finishing on Saturday night.

In the dressing room last night, I was talking to a few of my friends about body image and how we all view ourselves when we look in the mirror, coming to the conclusion that everybody will see ourself differently to what you and other people see. 

We started listing things we hate about ourselves and the things we're most self conscious about, lowering our self esteem. This is when one girl said "but the things we hate about ourselves, is probably the thing someone else loves the most about." To which, she was stop on. 

So this is when the little "feel good show" begun. Going around in a circle, we named one or two physical features about the other people in an attempted to get us to love our own bodies and to be comfortable in the skin we have to live in. 

The things we listed went from eyes to hair, legs to curves, chin to shoulders. 

This is such a good way to boost your self esteem and make others and yourself feel good about ourselves and comfortable in our own bodies. 

So if you're having one of those days were you just can't get your hair to fall right and you feel ugly (nobody is ever ugly, only beautiful), or you notice a friend not looking so comfortable in the clothes they've chose, try this little "feel good show" to make everyone feel beautiful. Just to make it clear, everyone is beautiful, even if you don't feel it you are. 

What if...

Everyone has had those 'what if' moments. Either a 'what if I done this?' or 'what if this happened differently'. Today I was sitting in school with my friend during a free period doing some history work when we started saying 'what if...' all to do with the past. 

Have you ever wondered things like 'what if Margaret Thatcher hadn't closed down the mines?' or 'what if Japan hadn't bombed Pearl Harbour in the Second World War?' It really blows you're mind when you think of all the possibilities that could have happened if events had happened differently or not happened at all. 

At night when I lie awake with my thoughts (as you do when you want to sleep), all the 'what ifs' go through my head on a personal leave and I start to question events in my life that could have been different from the like of 'what's if I hadn't of been to five different primary schools, would I still be going to university to study history? Would I have started playing flute?' to 'what if my old group of friends didn't go to Bolivia when me and two or three others went on a Battle Fields trip to Belgium and France, would we all have still stopped talking? Would we have become closer?' 

My head literally hurts after think of all the possible outcomes. The world we live in today could be such a different place to live in. It could be for the better, or it could before the worse. 

I guess we'll never know how the world would be if events had panned out differently in the past, and it's the same for our own personal stories. We all just need to be happy with the life we live, in the world we live in because if you think about the 'what ifs' thoroughly, the world we live in now could be a much worse off place to be. 

Holocaust Memorial Day

27th of January. A day we need to remember. A day just as importance as armistice day. A day we take time to remember the victims of the Holocaust.  

On the 17th of September 2014, my friend Stacey and I were chosen from my school to take part in a project called Lessons From Auschwitz which we heard from a Holocaust survivor and had discussions about it. We then took a day trip to Auschwitz in Poland and when we came back we had to teach classes in our school about the Holocaust. 

The actual trip to Auschwitz was so surreal, just seeing the conditions men, women and children were forced to live in. Before we went to any if the camps we visited a Synagog with a man called Rabi Marcus who is one if the leading Rabi's in Britain. We taught us about the Jewish culture and what they believed in so went we visited the vamps we could see exactly what had been ripped from the Jews, not just their cloths and possession, but their identity, personalities and their culture.     

When we visited Auschwitz 1, we walked around some of the blocks that had been turned into a museum. We were told that the Jews believed they were getting taken away to live bigger and better lives so were to take their possessions, some even dressed in their best clothes. When they got to the camps, it was all stripped if them. We saw all of their pots, pans and kitchen utensils they brought with them; there was a massive display of suitcases with names on them; mountains for adults and children's shoes; clothes and possible one of the most disturbing, the hair of the Jews. The Nazis shaved the hair from all the Jews bodies and then weaved it to the likes of blankets. 

After having a look around the blocks, we want into one if the most eerie and frightening places I've ever set foot. A gas chamber. We weren't aloud to take photos because the flashes would damage the structure but believe me when I say, if you looked closely at the walls, you could pick out scratch marks on the walls from the Jews who were murdered their clawing in attempt to escape. It was totally and utterly barbaric.

  

After we left Auschwitz 1, we traveled to Auschwitz-Birkenau. When we first drew up to the gates, everyone in our bus was surprised how small it looked, however, when we went up into the Nazi watch tower, we were utterly flabbergasted by the size of the camp. It was enormous. Bigger than many people actually think. 

We were taken to the barracks, the huts that the Jews were forced to reside. The first had many 'beds' in it, they were a wooden structure, most if them being slightly smaller than a single bed now a days. These beds would hold a minimum of 3 people and could hold up to 8 or 9 people each. Many people died because of the cramped conditions. The next door barrack was literally 4 lines if holes that lead to the ground. These were their toilets and where they could get 'washed'. Again, many people died because of the disease that would spread from the unsanitary living conditions. 

We walked down the left hand side of the tracks, the side Jews walked down and never returned. It was so devastating walking down the green mile knowing thousands of people had not returned before us. 

Before we left, we had a very emotional ceremony led by Rabi Marcus with many poems, readings and a song sung by Rabi Marcus in Hebrew. At the end of the ceremony, Rabi Marcus blew a tups horn signalling the end of the ceremony as it is a traditional thing to do in the Jewish culture. We were all given a candle each to light and place on the tracks before walking out of the gates. 

As we were walking back to the bus, we saw the most beautifully devastating sight of the sun setting behind Auschwitz-Birkenau gates. 

That day was one of the hardest and challenging days of my life, physically and mentally. Saying that, I do believe everyone should visit Auschwitz because it's the most eye opening experience you'll ever have in your life. 

We learn from history, but we can only learn if we remember the events and the victims targeted. So use today as a day to remember those who died because of their faith and all the others involved such as the Polish, gypsies, homosexuals, disabled etc. Today is a day of remembrance, so please do not forget those targeted during the Holocaust.

Before I Die

There's always at least one thing that you really want to do before you die. It could be something exhilarating like sky diving or swimming with sharks, or it could be something considered as a 'normal' thing to do (whatever normal is) such as graduating from university, or learning to drive. 

Leave in the comments a list of things you want to do before you die, but for now here is a list of 10 things that are on my bucket list.

Let's start of 'normal':

1. Graduate from university with a history degree

2. Learn how to drive

3. Get married

4. Buy my own house

5. Have 3 children (hopefully 2 girls and a boy called Emily, Mali and Jacob. As you can see I've had a lot of time to think about this and when I say a lot, I mean a lot)

Now let's get into the nitty-gritty of it:

6. Travel to Australia 

7. Road trip around Europe (with the lovely Eimy)

8. Go sky diving

9. Swim with sharks

10. Climb to the top of a mountain (don't ask me why, it just really want to)

As well as doing all these relatively fun to extremely exciting activities I also really want to raise money for charities such as for autism as I know a lot of people - children and adults - with autism. I also want to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust as I think it's such a great charity that do amazing work. 

Life is what you make of it, if you're idea of an ideal life is to start a family, work for a living and just have a quite life or if you want to have a life filled with adrenaline rushes and full of adventure, go for it! It's your life, you do what you want to do to make yourself happy. 

"Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy." ~ Guillaume Apollinaire 

Being yourself is cool

One thing I've learnt through my now almost six years of high school is not to wear my heart on my sleeve. Not everyone you meet is going to like you and there are some mean people in this world, I was just too young and naive to see it. 

When I started high school I was 12 years old and was such a shy, quiet creature that was too scared to talk to new people because of the constant fear of being judged and unlike. As soon as someone spoke to me and included me, I instantly like them and thought they were my friend. I guess you could say I was a lost puppy trying to find a home. Me being me, let everyone walk all over me and tell me what to do because I didn't want to be disliked. 

I attempted to dress like all the other girls, when I was younger, I was a bit of a tom-boy and lived in jogging bottoms and football shirts. Probably because I have 2 brothers and just wanted to fit in with them. But when I got to high school and saw all the girls wearing skinny jeans or skirts, cardigans and floral tops, I started to think I was weird for dressing like I did. So in an attempt to fit in, I put on a disguise to hide who I really was, just to fit in. 

When I went into third year (14 years old) I realised that being liked or 'popular' is not the most important thing. I stopped wearing the clothes that made me seem 'cool' and stopped clinging to people who didn't care one bit for me. I was never in the 'popular' crowd at school because I was was in love with books and film series such as Harry Potter and Lord if the Rings, therefore considered a 'geek'. But I fitted in and was accepted by my small group of friends which made me happy with my school life. 

However, through out life you make friends and you lose friends, that's just the way the world works. The people who you thought were going to be your best friends for life slowly drift away from you and become strangers, and the people you never in a million years thought you would talk you are now your closest friends. 

You shouldn't have to change who YOU are to make people like YOU. If people don't like YOU for YOU then you're wasting your time hanging on to false hope. There is at least one person in this world who is going to like you for the real you, not a disguise of who you truly are. 

The world works in a very strange way, but let me tell you, everything happens for a reason. Life is full of the hardest decisions you'll make and, therefore, full of changes, some for the worst, some for the better. The only thing you can do is keep your head held high and be happy with who you are as a person and have a positive outlook on the story you are writing. It could be possibly the most boring story in existence to some people, but as long as you're happy with your story, who is there to try and re-write it?