Weekly Inspiration (23/11/20)

 

 

Beautiful, encouragement filled words from Ralph Waldo Emerson- Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. He is rich who owns the day and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety. Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in. Forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely with too high a spirit to be cumbered with old nonsense. This new day is too dear with its hopes and invitations to waste a moment on the yesterday’s.

Yet another packed week! Does the grind ever stop? Somehow, this weekend has left me feeling more exhausted than actual working days. Friday was fairly easy going. My school hosted a throwback day where we each dressed up as a character from our childhood. My friends were interested in a Mean Girls group costume so we planned for that. I was to be Karen- so lucky, hey? Unfortunately, I don’t own a pink mini skirt and wouldn’t like to either, if I’m honest. Two of my friends managed to pull together realistic outfits, complete with plaid skirts, a pink cardigan and more. A single friend and I were the odd ones out. Me with my grey tee and ice cream sundae skirt and her in all black. I like to think my outfit was Queen’s Gambit inspired. Non uniform days will never get old!

On Sunday I embraced a day at home. Still on the hustle but just doing life at a slower, more manageable pace. Saturday was spend in a similar fashion. I popped on my comfies, took a long relaxing bath with candles and bubbles, redesigned the space above my chest of drawers and began reading a new book. I absolutely adore the Three Birds Renovations. With over four hundred pages of design secrets, It’s a book absolutely chock full of tips and pretty interiors to swoon over. What I love most is that the women behind the Three Birds are just like you and me- creatives with a work ethic and ideas to good to pass up on!  Bonnie, Lana and Erin have their own boutique renovation company. They are mums, renovators and best friends from Sydney. In the evening I began rewatching Dexter, the only show I literally cannot move past. I suppose the transformative journey really holds appeal for me. There’s a familiarity and comfort that goes along with a show that speaks to your inner self. Better still, I got my favourite takeaway to enjoy while I watched. Anyone else a fan of Turkish Gozleme? I just had to recreate the perfect set up I’d achieved the first time around!

Today has been a mix of sleeping in, blogging, coffee, posting reels on Instagram, creating a resume of achievements for my college scholarship application and just lounging around. It’s either rained outside or threatened to all afternoon so we couldn’t have gone anywhere. Nonetheless, I was happy to put on a pretty outfit from my favourites boutique brand merri the label and pretend I had big plans! College preparation has taken up a lot of my time lately. As soon as I submit one document, there is another that requires my attention. It can be mind boggling at times but I keep reminding myself that this marks a new stage in my life. In a month I’ll be out of High School for good. The craziness certainly won’t back down then, haha.

On a positive note, I spent a good half an hour digging through our study for old certificates, report cards and relevant bits and pieces that would elevate my resume. I have no prior experience with such a formal document. A portfolio provided me with opportunity to showcase flair but a resume is more traditional. Quite frankly, it’s incredibly annoying to have to list all your achievements in sequential order, even though it makes sense to. At the beginning of this task I’d struggled to identify many of my accomplishments. The more I dug through boxes however, the more it came back to me. In Year Three I’d written to Australia’s Prime Minister at the time, Julia Gillard. It was in regards to a traffic incident where a friend of mine had been hit by a car at a crossing that wasn’t well marked. In Year Six I’d become a part of my Primary School’s Student Representative Council. In Years Three, Five and Six I’d scored marks that were off the charts during NAPLAN testing. In Years Eight and Nine, I spent every Wednesday afternoon volunteering at a local Nursing Home instead of going to school sport. There is so much more to me than I’d cared to remember. Besides this, there’s an interesting concept I’ve been considering of late. What percentage of ourselves are we truly? How far does the influence of another extend in shaping us? I want to share a few quotes so here goes.

“I make my ramen the way a friend taught me in eleventh grade. Every fall, I listen to a playlist made for me by a boy I drove across a border to hook up with. I eat sushi because a girl who won’t talk to me anymore encouraged me to try it. I eat Indian food because my best friend’s parents ordered for me before I knew what I enjoyed. There are movies I watch because someone I love adored them first. I am a mosaic of everyone and everything I’ve loved and encountered, even for a heartbeat.

 

Oscar Wilde is quoted as having said “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.” In response, Jorge Luis Borges replied “I am not sure that I exist, actually. I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met, all the women that I have loved, all the cities I have visited.