Back to School

This morning as I was driving to work, I started feeling incredibly sad that the new school year has started and that all the universities will also be starting soon. I remember my first year out of school like it was yesterday - and I would not trade it for the world.

To have the feeling that you have the world at your feet, you can now do any- and everything you ever wanted to do. It is the first year of the rest of your life. That year in which you make all the important decisions. Whether you want to travel, study, marry, marry rich, just have babies, etc. Of course you can change your mind along the way and all your plans won't work out. But you still have that amazing feeling that you can go anywhere and become anyone.

To have to decide what you will be doing with the rest of your life is a big choice. Will you study to be a doctor or just settle for marrying one? Will you be the next big sportsman or the next best thing to it. The world is full of endless opportunities, you just have to grab them.

I thought about my exciting time as a first year student, little in life has compared to that complete and utter exhilaration. Everything is new and shiny.  But we all move on from there and we find ourselves along the way. We lose some of who we were, lose some of who we thought we wanted to be and change into the person we eventually end up being. We all change constantly, but I think those first couple of years on your own are what forms you most. You make friends without influences from your parents or circumstances. Your choices are based on what you have learnt about the world up until now (which is actually nothing) and you judge according to your upbringing.

As I said, change is constant, and I believe it can be radical too. If you take a wrong turn somewhere along the way, you can always backtrack and start taking the better path from that moment onward, it is never too late to change anything and everything.

I think I will always think about this time of year with sadness and look back and wish that I could go back and relive it all and maybe make less mistakes than I ended up making. But those mistakes made me the person I am today: not always bright, but shiny and full of light.

End of the world?

It might almost be the end of the world as we know it... or it might not. As you would know if you have been reading my posts regularly (or as regular as I seem to remember to post them), you might have realized that I am a spiritual girl. I believe in the creation of all things by God and in the good of all that He does.

I however also believe that we have a purpose to live out and if I have fulfilled my purpose by the end of this year, mine was but a small one. See I do not believe in mediocrity any more - all we do, should be done to the best of our abilities and should be beyond what anyone expected of us. Always rise above and beyond the expectations of your worst critic.

It is a new month, the last of the year 2012. Maybe the "end of the world", as I so fondly call it, is not literally the end of the world, but rather the death of the old and the end of mediocrity. It is (and definitely has been) a period of change. A change of opinions, people, circumstances and relations.

As for me I'm excited to see what each new day, month and year might bring. New people, opportunities and a changing of times. I will continue to strive to be a set apart young woman, who loves fiercely (sometimes not reciprocated as much as I might wish), believes in the good of people and in the possibility of anything and everything.

Fire and Ice

"Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice."

Robert Frost

Oor Hobbelperde en Hoop

Ek is mal oor hobbelperde, hulle gee 'n oudtydse gevoel aan enige kamer, veral as hulle van 'n goeie hout gemaak is. As ek op ene klim voel ek sommer gou-gou weer soos 'n kind, nie dat ek te lank terug een was nie, en is sommige aspekte is ek nog steeds een.

Die probleem is dat kinders nie kan wag om grootmense te word nie, en dan sodra ons die grootmens verantwoordelikhede kry, dan wens ons weerons kan net op hobbelperde klim en ons grootste probleem sal wees om nie af te val nie (as jy so ver dink)! Ons is dus nooit ten volle teenwoordig in die fase van ons lewens waar ons onsself bevind nie.

Ek het nie te lank gelede afgestudeer nie, en het daarna begin werk, kort daarna my eerste werk verloor, my tassie gepak en gaan toer. Met my toer beplanning was een van my grootste probleme watter griekse eiland lyk na die lekkerste een... Kaarte was my leesstof, en plakkies my hoogste skoene en die wereld was lekker. Daarna het ek met 'n bondel entoesiasme en hope energie begin werk soek. My moed was keer op keer gebreek en 9maande later was ek eers suksesvol (so lank soos ' n swangerskap!!! Dis bitter laaank).

Hierdie is nou weer 'n heel ander fase van my lewe, met hakke en pakke, sykouse en spertye. Daar is baie om te leer, mense om te ontmoet en die stad bied baie feeste en spyskaarte vir elke geleentheid.

En alhoewel dit nie 100% ek is nie, leer ek baie en hou ek steeds bietjie van die meisie met die blom in haar hare wat kaalvoet op die strand rondloop. Ons word so gou groot en vergeet soms om ons beplanning op sy te skuif en net die oomblik te geniet.

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment”
-Henry David Thoreau

Liza