Love: Happy New Year!!!

   Good evening my dearest readers and happy new year!!! The new year brings with it new resolutions and many bets as to see how long they will last. A new year brings people together and helps others decide who can be left alone. It's a time to make decisions and a time to get a new outlook on life. I, my dear readers, am no exception to this.
   I woke up early this morning, after going to bed late (or quite earlier this morning), to then drive home and start off the day with my family. We've got a day of relaxation planned but, also a day of chores and work. My family has a tradition where we believe that whatever you do on the first day of the year will set the tone for the rest of the year. We make sure to wear one new piece of clothing so that we are financially in the Black, we put on clean sheets on the beds and vacuum the house so that we are not messy throughout the year, and we decide what kind of past times we will dedicate our time to. I've chosen to write (not only on the blog but one of my own stories as well), to play guitar, to read and to colour. As a family, we are having dinner together and we've selected a board game to play afterwards. I've talked to the rest of my family, and certain of my friends as well, and wished them well. It may seem like a strange tradition, but it is one that motivates us throughout the year.
   The new year is also a time to get motivated to get more out of life; new year equals new possibilities. For roughly three years, my mother has started up a habit where she must do something she has never done every single day. Whether this means going to one of her favourite restaurants at a different time of day with someone new, or to go on a different trip, or read a book she has yet picked up, this allows her to take full advantage of her life. She also keeps track of the new things she's done and writes it down in a journal. Every once in a while, she'll let us know what we were doing one, two, or three years ago on that very same day. The way I remind myself that I've got a great life and encourage myself to do something different and to try new things is by listing off every night before I go to bed what I am grateful for in my life. Because it is my mother who told me that she heard this statement once: "What if you woke up this morning with only the things you were grateful for?" and from that moment I've been keeping track as well. It made me sad to think that many people would wake up with nothing, and I promised myself that I would never be one of those people. That is one resolution that I make every year and that I've been able to keep.
   So I challenge you my dearest readers, just as I am challenging myself, to make this year as memorable as you can, to live it as if it is your last because you never know when that will turn out to be true. Time may seem to blur together, and life may fall short of a dull routine but you'd be surprised to feel like "nothing has changed, yet everything is different." -Jean-Paul Sartre

K.P.H.

Laughter: Quarter-Life Crisis

    Good morning my dearest readers and how I've missed your company. I will outright admit that my absence is my fault, and mine alone. This summer was a little more than I expected in regards to the amount of work I needed to undertake while I was just scrapping by with my workload this past semester. However, I am now free (which was a feeling I seriously thought I wasn't going get ever again) and I am taking this opportunity to try to pick up my habit of writing in the blog once more. I've had some committed fans that have been checking the blog every single day since I've started, so I truly hope that it will be a comforting surprise to them this morning to know of my new resolve.
   Contrary to the title of this entry, this year is the first year of my university degree where I haven't questioned what I've wanted to do. I surprisingly have great confidence that I will make it somehow in the cut-throat (more like paper cut) industry of publishing. It's one of those rare occasions where what you look like doesn't matter as long as you can write what others cannot. And being bilingual (which is such a big bonus, yet a curse in itself every once in a while), I sometimes can express myself well in both languages, while other times both languages come together to  make a big puddle of incomprehension.
   Now what the title of the entry really refers to was the slightest change in my world of concrete truths. I am a person who does not do well with change (though I'm sure I am not the only one) and when the simplest of things change, the bigger things in my life get questioned. What's really funny for me is that this change took place with one of my preferences rather than with a foundational part of my personality. Yes, I still want to be an author, no, I'm not experimenting with my sexuality, yes, I still want to travel and no, I'm not running away to join the circus. The change that took place is this: my favourite colour changed from blue to dark green. YES, THAT IS THE CHANGE THAT HAS CAUSED ME TO QUESTION THE BIGGER PICTURE. You're probably laughing thinking, this isn't something to be worked up about, but it was (and still is) a big thing for me. Growing, I never changed my mind on the one thing that kids change theirs every single day.
   I loved BLUE when I liked turtles instead of dogs in the 5th grade. I liked BLUE when I liked Alex instead of Zach in grade 8. I liked BLUE when I went to the high school at the top of the hill while all of my friends went to the one at the bottom of the hill. And I liked BLUE when I left home for Ottawa to go to university. And now as I'm starting my last year of university and getting ready to enter the work world (one of the biggest changes that will take place in my life), I'm too busy trying to understand why I love DARK GREEN instead of my comforting and constant BLUE.
   I guess it's a mystery I will gladly accept as I try to focus on more pressing matters (though it does seem like a crucial existential question that needs to be answered). And I guess that if I was going to experience a life crisis (though not everyone will agree that this is something that can be classified as a crisis), it could be a LOT worse than a shift in favourite colours. At least my parents can sleep a little better at night knowing that this is (hopefully) the worse that will come out of this. As Mary Shelley  said "nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change," so maybe, just maybe my dearest readers, I'll make it out of this crisis with a sound mind and a new outlook on life!

K.P.H.

Literature : I Promise Myself

Good morning dearest readers. I know it's been quite some time and I fear that this is a pattern that will be repeated often this year. I'm off to Manitoulin Island very soon and I hope that the trip will restore (or at least reboot) my creativity. In the meanwhile, I thought you'd like to read a poem that inspires me constantly. Maybe it will set you on the right path, or at least point you in a better direction.

I Promise Myself

To be so strong that nothing can disturb my peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person I meet.

To make all my friends feel that there is something in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything and make my optimism come true.

To think only of the best, to work only for the best and expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as I am about my own.

To forget mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature I meet a smile.

To give so much time to the improvement of myself that I have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear and too happy to permit the pressure of trouble.

My attitude… is my life.

K.P.H.

Love: Home Is Where The Heart Is

   Good morning my dear readers! I have come back from a spontaneous visit back home and I feel like it was the best decision I could have made at the time. There were great things (and not so great things) but you learn to live with what you got. Fortunately for me, what I've got is pretty darn good.
   I started the day off with the knowledge that I'd be going to the trailer with my mother and father for the weekend. The first great realization was that I would be disconnected from everything and just be able to let my mind wander in Nature's quietude. Throughout the day, I relaxed, colored, ate and read. Who could ask for anything better than that. There is one thing that I will say in regards to my love of camping that people might not initially expect from such an experience, and that is that the food, no matter how fancy or simple it may be, tastes soooooo good! My mother made spaghetti on the first night; it was like I was eating it for the first time.
   We were able to go to bed early with the sound of the rain pitter-pattering on the roof; again, camping makes rain a good thing because it is ideal for sleep and afternoon naps. The next day, my parents went into town, so I had the trailer to myself. I finished a book that day, colored about 7 different Disney princesses and played games on my iPad while not being bothered by advertisements since there was no internet. My parents came home in time so that we could all help out in preparing dinner which was a steak salad and accidental homemade lobster ravioli (and I say accidental because it was supposed to be beef instead of lobster) but either way it was all delicious. We snuggled up and got ready for a fire and smores. We went back inside to get ready for bed, and to color a little bit more. There is truly no better therapy than coloring one's troubles away. My roommate in first year can testify to that for me because I had covered our room with pictures in one afternoon one fine day.
   On our last day, we had breakfast and started to pack up the trailer to make our way back home. It didn't take too long and my mother and I even stopped to pick up some fresh field strawberries on our way home to add it to our vanilla ice cream we'd been saving. Once home, we cleaned out the trailer, swam in our backyard pool, and watched the FIFA Women's Wold cup finals while eating my mother's homemade pizza (which I will forever be dreaming about until I get to have it again). We went to bed relatively early since the next day was Monday, and my mother and I were heading to Ottawa, and my father was off to work. I was able to have another mother-daughter road trip with my mom and it was absolutely fun.
   I've come to know and love the time I spend with my family. Though sometimes we don't always get along, we make sure to work things out and get back to the point. My parents always tell me that I can always come back home, and though I always knew in the back of my mind, there is no way now that I will ever doubt it.

K.P.H.

Literature: A Temptation too Strong to Resit

   Good morning my dearest readers and I truly do hope that you are all well. Yesterday being Canada Day, I had the day off. Since I had no previous plans, and Riles was working a double shift, I found myself home alone with quiet times and endless possibilities. 

   I was determined to have the most relaxing day that I've had in a while, and I had just that. However, I have been working hard on my 2015 Reading Challenge, and where in the month of May I knocked out 4 books, I haven't had the same kind of determination in the month of June. On the first day of July, I was lying in my bed and as I looked back at the books behind me, the temptation grew to read something that wasn't on my list, but that I've been waiting to read for a long time. I struggled back and forth between what I want and what I should be reading, and came to an impulsive decision. I picked up the book from the shelf behind me, skimmed the pages and the smell of the book called to me. I ran my hand over the cover and the embossed lettering was just so smooth. "I shouldn't read this one" I kept telling myself, knowing the row of books downstairs that was waiting for me. I turned the first page, read the intriguing chapter title, and took the plunge. I re-emerged three hours later to realize that I had tackled an impressive number of pages, and with a guilty sense of pleasure, I dove back in. 

   Though I can't wait to finish all of the books I have set out to read, I needed something that wasn't on there to make it feel like I wasn't reading a course selected reading list. Even times of leisure need breaks between other times of leisure. What book will tempt you?

K.P.H.