DAY 39

WHY YOU THINK YOU'VE LEARNT MORE FROM THE GOOD OR THE BAD:

Hmm, I had a long think on this one actually. And my conclusion is that you tend to learn more from the bad. The reason why I say this is because generally the bad involves making a mistake, or doing something that you wish you could have done differently. In my opinion, people learn more from these type of things, and the mistakes they make, than from good experiences. Even if the 'bad' doesn't involve a mistake, think about people who get Cancer, and afterwards, feel like they have learnt so much more about appreciating life. I don't know, and I definitely think that people learn very valuable, and more happy, things from good experiences, but in general I tend to think that actually it is during the bad times that we grow stronger, learn to deal with difficult things, and ultimately learn more. 

DAY 38

THOUGHTS ON YOUR GENERATION

I have two very different opinions on my generation:

1) We rely on technology more than anyone has even seen before, we can be bloody selfish, we are concerned with nothing but being bigger and better than before, we are avid swearers, we have not learnt fully how to appreciate small things like playing in the garden rather than playing on a computer, we are ruining many old-fashioned ways that are better as they were.

2) Our technology use is improving health care, education, job production and us moving forward as humanity. We are not selfish, but rather concerned with the impact things will have on us, I personally did still have play dates and used to spend days playing our in my "fairy gardens" or swimming or baking mudpies, etc.... however less so, I imagine that older generations, we are just different, maybe not in a bad way?

Just to clear up, I was born in 1995, so am part of that generation and I actually think more better than worse of my generation because I think we, specifically have seen enough of the old and new (technology) to use the balance sufficiently. But, looking at my two younger siblings born in this century, I see that they are completely different. I mean my siblings are 9 and 11 and already have cellphones, computers, Wii, Playstation, Ipads, Laptops, iPod touches, DVDs and TVs, I mean come on... not to mention that my 11 year old brother already has Twitter, Instagram, Snap Chat, Bbm, Whatsapp, Facebook (very soon) and Qooh (whatever that is?!) I mean call me "old-fashioned" but I got my first phone (which was old and crap) in grade 6 and back then the only social media I had was good old Mxit and Facebook in grade 8. 

DAY 37

WHO ARE YOU?

My gosh, these question are very vast, let me give it a go though. 
I AM A 17 years old South African, an avid series watcher, a bit of a nerd (I kind of love school), a family gal, a music-lover, an artist and of course, I really am just a girl. 

I love adventures, summer, warm fires in winter, swimming till late in summer, the beach, pretty much any TV series you can throw at me, art, guitar, my friends, romance, good old RomComs, laughing till my sides hurt, the little things in life, thinking about better times, medicine and the idea of becoming a doctor, science, poetry, literature, my family, babies, ice-cream, Italy, travelling, holidays, sleeping, waking up early unintentionally, listening to old-fashioned CDs start to finish, indulging in trashy gossip magazines, my ugs, oversized jerseys, shopping, pasta, tubing, my siblings, my grans, completing things, making lists, tea,  singing, dancing (usually when no one is looking though haha), iceskating, Saturdays, free time, Pinterest, the internet, the sound of rain on my roof, Youtube, my cat, long walks, South Africa, travelling, my puppy and a whole lot of other things. 

I figured the best way to describe my self to you was to show you what I love. 

DAY 36

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
I really do believe that I have some of the best friends in the world. I feel so so lucky to have them in my life, and without them I never would have made it through 14 years of school. I am in a really big group of friends at school and we all sit together at lunch and stuff, and while I get on with everyone, we are not all super close. People, including me, generally have really close friends within that group. I have about 6 or 7 really close friends within that, who know me so well. They have been there through everything, and I have known most of them since junior school (grades 1-7 is our junior school, for all you non-South Africans). 

The other day in English class, we were discussing the Great Gatsby and whether or not Nick was a good friend to Gatsby (I think he was a trustworthy and reliable friend, and most definitely a reliable narrator- but that's my opinion) and my teacher said something that really made me think about it. She said that you really know who your true friends are when they are there, not only for the bad times, but for the good times too, and still decide to stick around. When your friends can be happy for you, and I am so lucky to have friends that support me through everything!

When your friend knows what you're going to by from the tuckshop (cafeteria) before you even open your purse, when they just sit quietly and let you rant on about something pointless that you are angry about, when your sides hurt from laughing so hard at something that is really not funny at all together or even just when they come to the bathroom (I swear it is not just me- girls go to the bathroom in packs, haha) with you so you don't have to go alone, , small things like this, for me, are what makes a friendship what it is, when someone knows you for who you are and accepts you. 

Day 35

WORDS YOU LIVE BY AND WHY YOU LIKE THEM:

I feel like I would be cheating you all a bit by answering this, because my answer is a string of utter cliches. Unintentionally I promise, but nevertheless they are exactly what you'd expect to hear; but here they are anyway:

1) BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD

2) TREAT OTHERS AS YOU WISH TO BE TREATED

3) CHASE YOUR DREAMS, CHASE THEM TILL YOU'RE OUT OF BREATH, AND THEN KEEP RUNNING

4) THE ONES WHO ARE CRAZY ENOUGH TO THINK THEY CAN CHANGE THE WORLD, ARE THE ONES WHO DO

5) LIVE EVERYDAY AS IF IT'S YOUR LAST

I don't really need to explain them- you know what they mean, and obviously why I like them. But I just wanted to clear up, that just because they are cliched, they are like this for a reason, because they make very good sense and are, in my opinion, so true. I do hope to live my life along the lines of these quotes.

Day 34

YOUR HOROSCOPE FOR TODAY AND WHETHER YOU THINK IT IS ACCURATE

Aquarius August 2013 Horoscope prediction:
Disturbing oscillations sent by the Sun and Mercury in Leo, reverse your indication. The Mars/Saturn duo encourages you to journey and get to know unknown people. Venus creates sure you make new buddies, and return concepts and looks with them… Your household members members lifestyle will be the resource of problems. With the increase of Pluto and Uranus, you will not concept out a new collaboration, or maybe even a finish modify of route. Thanks to the assistance of Mars and Jupiter, you will create the right options. Fatigue and pressure are just around the area, so relax!

Aquarius August 2013 Horoscope : Love
Expect significant encounters! Jupiter will enhance your public abilities and create your more likely to get to know new individuals and create new buddies. Venus will get back your wish to appeal and you would be right to try your fortune with someone you want or imagine about. In a connection, you will have to create the most of relaxing periods to describe yourself and believe the fact with each other person's opinions. You will be somehow on the protecting in one way or another, but you will know how to show your really like in many different methods.

Aquarius August 2013 Horoscope : Career
New connections will favourably impact your public interaction. The resistance between the Sun and Mercury gives you inspiration returning. You will confirm to be incredibly intransigent when going through provides created to you. Some more bold Aquarius will not think twice to shift their profession in a new route. The football is in your judge for you to create the most out of the conditions and possibilities. Anticipate modify with surprising activities on the selection too. Take enough time to think if you want to prevent unwanted or idealisation, resources of errors.

Okay so, I must start off by saying I don't really believe in horoscopes. I don't know, I am usually quite good at believing in this type of stuff, and I do believe in God. But there is something about horoscopes that I just can;t believe, even though i can;t really justify why. I just don;t think that the stars and the galaxy can tell you about your success and actions in the future- it doesn't make sense to me. But I do still read mine every so often. I am Aquarius, my birthday is the 31st January. Whenever I do read them, I am always like, that's so me, or it appears that it matches what I am feeling, but I think they're designed to do that. Anyway, mine for this month: it actually, more than usual, seems inaccurate. Firstly, I start really big exams in a week, so I won't be meeting lots of new individuals, etc. and in general it just doesn't seem terribly accurate, but not hugely wrong either, I guess that's the point of them??

DAY 30

5 favourite girls names and 5 favourite boys names:

Okay, so I am actually going to cheat a bit here because I have a pretty big list of names that I love, so I'm not just going to choose 5, because why should I only do 5? So, here it goes: 

GIRLS NAMES:

(not in any particular order)

Sophie

Holly

Jaide

Olivia

Charlotte

Mila

Bailey

Lucy

Chloe

Madison

Kylie

Bella (maybe Isabella and Bella for short)

Miley 

Skylar

Skye

BOYS NAMES:

(also no order)

Luke

Liam

Ryan

Zack

Max

Feel free to give me a shout out in the comments of your favourite names, or if one of my favourites is your name :) 

DAY 29:

A DATE YOU'D LIKE SOMEONE TO TAKE YOU ON:

In Cape Town, there is this hill/mountain pass thing as you drive out of the city and over the mountain along the coast called Sir Lawry's Pass. It is about 45 mins out of town and so few people go there unless travelling, etc.. But when we go to our holiday house we always drive over it to leave and come back. And my favourite thing is always coming back over and seeing the entire city, and coast line, sea and open spaces, and of course Table Mountain all in one view. It is the prettiest thing. A date I would really enjoy is a picnic up there on the hill in the evening so I could see all the lights of the city and suburbs, etc. I have seen it quite often but always am so astonished at its beauty. 

That's just one thing, wow, I mean there are so many dates I would love to go on, but that's just always been one I wanted to do. 

Day 28

Something that makes you really angry: 

I admit, I have been avoiding this one for quite some time because I am pretty sure I am going to start a massive rant about something that most of you probably don't care about. So, please just don't read this if you're not in the mood for my rant (rather go check out my much lighter, easy-going blog here, hehe some self-advertising)....

Okay so recently I have been doing all my applying to universities because I am almost finished with school. I have found this application process very stressful, and in general the idea that I have to choose what courses I want to do for the next 4-8 years. I want to do medicine, I know what a hard life it is said to be and how hard the course is (especially here in SA because of the often horrible community service years). But no matter how much I try to talk myself out of it, as cheesy as it sounds, its just like it was meant to be. I can't describe why or how but I just know its what I want more than anything. So here in Cape Town, we have the best university in Africa and ranked 200 in the world, UCT. It is literally like my dream university and all I want is to study medicine there. But it is very likely that I will not get in. My marks are not terrible I am getting a mid A grade point or average and I am working really hard. But despite this, I am still about 7% off from my goal. The university has implemented a system to try bring more equality after Apartheid about 20 years ago. So what they've done is they say that black students need 10% less in their average to get into exactly the same course that I want to get into. This means that if something as small as the colour of my skin, a physical feature that in no way defines us or our academic ability, I would get into my course without an issue. I am not undermining the wrongs of Apartheid but this system, in my opinion is completely flawed (although I won't go into that now). The other thing to do with my wanting to get into medicine is the requirements they have. This is absolutely no exaggeration when I say that they (for white students) want you to get 90% average for each of your subjects. This is crazy. A good doctor is not simply defined by their intelligence. And I have spoken to many many doctors who say that the difficulty level of the course in no way entails you to be so clever that you are one of the maybe 3 people in your school receiving marks like this. One last thing, while I am in full swing, who says that those people who are getting these kind of marks will be good doctors? Yes, maybe they will catch concepts slightly quicker than someone like me, but just because you reach these requirements doesn't say that you are caring, or compassionate or good with people or anything else that being a doctor would entail. So many clever people simply choose it because of the glamorous idea of becoming a doctor if you are clever, but I don't think they quite realise what they are doing when they take a course that they don't actually want to do and later drop out. They are taking away the spots of people like me. Sure, they got in, they have the right to take it and all, but I am just upset and mad that UCT haven't considered the fact that these marks, for the large majority of people, are unreachable. Please don't comment and say that to be a doctor you need these marks, etc because I understand how I could sound unreasonable. But look at it from my perspective. It has left me angry and upset, and I am left trying to choose alternate courses to get into medicine a bit later, although that adds like another 3 years to my studying time. I don't know, just a rant that most of you can't relate to... but to answer the question, that is it.

Back Again

Oh my word, so I am fully aware of what a mess this blog is! I wanted to continue with those little things tabs but if I'm being entirely truthful, the blog littlethings.net when I got the inspirations always does such great ones and I don't see why I should do the same, so definitely check that out, because they always make me smile....

So I don't know if any of you have been long time followers (unlikely) but anyway, before the little things tabs, I was doing the Tumblr 365 day challenge but then if became too much to do everyday and I couldn't and so I stopped. Then today I was looking over some of the older posts and I realised how much I liked doing the challenge because it made me think, and really sit down and consider my opinion on something or how I was feeling. And if that stuff doesn't intrest you then no worries, feel free to click net blog, but this is something that actually makes me feel good. I have never been good at keeping journals cause 1) I hate writing compared to typing and 2) I would get halfway through writing and feel stupid and like it was a waste of time (not that is it at all! That's just me).... so I am going to continue on with this challenge but it will not be everyday, it will just be a new day whenever I have the chance :)

I did try on Tumblr for a post or two, but for some reason, I really don't like Tumblr (sorry fans) and so blogging all the way for this :)