Judgements: Reliable or Nah?

This has been something that's swum through my mind over the past few years: when someone tells you something is 'wrong' with you in the way you are, or the way you do things, how much should you have to feel obliged to change because of what they've said.

I guess it can all come back down to what they've said I guess, whether it be something you've done as a one-off that was an accident perhaps because you were having an off day. Or is it something that goes that little bit deeper like 'you talk too much', or 'you always talk about yourself' and that sort of thing. I've picked these because I've experienced them before but there are countless othet things that can be said that can get under your skin.

I think we should always be wary but here are a few things to take into consideration:

1) Why have they said what they've said? Would they have good intentions for having said what they've said? Can you trust their word?

2) Ask someone close to you if they agree with what the person has said. If you're not sure whether to believe the person or not, feel free to ask someone who knows you well and ask for their opinion - if there's any truth to it, maybe they can shed some light on it.

3) Watch out for yourself: do you see any truth in what they've said? This is really important - if you're honest with yourself and you detect a problem within the way you act then you can feel more self-aware and make steps towards changing yourself.

However, what I do want to make clear here is the fact it is entirely up to you what you consider to be something worth changing.

As a personal example, I was told by a person who I used to be close to that I talked too much about myself. After much deliberation I realised that wasn't the actual problem - it was the fact I interrupted too much and didn't allow other people to talk and let out their problems before sharing my own. In this way you can see that I wanted to solve this problem because it was a matter of manners, not necessarily something that was personal but a characteristic that would be considered rude no matter who I was talking to.

In my opinion, if you're polite and considerate, who should dictate what kind of person you are from there onwards but yourself? Don't change yourself to please others because you'll never be good enough. Be happy with yourself and no-one can take that away from you.

I hope that you guys enjoyed this blog post! Please do feel free to tell me what you think in the comments and please do feel free to suggest topics for future blog posts!

Thank you ever so much for reading and I'll speak to you soon :)

Comparing Yourself to Other People - Truth?

Hello guys! This was a topic that was playing on my mind recently:

So, all over the internet, we're all coming to the realisation that comparing yourself to other people can truly lead to your demise and your sadness and displeasure for the simple reason that you're not the person you're comparing yourself to. However, if you're true to yourself and don't try and emulate a person as perfectly as you can and down to every little detail, then should taking someone as a role model really have a bad impact on your life?

This also then comes down to what sort of qualities you admire in the idol that you have. Is it something that you can truly emulate like kindness or I don't know, perhaps one quality that doesn't depend on physical ability? Or is it their physical appearance that you can't perhaps emulate perfectly? Or an ability that perhaps is harder to gain?

I know that must sound really bad but the point I'm trying to make is, when you compare yourself to other people, you've got to remember that the success you're going to have in doing the same thing or something similar to what they do isn't going to be the same as their success, purely because of the fact you're a) different people with b) different capabilities and c) different opportunities and circumstances. This all leads to the fact that if you think that you can achieve exactly the same outcome as your idol, you're definitely mistaken.

To finish and clarify, I'm not saying don't emulate people or look up to people and try and be like them, I'm saying be realistic in your expectations of yourself because though it may seem that their definition of success is the one way you can be successful, everyone has different measures of success and that means that you've got to remember that your success will be undoubtedly different to theirs.

I really, really hope this post doesn't offend anyone and I hope and pray that it makes sense!

This post was sort of led on by Alfie Deyes' addition to the YouTube Culture discussion that's been whirling over YouTube for a good few months now. I really think, as did a few people, that he really managed to encapsulate the truth of both sides of the argument and if you haven't seen it yet and want to get a taste for the insight he provides, the link to the video is here!

Please leave your thoughts down below and stay wonderful! :)

Speak to you guys soon x

A Slap in the Face: The Reality of War

Hey guys! Today's post is feeling a bit more morose, I guess you could say, than the posts I've been writing over the past week or so. I felt like with more reading, I escaped reality a bit too much for my own good, so I decided to write a post about something that feels like it's coming closer and closer to home: war.

You don't have to be all over media to know that war is something that is threatening many innocent people's lives on a day to day basis. I just hate knowing that innocent people happily fled their homes in the thousands and hundred of thousands because of threats made upon their lives by people who don't know them nor want to try and know them. Half a million people were displaced by the ISAS in Iraq, simply because they thought that leaving everything that they had and escaping with their lives was the one thing that was right and that could guarantee their lives. No-one should have to live that way.

I'm not going to preach or shove statistics in your faces because you know where you can find those.
It just struck me that I'm incredibly grateful to be living in a place where I'm accepted for who I am, where people are quite free to express themselves and be who they want to be. I feel like that liberty is something we don't really have the right to take for granted and all I wanted to say to you today is that please, do something good with your life because there are so many people in the world today who have the potential to become amazing, brilliant and talented people, but cannot do so simply because of where they have been born in the world.

Please, don't take opportunities for granted, even in the part of the world where we live in, opportunities don't come often for everyone. Cherish what you have and remember those who don't. Do what you can to be a good person so less people lose days when they could be happy and grateful, to days where they're knocked by people close and by people who don't know them. Keep your perspective in life :)

I hope that you guys liked this post, however different it's been from my normal content :)
It was brought on by Jack Harries having his camera equipment stolen from him in Kenya at gunpoint and it really hit me that people will want to hurt you whether they know you or not, if they are driven to believe so.

I'll speak to you soon :) Take Care of yourselves :)

Third on the List - Shattered, By Teri Terry (Slated #3)

Hey guys! So not many of you may know much about me so here's a little background about my life at the moment before I plunge into yet another book review/recommendation! I'm 16 years old and I'm from England. Many of you'd know that in England, at the age of 16, around May/June time kids here undergo a lot of exams, around 20 for most though it can vary depending on the subjects you take and whether you take any a year early. To cut to the chase, my exams finished last week (Hurrah!) and I'm now left with lots of time to do nothing much at all, hence why I've actually plunged head first into the books I've recently discovered from the bookstore and borrowed from the library.

In my trip to Waterstones a couple of weeks ago, I found out that one of the series' that I've been reading over the past couple of years had finally released its finale: Shattered. This goes for many of the series I've read and now I have a lovely stack of new books to read over the next few weeks!

As Shattered itself is the last of the trilogy, here's a few background details that you should know about the series and where it starts off with:

1. It's a dystopia, set in England (not America, shock horror!) around 30 years into the future.
2. It's based around a girl who's introduced to us as Kyla, who's been 'Slated' for being a young criminal over the age of 16.
3. In this world, Slating was introduced in order to remove the need to kill young criminals, rather they would have their memories slated and they would be attached with a chip in the brain and a Levo on their wrists to monitor their levels. This would be monitored by a number on the Levo and if it gets too high, or too low, it would cause the slated to black out, reducing the chances of them getting into fits of rage or becoming too upset.
4. The story is intriguing because Kyla starts to remember parts of her past that she shouldn't be able to remember and the story spirals on from there :)

Not to ruin anything for you but this world is amazing, simply because of the amount of mystery and unknown information that there is for your mind, as well as Kyla's mind, to feast on. Little details slip and so much is at stake that it's just brilliant. I finished the last of the trilogy in a matter of days which has been a rarity for me but I would thoroughly recommend the books if you love a) mystery, b) romance, c) dystopia style books and d) matters of morality (which is another theme that is explored thoroughly in the series) and e) the legendary 'Who am I?' question which is prevalent in this book, not just about personality but about what side Kyla wants to go on as well as the question of origin and her parentage.

I absolutely loved the series because it tackles issues that are so real and quite raw that you're just sucked in and pulled away with the wonder of the way life has become for people in this new England. It's questions what you should do and what is right and I honestly think that having to make the judgement yourself and wondering whether the characters' decisions are right is just amazing and I would thoroughly recommend the series.

If you'd like to find out more about the series, the link is here to the Goodreads synopsis/reviews of Slated,
the first book :) Thank you so much for reading! I hope that these kinds of posts are up your street and if you'd like me to do any other posts that you previously enjoyed, please do let me know in the comments!

I'll speak to you soon! Take Care :)

Flower Photography: A Hobby of Mine

So, as it was my birthday in February, I got a camera. It's not the most brilliant camera but it was definitely an upgrade from what our family's old camera used to be! I got into photographing the flowers in my front garden when I got a new phone the year before but having a camera with a decent amount of mega pixels was definitely on my wish list!

Anyway, to cut to the chase, our rose bush in our front garden has been flowering for the past month and over that time I've been taking some snaps of the flowers which are absolutely stunning, so I thought I would share them with you :)

I hope this offers a nice break from the normal long posts I tend to do so I hope you enjoy them!

My Thoughts on The World Cup

So, I'm not a massive football fan but ever since the last World Cup in South Africa 4 years ago, I've absolutely fallen in love with the tournament. I love the community spirit it brings and the fact that everyone plays for the place that they call home. I also love the way it gives teams that you never would've heard of, or players you've never seen play before, the chance to shine, even if they don't get through to the next round, they're given their time to shine and that's amazing.

It's also good because players can surprise and teams can surprise, like the infamous Spain vs Netherlands game that was shocking to everyone, considering the fact that Spain are the defending champions and they lost 5-1 to the Netherlands in their first match of the tournament! It shocked the lot of us but that's what makes it so awesome to watch, to see the talent that you didn't expect to see :) This was then topped off by Spain's shocking loss yesterday against Chile, 2-0 which was just madness for many. For me, having adored Spain last World Cup it was heart-breaking to see them lose but hats off to Chile! And that's completely and utterly what's to be loved about the tournament - you can never quite make the right prediction :D

I also loved the game on Sunday between Bosnia and Argentina. Bosnia, as they described before kick off at 11pm, is a country that has struggled with war in the past few years and the fact that they've managed to get a team together and qualified through to the World Cup which has given their people something to celebrate for and be happy about, is just phenomenal. What was yet still phenomenal is that if there hadn't been the accidental own goal three minutes into the game Bosnia and Argentina would've drawn. For all you non-footie people, the reason why this is such an awesome fact is that the other team are a World Class team with World Class players. Most people have heard of Messi, who is without exaggeration, a footie legend, and those of you more tuned to football would've heard of Aguero. Yes, the second goal was scored by Messi but just take a look at the amount of times Bosnia, a new team to the World Arena, managed to stop World Class players like Messi from taking their chances. It was brilliant to hear!

I'm sorry for rambling for so long about individual matches but the point is, it really brings out the team spirit in everyone and though most people wouldn't support one team, they can still appreciate the amount of effort and the amount of skill it takes for smaller countries and teams to be able to take on all of the big teams and that's what I love especially about the World Cup :D

Do any of you guys like football? Let me know! :)

Wuthering Heights: A Book Recommendation (Spoiler Free!)

When I set out to read this book, I never imagined that I would enjoy it as much as I did.

In comparison to other books I've read, it was amazing because of the way it's so different from what you'd expect. Many of the characters are selfish and unlike able and that's what makes it so intriguing, because the love story is a story of two people who know they love each other and yet for reasons that they can't sort out between themselves, they don't get together and then what leads on from there is totally unexpected from a love story, that it's just worth reading for that. I won't spoil it!

The thing I really enjoyed about the book was the fact that it doesn't just follow the youth of the characters, it follows their lives and it's just beautiful to see how everything unfolds and how their children follow or completely change from the legacy of their parents. It was a good book because it wasn't just two separate families, it was two quarreling families and the fact that it didn't include third parties meant that the story was a lot easier to follow and the happenings were a lot more intense because you could follow the developments of the relationships between the characters as the years went by.

Above all, I would definitely recommend the book because of the fact the story unfolds in the most amazing and intriguing ways. I mentioned earlier that I liked it more than I thought I would and that was because, as many book worms out there would agree with me, when you read a book written from first person, and the narrator is selfish and perfectly detestable, it can completely ruin a good story line because of the way the story is distorted by the narrator's completely dumbfounded and unrelatable judgements. However, despite the fact the characters aren't exactly likable, it's not written from their point of view and that means that the narrator's views are expressed which makes the childish disputes and sulkiness not appear acceptable, rather, the narrator balances out the actions that make you question the sanity and morality of the main characters altogether.

The narrator was also one thing I loved about the book because she was both personal and detached; she knew the characters incredibly well and that meant that we could both watch the story unfold and know exactly why things were happening because of the point of view the story was written from. She both could relate the exact happenings and give us as the reader enough insight as the story unfolds for us to be able to follow along the character development and that was brilliant. I've not come across a novel written like it and 

I would thoroughly recommend the book if that sort of thing would intrigue you.

Finally, the ending was awesome because generations down the line, the characters actually become quite likable and that means that the story ends on a high and not a low like you might expect. The character development is fabulous and the depth that you can gain from each detail as well as the observations of the narrator just makes Wuthering Heights a fabulous read.

I hope that you liked this review, it's spoiler free and perhaps may serve more as a recommendation rather than a review. If you guys want me to do a review of the story and the characters, please do let me know because I just wanted to make sure that you didn't get the story spoiled for you if you were planning on reading the book! Thank you for reading! :)

Creating Creative Content

Something that struck me today was JacksGap's new video which was released yesterday and was entitled 'Introducing Shed Sessions - Shannon Saunders'. Now, if any of you guys have seen JacksGap videos or have an idea about what kind of content they produce, it started off as being a place where Jack thought he would upload videos from his travels during his gap year (hence the channel name, now you get it ;D ).
Eventually though, as his gap year didn't go as planned, it became a lot more of a creative space where he'd produce funny videos from his bedroom and as the channel grew, it did become more travel like too.

At one point during this journey, there was a phase called 'Musical Mondays' where his cousin Eliza would sing and this inspired the time where people could do covers of the JacksGap theme that Eliza had sung and this would be played at the end of the video as the outro.

Since then, it feels like their channel's changed quite a bit, going through a three month hiatus after the infamous Rickshaw Run ended, (which was brilliant, as my other posts will tell you) and now that they're back releasing more regular videos, it just feels like their creativity has been boosted and they're coming out with more awesome, original content every time.

So music has made a comeback on their channel and the way it was done was absolutely beautiful. As the title of their new video suggests, it took place in a shed, at the back of someone's garden where they filmed the amazingly talented Shannon Saunders sing one of her own songs. Though I didn't watch it all the way through (because I don't personally listen to music), the way they'd done it was absolutely beautiful and completely different from any other content they've made before.

The fact that it was so different, all filmed in one shot and in such an organic setting rather than a scripted, back and front lit setting, just went to show that you don't have to produce the same kind of stuff when you're a creator, you can still be you and explore a million different possibilities of how you want to create, what you want to create, where you want to create and so on and so forth and still be phenomenal and still strike a chord in your audience.

It just made me smile knowing that if any of us were in their position, we'd feel equally apprehensive about releasing different content to the masses, but the fact that even if you aren't into that kind of music you could appreciate it, just made the venture so much more worthwhile. Moral of the story being, never underestimate the open mindedness of the masses :)

I hope that you guys enjoyed that post, please do let me know about what you think of my posts in general, if there's anything you'd like me to do more/less of and so on! I'm planning to hopefully do another book review soon as I'm reading some awesome classics at the moment and I think that'll be awesome!

Have a great one! :D

Valuing Yourself - Take Two

I know that I've done a post on this before but I've had another boost of inspiration from a different source than last time and it honestly hit right home.

Nick Miller is my favourite youtuber up to date I think, because he's so honest and completely says things how they are. No sugar coating but no loss of inspiration either. If you ever want a video to inspire you or give you a way to go about things, Nick is the one to turn to for sure :)

Anyway, his video 'Valuetine's Day' really struck home because he talked about how we shouldn't have to have someone else in our lives to make us value ourselves or to show us our value because we should already appreciate our value without needing someone else. He made the brilliant point that we're not of a person without a partner, the truly amazing thing about an amazing relationship is the path that the couple embark on together and forge together - it's clear that if you have a bad relationship it can end up destroying both people - clearly put by the simple mathematical point that 0.5 x 0.5 = 0.25 - less than you started off with and therefore, you're not half a person without a partner.

It was brilliant because it was just an amazing bout of perspective on the culture that we live in that constantly tells us that we are better and 'more whole' human beings if we are in a relationship, but that's not necessarily true because you are who you make yourself and how you choose to react to whatever you come into contact with on your journey.

I hope that you guys enjoyed this post! If you'd like to check out Nick, his channel is here and 'Valuetine's Day' is here

Our Dreams: The Younger Generation

It's quite easy to believe, for the many of us, that dreams are quite often quite stretched and for many of us nigh on unattainable. We hear it every single day, 'Don't give up on your dreams', 'Nothing is ever impossible' but that doesn't really stop us from feeling like it is. It's always hard because if you want to become a singer, there's always going to be someone better than you, if you want to write, it takes time and success isn't guaranteed and it takes time. If you, like me, crazily enough want to become a doctor, that's a hell of a long time in university and requires the brain size of a very, very clever person.

Point being, there will always be someone who's better than you, someone who's better suited, someone who's cleverer, someone who's somehow got the upper hand. But that doesn't delete your existence and the fact that if you put yourself out there and look for things that are going to help push you out there and develop your skills, why ever should you not get success of some degree? You may write and get 1,000 people to read your book, yes it may not be the New York Times' Best Seller but hell, 1,000 whole entire people wanted and enjoyed to read your work! Your work.

This is a little message for all of us youngsters who are trying to get out and make something of ourselves.
Hell, a lot of us don't yet know who we are and what we can do but the stats say that the majority of people change their career path throughout their lives. We're constantly evolving and changing to become different people but until we pick a place to start, when will we ever begin our journey? :)

This post was inspired by these two pictures :)

The one on the left inspired me because fear can stop you from trying new things on a daily basis. Soon enough, that daily sticking to the comfort zone can really stop you from becoming the amazing person that you can become in the future. It's really important to push yourself small steps every single day because if you don't start making a change, when will it ever happen?

The one on the right inspired me because if we don't live as happy human beings, we won't feel comfortable enough in our own skin to push against the boundaries and just be happy with messing up or things not going to plan. Optimism can really help you through life and is one of the keys to success because if you're not willing to get up after you've fallen down, where are you going to end up? Simply, on the floor.

Thank you so much for reading! It just felt like I needed to get that positivity out there because the world does feel like quite a scary place to step into, especially as a person with very little experience and very little knowledge or ideas of where they want to go and how far they're capable of going.

See you soon! :)