My New Year's Resolutions

Hey guys!

Now, I know that the day has officially past but I have the biggest part of the new year ahead of me so here are some of the things that I want to achieve this year!

1. Spend more time with my family and friends rather than on the internet or hiding away - yes Zainab, you may be quite an introverted person but who knows when you'll be able to spend so much quality time with the people that are near and dear to you? Who knows what could happen? Treasure the time you have the ability to spend with other people.
2. Speak your mother tongue more - when I was a child, I was literally the best at my mother tongue but with school and growing up, I've literally become the worst. But learning languages is a favourite thing of mine and if I can connect with relatives better as well as new people, why shouldn't I put the effort in properly and not look back?
3. Eat less biscuits - my guilty pleasure, you caught me. I feel kinda bad knowing I do exercise but I probably eat back all the calories I lose aha, I have a high metabolism naturally so I'm still pretty thin but I'd like to know that I'm doing most of the things I need to in order to keep all parts of my body healthy. Maybe I should turn to fruit instead :)
4. Don't be afraid to give - a reason why I don't do things is often because of fear. When I want to help someone or even just crack a joke, I'm afraid because I don't know how I'll be received. What I need to remember is, even if it's not much help or the joke isn't funny, I can still make a difference and doing that and still being true to yourself - not much more you can ask for!
5. Work harder, then play - I learnt this the hard way during my GCSE's and though I didn't do drastically badly, there's always always room for improvement - don't be afraid of working your butt off because trust me, every single moment you spend will contribute to the end product. Just because it doesn't feel like revising for half an hour will help, trust me, it most probably will. Also, that doesn't have to be school related, working with the team and relaxing with them will mean you'll work better altogether rather than only chipping in when it's convenient. Not a good habit, I can tell you that!
6. Do more of what you can't do very well - This kinda links back to my mother tongue resolution but it's a bit  more general and links to some inspiration I got from this video from Connor Manning who you guys know I've been loving at this moment in time. It's all about doing things you love but 'aren't very good at' - no one is born amazing at what they do but with work, you can become more and more decent and even amazing, but only if you take that step yourself.
7. Write more gosh dang it - I love writing so much, it's definitely a release for me and something I love, so I want to try and write 52 blog posts this year - one for every week, hence the specific. Even if it's two on one week and none the next, just so long as they're quite frequent, I'll be a happy bunny and be a relaxed as a..... oh you add whatever you like in the gap!
8. Finally, keep smiling :) I love smiling and it makes me feel so happy and happiness doing whatever you're doing is the best thing ever, so you there, have a good day! (brownie points for the person who knows the reference ;) )

Those are the most of them I think so I hope that you guys have a good ole list and try and smash them out as much as possible because becoming a better you than yesterday's you will end the year with the most awesome you that's even been before. Many you's in that sentence, many you's.

Have a great one, whatever you're doing and I hope to speak to you guys soon!

Connor Manning - A New Phenomenal Discovery

Hey guys!

For me, as my sister put so very nicely, finding  new YouTubers is like how other people find new TV shows and this week, thanks to this article, I think I've found a real gem - Connor Manning.

From the article, I wanted to watch this guy because he was described as mature and that's honestly something I value in the YouTubers I watch. I can't always stand comedy but I love inspirational videos that give me more reasons to move forward with my life and keep striving forward to become a better person and find the thing I want to do.

Connor's videos really put things into perspective and they're very good explanations and daily inspirations so I would highly recommend that you watch his videos. One of my favourite videos of his that I've seen so far is this one called 'Finding Your Passion' and it just reverberates what you know is true but you need articulating. I'm going to write a more detailed post on why I love this video so much on my daily inspirations blog so check that out but yeah, enjoy him! In hindsight after watching another one of his videos and thinking this all over, I realised I love his videos because I think a lot like him and have gone through a lot of things like him and that just makes his videos all the more meaningful because I can relate to them and I hope you can too.

In a way, I'm glad that this is a shorter blog post but thank you for reading it anyway and I hope that you guys have sources of inspiration in your lives too! If you have any that you'd like to share, leave them in the comments! I do try and write some things that have inspired me on my side blog so if you use tumblr or Bloglovin', go follow it and perhaps we can become inspired together!

Have a wonderful week and a belated Happy New Year to you all! I hope this year is the year that's the best of our lives so far :D

About Time - Lessons I loved from this film

This film was recommended to me by a good ole YouTuber, Will Darbyshire through this tweet here:

It made me incredibly happy to see the trailer so later the same day, I embarked on the journey of watching a beautiful film blossom.

Instead of ruining it for you, here's the gist: Tim is told by his father (Bill Nighy) that he can time travel back into his own past and this means that he can do lots of things that he didn't do the way he wanted to, in a way that is most suitable. But here's the catch - he can only be in one place at one time - and I'll leave you with that!

It's a wonderful concept and it's driven so beautifully through the film but here's the main thing I took away from the film that made me incredibly satisfied:

Imagine you could time travel like Tim and you could live every day again, if you really wanted to - imagine that you've picked today to come back to because you know you're going to have the best day, and when you wake up in the morning, you treat it like so :) 

This just made me happy because it made me think of all the small moments we often fail to recognise and we fail to take full advantage of. It's something I believe the film illustrates it too well for me to try and give you examples so if you have an evening to spare or a couple of hours, do go and check it out! I feel like I've not really given you much to cling onto but if I tell you that the same people who made this film also made Love Actually, does that make recommend this film even more to you? If anything, it has the best ending, I can promise you that!

During this holiday season, I hope that you guys have the most joyous and wonderful time and I guess the message that I want to leave you with is that you should take every chance you have to make a good moment the best moment ever! Make the world wonderful :)

Merry Christmas guys and who knows? Maybe I'll see you before the new year? God Bless you!

p.s. I did a more picturey post of this film on my side blog so if you have a moment, go check it out here!<3

Charlie McDonnell - Our Brother Review

Hey guys!

Quite a few weeks back now, Charlie McDonnell (aka Charlieissocoollike) released his new short film series named 'Our Brother'. I feel like I can't share what it's about without injecting my views about it so here goes!

The two parter is about two siblings who are struggling to cope with the death of their brother after the films start with a video clip of them proclaiming to their brother, who was clearly suffering from some sort of chronic illness, that he was finally coming home. From what Charlie had said about the series before it went live, it was supposed to be quite a teary series and though it was definitely sad, I wouldn't say I was bawling though admittedly, though I cry when things get emotional, I certainly wouldn't have bucketed all the way through.

Despite this initial misconception, the series itself was very, very good and the one thing I loved about it was the fact that it was so completely realistic. It didn't feel like an ideal situation, it felt really organic and that's what I feel Charlie has really done justice too. The elder brother of the two siblings who are left is unwilling to admit how much he misses his brother and the psychological turmoil that he's facing and this can make him appear quite cynical and unsympathetic towards his sister who constantly asks him whether he's ready to talk yet, to which he stoically replies 'I'm not ready yet.'

It's a beautiful series because of the way that their relationship works and just how simply everything works out and how it makes sense. It doesn't feel far-fetched and that's what makes this film series work so well.

I hope that you guys can appreciate this post and go on and watch the first one of the two here and the second here. All of Charlie's videos are amazing so check his channel out here.

I hope that you guys enjoyed this post and as always, I'd love to hear your thoughts! I hope to speak to you soon, take care of yourselves!

Falling in Love with Ideals

Hey guys!

It has occurred to me many a time over the past few years or so that we often fall in love with ideals. This theme is also prevalent in many films and can also translate into real life relationships too where people go into relationships thinking they know the other person really well and that they know exactly how it's going to turn out but what they forget is that they expect their ideals to be the truth rather than getting to know and learn about the actual person who's in front of them.

By doing this, which in some way shape or form I feel we're all guilty of, we place unreal expectations on a person who's merely human and not someone who should be burdened with the expectations of being perfect, doing everything exactly like the movies and all that sort of thing.

Just to wrap up, if you ever make friends with someone or start a relationship with someone, make sure that the person you think you know and the kind of person they are isn't your ideal but is backed up by proof and evidence that you've witnessed first hand, not imagined in your day dreams.

I hope that you guys enjoyed this post and that you have wonderful weeks and that hopefully, I can speak to you soon!<3

University - the Low Down

Hey guys!

I watched this video from Matt Watson and it really made me realise how big a step university is because of the amount of time you spend there and the numerous experiences you have along the way.

It's very easy to forget the scale when you've not got to worry about it for years yet but it's not until it starts getting closer that you realise why it's so daunting and important and why it's such a fundamental stage of your life.

I do really think that his video was immensely helpful in giving general tips on how to pick the right uni for you so don't forget to check the video out here as well as his channel here!

I hope that you guys enjoyed this post and I hope to speak to you soon!

Having a backbone

Hey guys! I hope that you're well!

Having a backbone can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people and it only really struck me recently because it made me question whether I have one and whether the fact that my backbone has a questionable existence is really all that important and whether I need to make it more definite.

What made this spring into my mind was a TV show which is all the rage at the moment in England, coming back for its 10th series, the Apprentice. Just to give you guys who haven't heard of it before, the Apprentice features the successful British Entrepreneur Lord Sugar who puts a number of candidates through 12 weeks of gruelling business orientated tasks as two teams in order to find his next business partner. In previous years he's had 12 candidates for 12 weeks, last series he upped it to 16 and this year, to celebrate the 10th birthday of the program, 20 candidates from the start.

At the moment, the series is on its 3rd week, the 4th week being broadcasted on Wednesday here in the UK. In the 2nd week, the teams were asked to produce a type of wearable technology but what happened was, those who had more expertise in the area than others couldn't push their product idea forward enough amongst the hubbub to be able to produce a product that manufacturers would want to purchase. This, Lord Sugar put down to 'not having a backbone'.

This made me think of the way that I feel like I may also have a similar quality in which I try and please everyone in order to not make any enemies, whether that be a frenemy or just a plain old person who hates my guts. I have no idea whether to consider this a flaw because generally the things that you may dispute about in school aren't really worth losing friends over and therefore, should I really be putting my friendships on the line just for a little pride in being right? That I don't think is right in any relationship. Understandably, when it's a question of making money, the bar is a lot higher and the expectations of the teams are as high as can be but the question I have for myself and anyone else who feels like they're kind of like me, do we have the right mentality and would we be able to fight for what is right and risk losing some friends in order to produce something that's the bests? Would we?

I hope that you guys enjoyed this post! Whatever you thought, I would love to hear it in the comments and I hope that you have a lovely weekend and I'll speak to you soon!