The Best Friend Tag

Hey guys, you probably don’t know me (and if you do it probably means that you’ve come over here from my blog so if you have then thank you so much!), my name is Inspired Teen and I have come from my blog – lifeofaninspiredteen.wordpress.com. It is such a privilege to be writing this amazing guest post/collaboration on my best friend’s blog. This is my first ever collaboration and I am so excited to be doing it here.

My best friend is partially responsible for my blog so I have a lot to be grateful for. She encouraged me to get my own blog – not verbally even but just by having her own blog she inspired me to start mine and I am so glad that I did! I know mine will never be half as good as hers but I love it just the way it is.

Also, I would just like to shout out to sprinklesandsparklesx.wordpress.com who’s Best Friend Tag inspired me to write this post for your guys today and to have my best friend doing the same over on my blog.

Anyway… let’s get into the post!

When and where did you and your best friend meet?

We met at a week-long camp for home-educated people back in July 2013. I was running a dance workshop there and so had managed to get in for free as the cost was quite high and she came to my workshop every single day for five days. She was the one person who I could always guarantee would turn up and it was very motivating – especially given that the week we were camping was very hot and so I wasn’t sleeping well and was a bit tired and grumpy and it was hard to get the energy up to actually run the workshop but I’m glad that I did. Funnily enough we didn’t start our friendship whilst at the camp all that much; we exchanged e-mail addresses kind of as an after thought and then became best friend’s that way. To be honest, I never would have thought we would have become as close as we now are and if you had told me on the first day of camp three years ago that she would now be my best friend and I would be doing the best friend tag on her blog and her on mine, I never would have believed you.

Why are they your best friend?

Jamila is my best friend because she was always interested in me and what I had to say, she always wanted to write me e-mails twice as long as the e-mails I’d written to her in response to what I had said in mine, she never discarded all of my comments and tried to make her e-mails as short as possible (unlike some annoying people in society where you send them three massive long paragraphs in a text and they reply with ‘k’), she remained on good terms with me even early on in our friendship when I would be so lazy that I wouldn’t reply to her e-mails for weeks and weeks. She’s my best friend because I never have to explain anything to her in further detail than I already have, she just understands me in a way no one else does. She doesn’t judge me for my interests or my tastes in music or TV etc. and she is always willing to listen to me obsess over things without making a fuss or telling me to “shut up” like other people I know. She’s my best friend because we can sit on the sofa not talking, staring at our phones and it doesn’t seem awkward or anti-social it’s a nice comfortable silence where we feel we can do our own thing without worrying about what the other is doing.

Is there anything you would change about your best friend?

Her music taste. Just because I want to be able to go to concerts with her and I’m pretty sure that she wouldn’t really fit in with the boyband crowd of screaming twelve-year-olds and I wouldn’t really fit into the crowd of dread-locked-heavy-eyelinered-metal fans. Whilst I’m sure we will go to a concert together one day it will probably take a lot of negotiation and compromise, so I look forward to it!

What is the one thing you admire most about your best friend?

There are so many things that I admire, but I think the thing I admire most is her ability to make anything sound interesting, and she always thinks about things in such an interesting way. She never has thoughts that she doesn’t really consider, she always knows why she has those thoughts and she can always explain why she thinks things. There are many occasions when we will be talking on the phone and she will talk in a continuous stream for about 10-20 minutes and eventually she’ll stop and apologise for talking for so long and make a comment about how I was probably really bored and if I ever get bored to tell her that I’m bored and to ‘shut up’ but in actual fact, even when the thing she’s talking about isn’t something I’m normally interested in, just the way she says it or how passionate she clearly is makes me interested and that’s a very admirable thing. For example, she did an absolutely amazing and engaging post called A Band That’s Actually A Gang about a band called ‘The World Inferno Friendship Society’ and whilst I know that she likes them and we’ve talked about them, I was particularly impressed with this post because not only did it take her about two weeks to write because she wanted to perfect it, but it was also just so engaging and interesting to read even though I don’t generally have an interest in the band.

What is one thing that only you and your best friend understand?

Printing

How would you describe your best friend’s ideal partner?

Long hair (but not too long), wears eyeliner, wears band t-shirts, likes the same music as Jamila, understands and is interested in her, no facial hair, tall, has good facial structure (and no crinkles under the eyes when they smile).

Does your best friend like loud music or music that is at a reasonable level?

I mean let’s be fair, Jamila is a heavy metal/post punk/gothic rock fan, her music is going to be pretty loud at all times. Sometimes it’s so bad that when I’m talking to her on the phone all I can hear is her music and I kind of have to strain to hear her even though her mouth is directly next to the phone and her music is not. I never know whether to tell her to turn it down… eventually she realises and turns it down and it clearly hasn’t affected our relationship so who really cares?

What does your best friend think about the most?

To be honest, because Jamila is such an interesting person I don’t know what she thinks about the most. I know things she thinks about a lot but not necessarily the most. I think she tends to think about many different things at the same time and it’s all kind of rotating round her head 24/7. She quite often mentions having a fear of talking disjointedly in a way that doesn’t make sense and I think that this just further proves my point that she is never thinking about only one thing. As I said above, she always talks about things in a really interesting way so I guess she’s always kind of thinking about all of these things in a really intelligent way.

Describe your best friend in one word?

Phenomenal

What are three things your best friend doesn’t know about you?

• That I dry my hair with my head upside down
• That I used to take my posters off my wall whilst getting dressed because I felt it was too awkward having them “watch me get dressed” even though they were pieces of paper.
• That the Kurt Cobain ‘montage of heck’ documentary is in my Netflix ‘To-Watch’list.

Oh wow, that went way too quickly, however it really is a lot of words so I hope you’re still here! I really hope you’ve enjoyed this post and have learnt something from the insight into Jamila’s life and her personality (and of course read a post by her amazing best friend! ;)) I’ve really enjoyed writing this post for you guys and I’m sure we will do another collaboration for you as soon as we can!

If you did enjoy this post please give it a like – if you’ve come from my blog please stick around and check out Jamila’s posts and give her a follow (she would love it if you did!). Once you’ve done all of that you can of course go and check out my blog if you haven’t already – https://lifeofaninspiredteen.wordpress.com/ and make sure to give me a follow too – especially so you can read Jamila’s post on me!

I would like to get in contact with me for any reason please feel free to get in touch using my e-mail – aninspiredteen@gmail.com

That’s all for now!

Inspired Teen 🙂

Keeping my Resolutions

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to do more mixed-media art journaling, and so far I’ve done one spread:

The journal is actually made from an old magazine listing college courses. I put gesso on the pages to strengthen and prime them. Here is what one of them looks like, pre-gesso and without anything added:

And this is the cover:

I’ve put what is actually a relatively thin layer of gesso over it, avoiding the “Pathways to a bright future” message across the cover. I thought it would be quite fun to leave that there. If you look closely, you can spot the faint face of a woman beneath the white. I was surprised when I looked at this photo and saw it, because I had completely forgotten that it was there.

What I like to do with my art journals is to stick torn pieces of paper in them – most of the time, bits of newspaper or scraps that I don’t want to throw away. As I have quite a few journals, I open them up and work on all of them at the same time. This way, while one is drying I have time to continue on the others.

I then go over those pages, adding drawings, paint and whatever media I feel like using. This is the fun part. I have one journal with a page made up of old used teabags that have glued themselves in, drying onto the paper. There is another page with cumin seeds, and one more with candle wax. I will not show you all of them in this post, though, because I am saving that for a later date! I would like to do a specifically journal-related post in the near future.

This is a slightly closer view of the spread.

Featuring a one-day travel card.

The travel card has been stained by my red hair dye

I tend not to worry about my pages being messy – my art journals are a place to let myself go and I like them to have as much texture as possible! Everything must overlap or be linked in some way. When I draw a picture I try to make sure it goes on top of more than one piece of paper that I’ve stuck in.

This one is over a packet of KoolAid and a torn part of an A-Z road map.

I dripped blue candle wax over the top as a final addition; you can see it more clearly in this picture:

Since the new year I have been on a vegan diet. I thought I would be a lot hungrier than I actually am, as the last time I attempted this I was always feeling peckish. It has actually been completely fine so far, and I am not greatly missing meat or dairy. I think it is because I am preparing to go on a lemon detox, so my mind has been on that and imagining how hungry I will be when I attempt it. In comparison, I am not missing much food at the moment! I’m really glad that I’m doing this veganism thing; it is as much for the mental feeling of achievement as it is for health or animal protection.

So far, I’ve made an avocado and soya-cream smoothie; spaghetti with a sauce made from soya yoghurt, soya cream and salad leaves and potato and soya protein burgers. The burgers were delicious! Yes, a lot of soya.

I think I’ve picked up my guitar every day since New Year, which means I’ve been playing it more than I usually would. This is significant progress for me, as there was a time when I would neglect my guitar for months on end. I’d see it as an intimidating skill I needed to practice, but would do “some time in the future” and not right now. I admit it: I was scared of my guitar. Now, I look forward to playing it, and when I’m away from home I actually miss being able to pick it up! I told myself to I owed it to my future self. I think something else that helps is the fact that I’m trying to write a novel. In order to procrastinate and avoid that, I play my guitar.

I’ve got new bed sheets – black ones, of course, and decorated my bed with gem-shaped fairy lights! The poster-board is back in my room, Metallica cheering me on in my daily efforts. I also have a new lampshade that looks like a celestial cabbage floating from the ceiling.

All in all, my whole “Do it Now” idea has helped with small everyday things, like tidying up and putting stuff away, as much as it has helped with resolutions. I truly believe it is through the small things that we develop the discipline to handle larger goals. It is always better to tidy up now than to to let the mess collect.

This evening I spoke on the phone to a friend I met a few months ago. Before, I would have put off phoning her till the next day – not because I didn’t want to talk to her, but because it simply wasn’t necessary to phone her. But I didn’t put it off. I called her even though I didn’t feel obliged, and we got to catch up! It was great to speak to her again. Last year I would not have done that. I would have waited. Procrastination isn’t something you do exclusively when you don’t like the idea of something. It even works on things that you enjoy. One of the best parts of phoning my friend is that I didn’t have the guilty feeling of being the one to lose contact. And hopefully we will continue to stay in contact, haha.

Thank you for reading my post. What have you been doing this year? I ask with genuine interest and curiosity!

The One-a-Day Trick

When you want to do more of something – but you are finding it difficult to fit in the time, or find the motivation – here’s something to try: Do one unit a day. For example, if you are trying to write a novel, you might find it helpful to resolve yourself to write one page a day. That way, by the end of a year, you’ll have written 365 pages. That’s a whole book! And you will only have sat down for long enough to write one page each day. Even if you only want to improve your writing, you could challenge yourself to fill one self-contained page a day in an exercise book. By the end of a year the exercise book will be full! You’ll have improved, and you can have fun reading what you’ve written. If you want to get better at guitar, you could play a song a day, or learn a chord a day. Imagine how bloody big your mental chord library would be then! Or, you could learn one cool guitar trick per day, or watch one music theory video per day. If you want to get better at drawing, you can do something similar – watch Youtube tutorials and do a drawing per day. Be creative with setting your challenges. That adds to the enjoyment.

The purpose of this is to take pressure off you by dissolving the idea that in order to get good at something, you must sit down for ages at a time and study it. I find that taking tasks in bite-size pieces helps me get them done and stops me from viewing them as big and intimidating. You can break anything down into infinitely small pieces; we can all do tiny tasks. And when we find those difficult, we can break them up even more.

When you think like this, ideas stop being so abstract and hard-to-reach. You can set realistic goals. And you can feel satisfied when you have done each small thing you told yourself you would do.

A friend taught me a similar idea. He suggested making 100 small marks on a piece of paper, and crossing one off each time you practice a certain skill.  When you hit 100, you know you’ve done a certain activity 100 times! Again, you have a goal, and bite-size pieces.

With these things, you can be as generous or hard on yourself as you like. You can permit yourself to make up for other days in advance. For example, you can write three pages in a day and then take it easy on yourself for the next two days. Or you can go in the opposite direction, and tell yourself that you have to start again if you miss a day.

Do you have any ideas for increasing your motivation? What would you like to be better at?

The Year Of No Bullshit

The concept of making resolutions at the start of the year is often proudly made fun of for being “arbitrary” and “unrealistic.” (Most probably by people who don’t manage to keep their resolutions, but let’s place that judgement aside for now.)

I love resolutions.

They are consciously-made ambitions. Not abstract, “I probably should”s. Personally, I think New Year is the best time for me to pin them down because that is when I’m likeliest to keep them. It’s easiest for me to measure my progress. I can quickly count the months and days I’ve kept to something see how long I’ve got to go. And it feels like more. It feels like more because New Year is a celebration for everyone, not just any day. It adds value and urgency to the things I want to achieve. If I just decide on a date arbitrarily, one that no-one else is going by, I’ll have less motivation because it will just feel like something I’ve made up – like it will not matter if I “give up.”

This is why I think it’s a good idea to make resolutions in January. And why not!? Just to be different? Just to rule out feelings of failure?

I believe that as individuals and as society, we should strive to be the very best we can be. Expand to our full potential. Now, to those who have heard those phrases multiple times, they may sound like empty rhetoric. But read them again. I mean, really absorb the meaning.

How can you not strive to reach your full potential? Can you really live knowing that you’re not trying to be the best you can be? I don’t mean that in a nerdy straight A’s kind of way. I don’t mean it in a money-making business way either. I mean it in an human way. As a person, don’t you want to be what you consider the ultimate version on yourself?

When I say “ultimate,” I’m talking about this you, the one with the experiences that you’ve had – but having tried your hardest. I think all of us should try our hardest to do whatever we want to do. We need ambitions, otherwise we won’t get anywhere.

I’m going to make 2016 my no-bullshit year. It’s the year I’ll turn 16, and I don’t want to grow up knowing that I wasted my time. No procrastination. I want every second to count. No putting anything I need to do off until later. It simply isn’t an option. The moment I think of something that is necessary, or something that would be bloody brilliant to do, I’m going to do it. There is absolutely no room in 2016 for time-wasting. I’m telling myself I don’t have a fucking choice but to get my act together. That is the only way I’m going to get better.

Small failures will come, but you and I can deal with those. We can learn from them and be reminded that there’s no room for letting ourselves down.

Today I get to put my first cross on my new calendar!

Here are my goals for this year:

I’m going to start drawing in my “One Sketch a Day” book that I’ve had for years but put off using – if I can find it.

I’m going to do Goodreads  challenges.

I’m going to work towards a short lemon detox diet by easing off unhealthy foods for a few days before mainly drinking lemon juice. I will explain more about that in a future post. Oh yes, and I’m also doing Veganuary! That means being vegan in January.

More guitar.

I’m going to continue writing my book – solidly.

I’m going to do more mixed-media journaling.

Most importantly, I’m going to do what I said earlier, which is to do things rather than just thinking about doing them.

I should probably also change my profile picture, because it is out of date and I have only just realised how awkward I look in it.

Yesterday evening I re-dyed my hair bright red. The colouring is permanent this time, so hopefully it will not fade away quickly. I didn’t do it on New Year’s Eve purposefully, but now that I have, I get to start the new year with a new hair colour. It’s rather symbolic. (No, I’m not a communist.)

I sincerely hope you have a fabulous year! Tell me what your goals are, and why they are your goals; I would love to hear all about them and get a feeling for all the different kinds of things that other people would like to achieve.

Or you can Tweet me your goals @Jamilajj with the hashtag #NoBullshitYear.

Do both.

I Am Writing A Book

Guess what? I’m finally writing a book. I’ve wanted to do this since I was a child. It was not a thing I properly imagined myself sitting down and doing; it was more of a dream projected into the distant future. But as we both know, there is no such thing as the distant future. There is only now. You cannot leave something up to your future self to complete. If you try to do that, the thing will not get done.

The reason I am telling you is because I want to put pressure on myself to finish the book. I don’t want to finish it in ten year’s time. I want to finish it soon. My thinking is that, by telling you that I am writing a book, I am lessening my ability to back out of it. We all know how easily embarrassed I get. That’s by things like getting a band member’s name wrong or kissing someone on the right cheek when they’re expecting a kiss on the left. So now, imagine if I publicly state that I’m fulfilling my dream of writing a book, full of confidence, and then don’t go through with it? That’s more than embarrassing. That’s kind of humiliating. I would feel like even more of a failure if that happened, especially since writing a book is one of the biggest items on my bucket list.

You know what? I think I’m going to Tweet that I’m writing a book as well. Then it will be even more embarrassing if I don’t complete it. How about I Tweet, “I AM WRITING A BOOK. IT WILL BE FINISHED ONE DAY. SOON.”? Do you think I should do that? Is that going overboard a bit? You know what, I’m just going to Tweet it. And if you, yes you there reading this right now, Retweet it, I will have no choice but to go through with the book. The more people that Retweet, the sooner it’s likely to get done.

I AM WRITING A BOOK. IT WILL BE FINISHED ONE DAY. SOON.

— Jamila Smith (@JamilaJJ) November 18, 2015

There.

What have you always wanted to do, and how are you working towards it? 🙂

You Are Just Another Passenger

Most of the time, I don’t imagine the other passengers to have lives. I don’t mean that they look boring or anything, I just mean that I don’t tend to imagine them outside of the time frame in which I see them. Does that make sense? I see a man sitting opposite me on the tube. He is in his thirties, probably. He is bald and he is listening to music on his earphones. He is wearing grey camo shorts and white sneakers. I notice that. Sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously. I don’t imagine what his life might be like, though. I don’t imagine him to have a partner or kids – or even a family. He is just a chap sitting opposite me, there, in that time frame. I don’t attach too much of a personality to him, because I just see him as another passenger. The situation is the same with the woman next to him. I note what she is wearing. Perhaps I stereotype her – not knowing that that is what I am doing. But I do not imagine what her feelings or thoughts could be. She is just the woman sitting across from me.

Alright, sometimes I DO play the guessing game in my head, the one where you wonder about people’s lives and what is going on in their heads. But most of the time, I don’t. I just see the other passengers as people. And I don’t think too much about them.

Something occurred to me the other day. I was thinking about people like me who travel on public transport, and how they see each other. I was thinking about them seeing me, and me seeing them. And I realised something. I realised that to them, I am just another passenger. I am not an “I”. I don’t have a back-story. I’m a stranger, an other. No-one worth thinking about. The realisation took me by surprise. I am so used to being the centre of my narrative. What I mean by that, is the centre of the story that is constantly going round in my head. Because, from my point of view, I am the main person in the world. That sounds self-centered, but we all think like that. We are all self-centered because we are all seeing the world from our own point of view. Obviously!

But the other day, I managed to shift my point of view. It was weird. I now understand that to other people, I’m simply “that girl with the green bag” or “that kid sitting down”. And that made me think, if other people see me in that way… then in their world I AM that way. Right? I’m only “me” to myself… And if the view – that I’m just a stranger – is the view belonging to the majority, then does that make it the correct view? I mean, I’m the only one who thinks of me as “me”. The rest of the world thinks of me as a stranger. So are they correct because they outnumber me? I wonder.
I think I’m both.But I also think it’s weird that we think we are right because we are ourselves.

Does that make sense?

Realising that strangers see me as simply a stranger, when there is more to my character than that, has made me understand even further that NOBODY is a stranger. Everybody is the main character in their version of the world.

Before I go, here is a really cool blog on tumblr that I think you should look at: http://letslive-beforewedie.tumblr.com/
I can see you hesitating with your mouse over the link, because you need to get back to your homework/housework/whatever. Well, I can’t see you, but I can imagine you. You’re wondering whether it’s worth clicking, and thinking that you should stop procrastinating and get back to your life. I think you should click 🙂 Because you’ll enjoy the blog. The posts are relatable and I think you’ll find it quite inspiring. Letslive-beforewedie = positivity!

What Would You Say In 10 Seconds To Your Best Friend?

You might have read my previous posts about a bucket list my friend (whom I shall refer to as ‘C’) wrote for me. She sent it along with a letter explaining that I didn’t have to do anything on it that was out of my comfort zone, but she thought that I might enjoy doing the things she’d written down. One of the items on the list happened to be “Call the same friend every day for a week”. I decided the person I would call would be her, partly because no-one else would be able to tolerate talking to me for a week, and partly because she was the person I most enjoy speaking with on the phone.

Before you carry on reading, I suggest you take a look at my previous posts about the bucket list C wrote for me:
I Am Going To Have A Shower Fully Clothed
Why My Pyjamas Were Soaking On Friday

Of course, you don’t have to read them to understand this post, I just thought that you might enjoy checking them out. (I know, I need to do something about my ego…)

LOL sorry about the ad break 🙂

Now, I feel incredibly bad making calls from my mobile when the person I’m talking to doesn’t use Giffgaff. I use Giffgaff. C doesn’t have Giffgaff. That means that whenever I call her from there, a relatively large amount of money gets extracted from my credit. Then I feel bad having to ask my father to top up my phone. So when C and I speak to each other, either she has to call me (her contract is different, meaning it’s free to call my mobile) or we have to use our home phones. Which isn’t always as practical. It’s not as straightforward to use, and there’s always the issue of someone else picking up the phone. In fact, quite recently I phoned and her sister picked up. “Hello?” she said. I thought it was C speaking. “You always answer the phone when I’m coughing,” I replied with a laugh. An awkward pause ensued.
“Do you want me to pass you over to C?” said the voice on the other end of the line. That was when I realised it wasn’t C. Oh SHOOT.

“Yes please,” I replied meekly. *Cringe*… You always answer the phone when I’m coughing. Seriously?

I initially had to clarify the definition of “Call the same friend every day for a week” with C, because I wasn’t sure whether it counted if she called me. But it turned out it did count, which helped a whole lot.

The hardest part about phoning each other every day for a week was finding the time. Sometimes we wouldn’t be home at the same time, and sometimes we’d have to call each other more than once in the day to continue the conversation. The funniest thing was when we both only had 10 seconds to phone each other before we needed to go to sleep. This only happened about twice and it was hilarious rushing to recount the details of the day in the little time that we had. I remember once at around 11:30 at night, C had got home late after the electric car had stranded her and her family miles from home. She told me the story in about forty seconds (which exceeded the ten we had agreed on).

The once-a-day-for-a-week calls were an epic way to catch up with each other. And they eliminated my fear of phones. Well, almost. I didn’t have a huge fear of calling people – it was very far from an official phobia -, but speaking to folks I know still made me nervous. Anyway, now that’s almost gone! I also got to hear a lot of gossip (bitchy girls in college… always intriguing to hear about, unless you happen to be the one that they’re being bitchy to) so that was interesting…

Something quick that I want to add is that the first time I ever spoke to C on the phone, I was terrified. Irrationally nervous because it had been months since we’d seen each other. But now, it’s the opposite.

Why My Pyjamas Were Soaking On Friday

If you have been reading my blog, you probably know that my friend wrote me a bucket list. Yeah, that’s right; she wrote a bucket list for me to complete… Well, I must state that luckily we both possess a sense of sense, so there was nothing on there like “Kiss a random woman on the bus” or “Stop listening to The Cure”. However, there was an item on the list instructing me to have a shower fully clothed… which brings me to the point of this post. But first, let me quickly say that after posting the list on this blog, I was given an extra goal from a reader (Belladonna Took) in the comments section: blog about each item once I’ve completed it. So that is what I am doing! Admittedly, the very first thing I completed (send someone a Valentine’s Day card) lacks its own post… but I am letting myself off the hook for that because it got a mention when I published the bucket list :).

I had put the bucket list off for some time. As you know, I am an expert in procrastination so this wasn’t difficult for me, but after a while an inner voice coerced me into getting my act together. So I did it. I ticked my second item off the list: I had a shower fully clothed. This sounds mad, but to tell the truth, it was seriously quite fun. To save time, I showered straight in my pyjamas so that I wouldn’t have to change twice (see the intelligent rocket science that goes on in my head?)

What made showering in my pyjamas so strange was the fact that my whole life it has been drilled into me not to do that. Fine, not in those exact words, but it is a commonly accepted fact that showering is something you do naked. I know, obviously no-one ponders the dress code of daily bodily cleansing on too regular a basis, but I think we understand what I am saying. It was the fact that it was strange that made it fun. You will never know the sensation of warm water slowly soaking into your sheep-patterned sleeping garments until you try it. That feeling of being shrouded in heavy, heated fabric as water drips from your hair and clothing into the bath tub, swirling down the drain. A cocoon of comforting unknown. It was confusing and disorientating, the lovely unfamiliar-ness of the situation. Once I got used to that, though, there was the decision of whether to lather over… or under… my pyjamas, you know what I mean? Upon trial, I found that if you lather over them, 40% of the soap reaches your skin and the remaining 60% just serves as extra washing detergent for your clothes. But it can be hard to reach under. In the end I just enjoyed the shower! The NEW experience!

I stepped out, wrung off my clothes and wrapped myself in the embrace of a towel freshly off the radiator. The sense of achievement was something I hadn’t felt in a while. It was a peculiar feeling, and left me with a high to begin my day on.

Second item off my list!

In My Highly Unrealistic Fantasy

1. I live in a mansion and own a Harley Davidson.

2. My semi-permanent hair dye doesn’t run and stain towels when my hair comes into contact with water.

3. I am an award-winning author of several well-known, beautifully written bestselling novels that are sold around the world.

4. I always remember to take the croissant out of the toaster in time, thereby not setting off the smoke alarm.

5. I am in an artistically brilliant, awe-inspiring SUPER successful rock band.

6. I don’t get white lint on my black clothes.

7. I somehow miraculously master French and Spanish, and am also fluent in Italian, German, Latin, Japanese, Shorthand, Irish and some kind of Sign Language.

8. I do body-building, resulting in super-strong muscles and a killer running stamina.

9. I actually wake up relatively early…

10. I have plenty of excess time to spend on leisure activities and expanding my knowledge.

11. I manage to think up witty come-backs on the spot and not three months later.

12. I have tons of followers on WordPress (hint-hint).

13. I get round to stuff.

14. I can listen to multiple songs at the same time.

15. I don’t quake in fear at having to answer the phone.

16. I can devour books one after the other and still have time to have a life.

17. I am immune to colds.

18. I am the human manifestation of awesomeness.

19. I don’t lose guitar picks.

20. No-one needs the toilet when I’m taking a shower.

21. My pencils don’t mysteriously go missing every three seconds.

22. The Echinacea doesn’t run out by itself.

23. Andrew Eldritch is a nice person who actually cares about his fans…

24. I can sing. Actually sing. In tune. WELL.

25. Time appears to naturally slow down for me, and it takes longer for my birthday to come round each year.

26. I don’t do embarrassing things like mispronounce band members’ names.

27. Future generations worship me.

28. I don’t miss my tube stop.

29. My ESP skills improve so much that I don’t have to use up texting credit anymore.

30. I reach 30 feeling like I’ve done something with my life.

A big thank you to Diana from A Holistic Journey for giving me the idea for this with her “In My Fantasy” post! I found it on Harsh Reality, where she was a guest. Oh, and here’s part 2 for her “In My Fantasy” post. You should totally read her blog. Enjoy!

Finally, before I go: Tell me what’s in your fantasy. Response posts are also completely welcome 🙂

I Am Going To Have A Shower Fully Clothed

A few days before Valentine’s Day, my best friend sent me a short bucket list for me to complete! Excited upon receiving it, I eagerly began to read; there were 19 items in total for me to do. All seemed possible and enjoyable! This is what my friend wrote (The bits in brackets are from her point of view, but she wrote the rest mostly as if it were me talking):

1. Be at my best friend’s wedding (You better be there!)

2. Have a shower fully clothed

3. Spend a week with my best friend

4. Fill a scrapbook

5. Order dessert first at a restaurant

6. Go ice-skating with my best friend

7. Have a silly string fight! (We are so doing this!)

8. Own a Wreck This Journal

9. Receive a bunch of roses

10. Fill a photo album

11. Send someone a Valentine’s Day card

12. Go to a concert with my best friend

13. Call the same friend every day for a whole week (you have to actually talk to them!)

14. Only listen to one song all day (any song, your choice! x)

15. Print out a Richard Wisker poster and keep it on your wall for a whole month

16. Have a sleepover with my best friend

17. Do everything on this bucket list!

18. Watch “The Fault In Our Stars”

19. Read “Since You’ve Been Gone” By Morgan Matson

When I turned the list over, there was an explanation. My friend had got the idea from, “Since You’ve Been Gone”, which is a book about… a list. The story is centered around a girl who’s friend has gone missing. Without a trace. The only possible clue to her whereabouts is a to-do list that she’s left behind. The remaining friend must now complete the items on it, in a hope that they will lead her to the missing girl. Anyway, my friend thought it was a great idea to write down fun things for someone else to do. She’s right! I don’t think she is planning on going missing, but I sure am completing the tasks she set me! I actually haven’t read the book yet. But I will. The only thing that I have completed so far is “send someone a Valentine’s Day card”. I should be able to do “spend a week with my best friend” this year, as she and I might be going to a week-long festival in June, called Hesfes. That’s actually where we met for the first time. I have a feeling the “only listen to one song all day” song is going to be by Nirvana. As for the concert… well, I would say some kind of rock/metal band if it were solely up to me, but my friend and I have very different music tastes… It will be hard choosing! She likes music such as The Vamps, so our only crossover would be bands like Sleeping With Sirens and All Time Low. So it’s goodbye for now, Mayhem! I feel like we are going to spend a long time negotiating 🙂

In return for the list, I wrote my own one for my friend. We will complete them together! I can’t wait to tick off all the items, and I was just thinking, isn’t writing a bucket list for someone such a brilliant idea? I challenge you to make a short one for a friend! Tell me what items you wrote on it down below, or just stop by and say hello 🙂