Hello 2019!

 As 2018 was a very tough year for me, I am going to take it easy in 2019 without being too hard on myself. Usually, I am willing to set challenges, work extremely hard and just push myself to achieve and experience, but that's not what I need right now.

I started the year off on a camping trip with some friends and that in itself bought up mixed feelings. I knew that I screwed up my 2018 all by myself and in 2019 I am determined, yet not promising, that I will get back on track - whatever track that may be!

I am back at Uni again this year, hopefully, to follow through to completion by 2020 and boy has this study been a long road, because truthfully, I have been studying for all of my 20's and I will be 27 this year - you do the math... I am really trying not to be ashamed. Let's be honest though, I have changed campuses twice and changed from part-time to full-time, which hasn't helped.

The #tenyearchallenge sees me as not much different at all - apart from a different tan and white dog, I am very similar to my sixteen-year-old self, now almost twenty-seven, I just look more tired - again, another excuse to take it slow and simple this year.

Fitting to this post, my word of the year is:

STEADY



Obviously, I just want to take it easy this year as mentioned earlier and steady seemed like the perfect word! In living by this word for the year my focus will be on:

• Slowly etching away at my goals
• getting out in nature more
• focusing on eating well, exercising and getting plenty of sleep.
• saving, saving, saving! (money)
• enjoying my work to the best of my ability (employment and Uni)

My big goals include:

• writing - working on this blog and my story.
• photography - back to nature and maybe entering some competitions? I am a complete novice though.
• Immersing myself in studying and focusing on one topic at a time, in smaller time increments. I am aiming to go into one of three scary fields of further study after completing my Bachelors and I want to gently work towards figuring out which one! 
• Becoming more confident and social. 

My smaller, yet just as meaningful goals include:

• Reading without any pressure on numbers (with this tactic I have already listened to two amazing audiobooks and I am halfway through a 380-page book from my favorite author!) 
• Keeping a reading log of books, articles, papers, audiobooks and any information I have consumed. I want to prove that I read more than I do, but in a gentle way.
• Volunteering to add to my resume and end the year with a bang... steadily. I plan to only volunteer when I am feeling 100% able to. (It is hard work)
• Practice singing and do singing lessons.

Every January seems like a big chance for new beginnings and without putting too much pressure on myself, I really aim to just begin to chip away at all of this. Most of the goals I have already begun, so I guess I am halfway done!

Enjoy your 2019, no matter how it was started,

KK

The refresh

Things always get better. Its all about refreshing.

Whenever I have had a slump in life, (and I have had many) I find that I am better for it when I refresh my mind and make myself remember why I love the things I'm doing.

Now, I'm not talking anything huge or 'weird' like spa retreats, meditation, even travel or anything that comes to mind when I say 'refresh.'

Recently, I have felt up-in-the-air about my studies, blog and a few other things, so I thought about what I used to do to get myself motivated. I think it also helps, to come up with new, refreshing ways, to be inspired as well.

I used to do 'photo-shoots' with my friend (by 'photo-shoots' I mean taking photos outside with a cheap camera and ordering my friend around, certainly amateur stuff!) And the amount of fun we used to have, was just priceless, plus I got some great, genuine shots for my blog/memories. So I took to the park with my friends and did just that. I used my phone (I left my SD card at home, I bought the shell of the camera though...) and the shots came out really well. Once my friends got used to the idea of being more natural, everything just flowed. (So you'll be seeing some of those photo's soon!)

I also started writing with my personal projects again. I haven't had the inspiration to do this lately, so I let it go, put it low on my priority list and threw myself into study. I had forgotten this, but that was just what I needed for my inspiration to flow, letting go of overthinking.... I re-watched some great movies and downloaded some songs I used to listen to when I wrote and BAM, I could write with flow again!

Now with study... the hardest of all. I study science by the way, and it's not always easy. For me, it is very personal - how I get back into focus with this. If you want to know more about that side of me, head over to my other blog never doubt nature.

Some previous photo-shoots for fun!

Find what refreshes you and do it!

KK

My word of the year 2017!

If you have been on my social media for a long time, you may know that I have been doing susannah conway's 'Word of the year' for the last three years. I recently just did vlogmas and talked about it quite a bit there also.

I think it is very inspiring to have a word to guide me through the year and so far it has somewhat worked for me, so I am going to fully take in my 2017 word of the year which is:

I am in my final years of uni and I want to go out with a bang. I also want to volunteer more and focus on my passion for nature by working on Never Doubt Nature.

I also want to focus on the moments and be more mindful of whats going on around me, rather than being stuck in the daily blur of life.

Lastly, the main thing I want to focus on is my writing! Blogging, but also my long-time-coming stories are going to get a lot of attention from me this year!

Do you have a word of the year?

KK

Who am I doing this for?

I want a family, a husband and children and I want a house, with animals in the country on a farm. So I am very traditional, but am I constantly working towards that and trying to find my perfect man? No.

What is the point?

I have to work on myself and be the person that I am proud of before I can have anyone want me, first I have to respect myself. I have always, always tried to live this way and by 'this' I just mean life.

Every time I stuff up or feel guilty. I stop and try to smile. I will never be perfect, I am working on myself and learning. Everything is always eventually going to be okay!

So who am I doing this for? Who am I improving myself for? I certainly don't need a man to complete me, but I'm not just writing, waking up every morning, doing my thing and trying so hard for just myself either.... no its for absolutely everyone in my life! The want to work with animals is for the animals, the hours of writing is for those who love a good story or need some positivity. I do all of the things I do for myself and for others, as long as I enjoy them.

Ask yourself who you wake up in the morning for? It doesn't matter what your answer is, as long as you are content with it,

keep at it,

KK

World of fiction

I love writing fiction! Yes on this blog, I just write about my life, because no one truly believes in fiction as changing someones life. We base our lives on experience and facts and its sad because all our imagination has ever taught us to do is believe, believe in the unknown.

Its actually a fact that (well mine anyway,) the subconscious shows us what we crave or need to know. In my fictional writing, I base the stories on my dreams = What I realistically want! My fictional world consists of nature, adventure and magic. I do not stick to a specific genre or age, I just write from my heart, with a hint of reality.

Every-time I look towards the horizon and its endless possibilities, I can see my work, my love of fiction in my head. As I smile coyly, I feel like I am hiding the worlds biggest secret and it is literally in my hands. Whether others read my stories or not, I feel something special in my work and that coy smile is an inner knowing.

Maybe one day I will be able to share this world with you, my world of fiction, but for now, it is all mine and a secret I want to complete for my own heart before my head can logically put it together for you,

Believe in your own world too,

KK

A little cartoon inspiration

Who loves Disney? Who loves Pixar? Who loves Warner Brothers? Dreamworks? Etc. Etc. Etc. Who remembers their childhood? I do.

The thing about adults who create these masterpieces, films, cartoons and animations, is that they aren't afraid to dream. They bring tiny pieces of magic into our lives, to be enjoyed by young and old. I think that what they are doing is creating a sane world for us to believe in something beautiful. And its comforting.

I don't think I could count the amount of people who go absolutely crazy with fan-art/fiction/etc. After a cartoon is released. What is it about these that makes us want to allow it to fill up a major part of our lives - downloading the theme song and playing it over and over until you know every lyric and choosing clothing, hair and make-up to look exactly like that hero or heroine? We make puns and match characters from other stories and niggle away at the facts until we discover a new cartoon or show.

We all want a little magic in our lives. Is this the only realistic way we can get it without seeming crazy? It isn't crazy if everyone does it, right?

Why don't we believe in more magic?

KK

I still Believe!

I just got home from watching 'Rise of the Guardians' at the cinemas. (Dreamworks animation.) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1446192/

I notice that when people walk out of cinemas in general - the movie they just saw is almost instantly forgotten or perhaps viewed as just a time to relax or treat the kids, but what's next? I've always been one to discuss a movie at length after exiting the cinemas and I think over the years, the people I have gone with have gotten sick of me doing this. I don't know if its the dark room, but the movie just consumes me and my brain races with ideas, motives and inspiration! When I come out of the dark room or even when the lights come on inside the cinema, my mind keeps going as I slowly come back to reality - very slowly.

I really can't speak for anyone else, but it seems to me that others don't do that. Reality strikes them instantly when those lights come on and the credits scroll up the big screen. Suddenly a song on the radio on the way home becomes more important, or what they have to clean or cook when they get home, what the partner or kids are doing, tomorrow's birthday party, shopping list or maybe even the fact that they are going home to an empty house. But the movie slowly becomes a distant illusion. Just like after waking from a dream, if you let it, it just fades away - until you revive it again, but then it may not seem the same - Are we thinking about reality too much? Or do I think about dreams too much? I'm not saying that this happens to everyone, there may be people like me, but I know that some people do. Somtimes I can be consumed by a movie for weeks.

KK

Global w-- what?

Everyone who knows me, knows that I appreciate nature in every way. Here in the Southern hemisphere it is supposed to be Summer. I don't know if its a Victorian thing too, but we really have been having freezing cold weather! I really hope I'm not the only one to see that whenever the temperature rises really high for a couple of days, a storm brews??

DUH!

But then it gets freezing cold/windy or just bad for more than a few days. I somehow don't think it's glabal warming, but moreso, global cooling...

KK