Take a week off

To take a week off, not just a holiday, because on holiday you tend to spend most of your time trying to enjoy yourself and are obsessed with seeing the local sights or trying to get the best tan so that friends back home know you have actually been away to a sunny place!

I mean to take a week off and do nothing, just stay at home and do all e little things that you have always said you were going to do but never quite got round to it because of your day to day life getting in the way. I recently had one of these, being a student with no exams during exam season ( this is a once in a 5 year course event!) you get lots of time to yourself. I thought how best can I spend this time, I could go on holiday or I could spend time with friends the world was my oyster. So I decided to get my house in order as it were, all these little things I would normally get done ( or say I would) I finally got round too; organising my room as I want it to look, getting back in touch with friends far a field, and tidying my years of stuff that I have gathered into one place.

It was on this final point I am writing this, I found some old photos of friends and relationships from years ago. And I was thinking to myself what was I doing, this happened on many occasions, but this one particular time, was brought high up the list after I got complaints left right and centre afterwards for it. I took a trip which was well over my budget and quite a rush to organise! But after being away for a couple of days it was actually quite good. But still I got abuse for the amount of money spent and for no real lasting things to come from it. I can look back now and say that there were lasting positives for me; I rushed into something I shouldn’t have, committed way too early, but we’ve all done that I’m sure along the road. Now I know this is 100% okay and potentially encouraged!

A good friend said to me once, nothing is ever an expense but an investment in knowledge. So I now live by this rule, yes you make mistakes and yes they are probably going to be costly both financially and by other means. But you will be able to look back on them and say yes it was a mistake, but now I am a better person for it, using that experience to better myself.

Everyone should take a week off, do those things that you always said you were going to do, and stop making excuses about the things you should have done.

“You have a Visitor”

I felt this these two but in a packed lunchtime cafe!

Shocked really wasn’t even close to what happened to me on Monday. I saw a post on my homepage prompting posts about ‘Love to Love You’ I think it was this or something like this, which was a good topic to aim for since it should be really easy. Here is the story of how I came to be lost for words (this really doesn’t happen at all, if not ever!).

Monday morning comes, I have the daily texts with my girlfriend who lives and works around 150 miles away on irregular hours so the chances of seeing her come few and far between. We had been planning to meet up on the following week and had been discussing this for a long time, so the excitement was starting to build for this meeting, but we went along our daily tasks.

I was texting throughout the morning with her about her day what she was getting up too, etc, as happens pretty much everyday. It came to around lunch time, and I had planned to meet up with a mutual friend to both of us, so we were both discussing my lunch date with my friend. It came to lunchtime (this is a great time of the day – if not the best!) and we went off to the cafe on campus. As we got inside, both me and my friend walk up to the counter, me squinting to see the menu since it seemed very far away (didn’t have my glasses – error!). As I got closer to the counter my friend moved away from me and then I heard her say at the last moment before me huge surprise, “You have a visitor”.

Two hands covered my eyes, I didn’t recognise these hands, and I had no idea what was happening. Everything was running through my mind in these micro seconds that while I was blinded by these hands, who could these hands be, where has this person come from. I was allowed sight again and to my complete and utter shock I saw my girlfriend stood in front of me, hair perfect and smiling. This was the longest time we had ever spent apart which was due to come to an end next week but she was stood right in front of me in the flesh. I could not believe my eyes, it was like everyone else in the cafe had disappeared and it was just her stood there.

I was speechless. Completely and utterly speechless. Nothing had prepared me for this, no hint or rumour that I maybe seeing her it was complete surprise. I was shocked beyond belief and even now writing it down it doesn’t feel real. I couldn’t eat because I was still in shock about everything for quite some time!

She seemed to arrive as soon as she had left, but this was the most perfect start to my week, and I don’t think I will be able to repeat this feat of surprise because it was done in such secrecy. This is my little happy story for this week.

I wish every week started with such happiness.

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• Daily Prompt: Love to Love You (taylorkatrina63.wordpress.com)

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Connections

So I have decided to have a go at this blog thing because i saw a couple of my friends getting into it, and personally i enjoy reading about the little life updates when you cant always see them and speak to them on a regular basis. Or in some cases you can just use them to judge yourself against other in the case of old and in some cases new friends. Sometimes Facebook doesn’t always suffice! 

On the topic of social media, when I first came to university (yes i am still there now) it was a real deal a major thing in my life and the lives of others around me. It wasn’t just a connection thing it was a social status thing, everyone judged everyone who was online, by what their latest post said and what photos they had put up from last night. Granted that still happens to some degree now but not as much as it once did. I’m not sure what entirely happened to that age where everything was on Facebook or am i just starting to realise that posting pictures on there for the world to see isn’t all its cracked up to be, When you actually think about it, what is the aim of actually doing so; maybe you want to show off how much fo a good time you have had in such a place or your just sharing them with your friends, or you just have no idea about the world and think if its online it must be worth while. 

I would like to question why people put photos online, because as much as having 1000 photos of one event is great… there is only going to be a certain number of people who will sit there and look at them all, because realistically no one actually cares how happy you were when you saw that zebra at the zoo! You will maybe speak to your actual friends about them and that shall be it, becuase they will be the ones that sit and look through them. So in that case why did you put them on there at all, why not actually speak to the person and then share your memories off the day with them. Surely this whole face to face laughing and talking and sharing photos is much better than sharing them with your 750 friends online (most of which you neither see nor speak too anymore). Yes you will potentially lose out on a few friends but also will you not gain stronger friends?. You will be able to see them and speak to them more often allowing you to become closer. Put it this way, if you went away for a year to Australia, taking 100000 pictures along the way you would come back and share them with your mum and dad sat there in the same room talking and laughing about all the things you have done because that’s where the strongest bond is. Why cant we do that with our friends, why do we insist on speaking to them, but only at a distance and for not very long. 

I’m not in anyway discouraging people from using social media and online communication at all, because honesty i think its the best thing that’s happened in a while. It allows me to in the first place write this. It allows me to find out what is happening at any part of the globe at any time, anywhere. We are now completely connected, nothing can be kept away from the press because every single one of use can break a news story, no matter how large or small because we have that capability within each of us in a smart phone or computer. 

I’m not sure if this whole photos and social media thing is just something that iv grown out of, but i know that iv had my influences. Firstly university was a big one, like i said everyone was connected and that was how things were done it was a social thing it was a way of life. Also my previous girlfriend, she loved to post everything online, so i think i got drawn in a little there. But now with my current girlfriend, who will be called A, i have totally changed my opinion. We went away for the weekend and as you do took lots of photos and had a great time, as we came back i wanted to post them all over Facebook, but then A said why. I couldn’t really answer it, because there wasn’t really a reason, i posted one or two, just the good ones. Apart from that there was no need, i spoke to my friends about the trip and that was it. I had the same coverage of people looking at the photos and hearing about my trip as i had one i i did post them online, and i think i got a little more because it made me speak to them. 

I’m not sure where I’m going to conclude this, but maybe just the next time you got to post a million photos online about an event that isn’t really anything special, think is this really worth the hassle of uploading and tagging everyone? Because really all those photos that you have tagged the people in you will most likely be talking to them in the near future anyway!