On a mote of dust.

"Look again at that dot. That's here, that's home, that's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

- Carl Sagan, 1934 - 1996  

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You are these things, embrace it.

Okay, so what is the big deal with actually liking yourself? People get so caught up thinking that they're going to be scrutinised for thinking they’re beautiful or funny or downright amazing, that they start to forget it.

Why is it that we have to convince people that we think we're not all these things when we are? Why do we seem uptight and vein if we do? I think I actually like people more when they have the self-respect and self-pride to acknowledge that they like who they are.

Seriously, love who you are, admit it, and forget what everyone else thinks.

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Books. The printed kind.

This is seriously one of my most anticipated plans for the summer break...


Read.Read.Read.Read.Read.Read.Read.Read.

I wrote up a list of all the books I plan on reading once I'm on break. Uni makes me feel so guilty for reading things that have nothing to do with any of my subjects. I suppose I could probably use my Creative Writing subject as an excuse, but I would know, so still major GUILT.

I just took a look at the aforementioned list and there are 21 novels, 1 suite of poems and 2 collections of short stories listed. Four months seems sufficient. Which of course includes some John Green (including a SIGNED COPY of his upcoming novel that will be here in Jan) and yes Anthony, the Robert Cormier novel you leant me ages ago is on there also!

On the subject of books, I'm beginning to wonder if the way I read books is in some way "weird." Because a lot of people - including Anthony who instructs me not to open the pages too wide in case it creates the tiniest crease on the spine of his books! - like to keep their books in the most pristine condition. Why?! Are you planning to keep them as an investment?

Okay, fair enough if you are, but seriously, most books aren't going to become an investment. They end up placed on your bookshelf to be re-encountered, in months or even years. When you go back to pick them up in the future, don't you want there to be notes on the side with your thoughts at the time and folded corners for the pages that intrigued you back then?

Books, for me, hold memories. When I go back to them, whether to read them again or just to flick through, I can find the pieces that I loved, quotes that made an impact on me, thoughts that I expressed in margins, and sometimes these things can remind me of where I was when I had been reading it, what was occurring in my life and the way I was feeling. Maybe that's just me.

Which is also why Koodles or Noodles or whatever they're called (I just looked it up and they're called Kindles... Koodles? Really, Amanda?) confuse me. But I really shouldn't even get into that. Just, PDF files for books?! No, I'm... I'm just going to stop myself there.


PS. To those who keep their books in pristine condition and to those who read in PDF form, I in no way intended to offend you. Although I don't totally understand it, I still respect it. And at least there is still reading going on, however you choose to do it :)

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Responsibilities and impossibilities.

Wow, not a post to be seen this entire month... and my favourite month at that. Why, you may ask, is this my favourite month? I get a birthday every time it comes around. And only technically do I get older. Some may argue I'm still only 9 though I just turned 19 some days ago.

It's strange, as I was only just getting used to being 18 and BAM! Here's another to add to the count, Amanda. It's strange what it is that actually makes you feel older. Feeling like an adult only began a couple of months ago when I received my first debit card, my own Medicare card and did other adult-y things that finally made me realise that perhaps I might have some mature responsibilities.

So really, can our age be defined by the number we fill in on forms? Or do our attitudes and actions define it in our own way? In saying this, my age switches by day, sometimes by the minute even. One moment I could be making a tax return lodgement, the next, reading Dr Seuss with a bowl of rainbow ice-cream.

As cliché as it's going to sound, age is just a number. Which reminds me of a very wise thirteen-year-old I was talking to recently, who spoke of such concepts and theories that would convince you she had many more years of life experience. It can be quite amazing how young people can talk with such passion and eloquence that blows you away.

She even asked me if I thought it would be possible to bend a spoon with your mind. At first I thought it was a bit of a crazy idea, but as she continued, she reminded me that there are so many things that can be achieved with your mind and so many crazy things that are possible, why should bending a spoon with one’s mind be impossible? Everyone around her thought the idea wasn’t idealistic, and this made me think, why should you bring this idea down? She was right, why should it be impossible?

The way I think about it is that although perhaps we can’t use our mind to bend a spoon physically in reality, our minds can create worlds in which we can do anything and everything we could imagine. Who's to say those worlds we create aren't as real as the one we live in? Only difference is that we can make the rules for those worlds. Those created worlds are where you can bend the spoon with your mind.

When adults tell kids there are such things as this or that, they don’t really believe it. They make it up to spur on a child’s imagination. And not that this is wrong, but in their minds, these things are actually real, in the worlds they have created.

“I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?” – John Lennon.

Perhaps some adults simply lose faith. Children and teens have it all figured out, because despite what some of us can go through, we still have the power to believe that there is more, and we haven't been disappointed perhaps as much as adults have. And I apologise for generalising, adults out there, but how many of you believe in magic or luck or doing an entire assignment in one night? Not many that I know.

I hope that no matter how old I grow to be or what I experience, I can still have some kind of faith that we are more powerful than others may have us think and there is more out there than we could imagine.

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