Quotes

Aloha

by 9grace

Okay so as my first post after a long time away from the blog, I thought I’d write something that is relatively significant or meaningful to me.

A while ago my parent watched a movie called “The Fundamentals of Caring”. I had a fair bit of homework to do so I didn’t watch it with them, but I could hear some of it from my bedroom.

At the start, there was a female narrator, and she was addressing helping others (I think). She had a few good quotes, but the one that stuck in my head was a quote for a method for helping others, linking to the abbreviation ‘Aloha’:

Ask,

Listen,

Observe,

Help,

Ask again.

I think it’s really beautiful way to remember it since “Aloha” also means “Hello”. I think It’s also quite a lovely thing to have in your mind, not only for when you are helping people do something, but for everything.

For example, you wouldn’t just go up to someone who looks upset,  give them your thoughts and assume you’ve helped. You’d go up, ask them what’s wrong, listen to what they have to say, and then do what you can to make them feel better. You wouldn’t leave, however, until you had asked again if they were okay, or if they needed anything else.

I think it’s also great for helping yourself. If you’re struggling with something or having a hard time juggling things, you’d ask yourself what you are doing to cause the problem, consider what you are doing and your options, and depending on your situation, you might ask someone else for help.

Although, sometimes it’s hard to help ourselves. We don’t know what to think or how to express yourself, or how to ask for help. There was another quote later in the movie: “My needs are equal to the needs of the person that I am helping, and I cannot help that person any more than I can help myself”. That quote is very important when you are helping yourself or others. If things are bad, you need to get yourself back on track before you can reach out to others, and that’s something I am finding more and more as time goes on.

Umm so yeah, those two quotes have been circling my mind a bit recently, which is why I wrote a blog post about the two. I hope they make a bit of sense!

Yours faithfully,

Grace.

 

Travel?

by 9grace

When my family and I travelled around Australia, I collected postcards. I have some really great ones: one of Lake Eyre; quite a few from Tasmania; and lots of other gorgeous ones.

Anyway, I keep all of my postcards in a photo album. On the front it has a little quote:

“Now boarding Melbourne, Los Angeles to New York City, San Francisco, London via Paris & Barcelona, Rome via Cairo, up to Moscow & across to Brussels, Amsterdam, last stop Tokyo.”

And that, to me, sounds like and amazing journey!

I don’t really know what I want to do when I finish school. However, I do know that one day I’d like to go travelling.

Where? That I am not sure of, but I think it will start with somewhere that takes my fancy at the time, and then I’ll go on a journey from there! Maybe I’ll only get as far as to see that country, perhaps I will end up travelling the whole world. It really depends on where my heart, and my pocket, can take me.

Really, I’d love to have a job that I can hold on the road, as well as a small something that I can make a profit off of whenever I decide to stop for a while. I’d also like to go with a friend, someone special! That way, not only will we be able to help each other out, but you would always have awesome company. You would also be able to take each other on amazing adventures!

By what means I am going to travel, that is another question: A plane, car, boat or by foot; that is yet to be decided. I think, though, that when I do travel, I won’t be staying in hotels. If I do that, how am I supposed to explore the world’s natural beauty? Instead, I’ll have a tent, or a camper trailer if I get lucky, and I’ll go off track. I’ll go to beaches and to forests, as well as deserts and mountains!! Yet, I’ll find time to visit the bustling cities, with their beautiful colours and raging festivals.

It’ll be great. The more I think about it the more excited I become! I’ve already started saving, and planning! I really cannot wait to see the world.

Yours faithfully,

Grace

Life is a Journey

by 9grace

One of the most common questions I am asked by people is “what do you want to do when you are older?”

This question always stumps me. I’ll often answer with something like “oh, I don’t really know” or “I’m interested in a lot of things”. But the truth is, how am I to know what I want to be when I grow up, if I don’t even know what I want to do now!

This is actually something that has been on my mind for a while now. You see, a few years ago, when I was in Year 7, I thought I had it all figured out. I thought I wanted to go away to John Curtin or Perth Modern or some amazing art school. I thought I wanted to pursue a career in the visual arts. I didn’t want to perform or dance, I didn’t like writing, I just wanted to be accepted into somewhere bigger!

Now, I’m not sure I want to leave… The other night, I was tossing up the good and bad of going away to a school in Perth. Turns out, there are more things here that I would miss than the new things and opportunities I would have in Perth. I would miss the beach. I would miss the quiet. I would miss the freedom. I would miss the safety to walk around town by myself. I would miss a lot of things.

Now, I’m not even sure if the visual arts are what I want to create a future from. The last two years of the Zest Fest have given me so many opportunities and have taught me so much. Now, I do want to perform, I like writing and journaling, I like dancing, I like being in a small school.

Recently, I’ve also discovered a lot of new things that I am really quite keen to have a go at. Things like slam poetry and puppeteering and photography. I have always loved the arts, and I think I am just starting to discover how diverse that area is. All of my new interests are somehow connected to or involve the arts, whether they be completely ordinary or extremely unusual.

I guess, the lesson I’ve learnt – and that I’m still learning, is that your interests change with time. I thought I was set, I thought I knew what I was interested in and what I wanted to do. But, I really don’t know at all.

Yesterday, I came across a quote by Fabienne Fredrickson.

Know what you want to doI have to disagree with what she is saying here. Just because I don’t know what I want, doesn’t mean I haven’t already succeeded at life.

I don’t really care that I don’t know what I want to do at the moment. But I don’t see that as a failure.

I am happy with where I am right now. I am content with the way things are at school and home. I love where I live. I love that I have the opportunity to try as many new things as I want until I reach my heart’s desire and finally find out exactly what I want to do. I don’t know what I want, but I am, happy, and I’m enjoying life! That…that is what I call a success.

This morning, I came across another quote, this time by Ralph Waldo Emerson. I thought that was beautiful!

Maybe you do have a destination, or a goal that your heart is set to achieve, and that is excellent! Maybe you don’t know what you want to do right this second. It doesn’t matter!

Life is a journey. It’s something that needs exploring. It should take you places that you never thought you would go! Show you things you never thought you would see and give you opportunities you never thought you would experience.

Well, those are my thoughts on “life choices”. Let me know yours!

Yours faithfully

Grace.