It’s now 2 weeks post birthday and I am still confused as to what 22 means.
Am I supposed to have everything sussed out? Should I be telling people my 5-10 year plan? If I’m supposed to be doing that then I guess I’m doing it all wrong – I don’t have a 5-10 year plan so theres also that…
I have done my googles and researched what to do at age 22 and Google gave me about 7,040,000,000 results (in 0.55 seconds). To be honest I did what any sane person would do and just clicked the top few and got even more overwhelmed. Far too many people tried telling me things that I NEED to be doing while I’m 22. I hate people telling me what to do.
One article did however offer some helpful advice:
Network
Collect memories and not things
Be nice
Enjoy what you do have and do not focus on what you do not
Read
I think these are 5 great things to keep in mind throughout this strange journey of 22.
I will not let the fact that 21 seemed easy and that I actually had a plan stop me from achieving great things this year. I will create a new plan, network to improve my future, collect memories with my nearest and dearest, be kind to everyone, enjoy life and what I currently have and be sure that I read often.
No matter if you’re 5 or 22, I hope a 5 year old reads this because that would be so advanced but anyway, please do not let other peoples journey overwhelm and confuse your own. We are all out here doing different things and at different speeds. Just do what you can and don’t let your age define you.
It’s a Wednesday evening, I finished work at 4pm, was home by 4:30 and have been in bed ever since. This was not the plan.
I’m letting myself have sad girl hour(s).
My original plans for this afternoon were to clean my room, catch up on my readings, head to boxing and then have a group assignment catch up on zoom. I’m going to achieve at least two of these so I can’t be too hard on myself and lets be honest I’m not going to be hard on myself at all because sometimes we just need to lay down and feel our feelings.
The feelings you feel each day may seem silly but you’re probably feeling them for a reason. Ask yourself why you’re feeling something, then ask yourself why again and again until you can find a solution or at the very least a basic understanding. I do this brain exercise daily and todays conclusion is that my body is delighted that I’m not pregnant so its doing the incredible and natural thing called a period. It is wearing me out.
I am basically just wanting to say that it’s okay to not do everything you plan to do. But you should try and figure out the root of your feelings so you can address it and move on swiftly. But not too swiftly! I suggest you let yourself feel the feelings for a while, don’t just shrug them off.
Also be kinder to yourself with your to do lists. Sometimes (everyday) waking up is enough. If you’re feeling extra spicy then each day try to wake up AND make your bed! This helps me feel accomplished. Even on my sad girl days.
Apollo 15 just landed on the moon, Elvis Presley is found dead, the mobile phone is invented. The 70’s were a crazy time and the diets matched this energy.
More crazy energy is the fact that COVID-19 shut down Auckland for Lockdown 2.0. What better way to kill some time at home than to follow the crazy wine and egg diet for 3 days, am I right?
I shopped confidently for my 3 bottles of wine, a large carton of eggs and a couple of rump steaks on Tuesday night – blissfully unaware of what this diet will do to me. I had read a few articles of people trying the diet and they seemed to be overly dramatic story tellers that knew how to please their boss at Cosmopolitan Magazine in the USA. I was stronger – mentally and physically. I knew I could do this.
Wednesday morning came along and I was excited. Excited and hungry. I weighed myself and thought yea lets get this. I cooked my eggs to perfection, made the perfect americano and poured a generous serving of wine*. My first bite of eggs was nice, its just egg right? The swig of wine changed that though. Wine and eggs do not go together. Wine and coffee do not go together. But don’t worry, I didn’t make this mistake again.
*Now I will confess that I didn’t follow the diet precisely due to the fact that I HATE boiled eggs and there is a tasty rosé that happens to be 3 for $30 whenever I go to buy wine…
The morning went pretty slowly, I was sat in front of my laptop “working”, swiping tinder and sipping slowly through my 2 lovely drinks. My second lesson of the morning was that the americano isn’t great when its room temp or slightly cold. The wine went down easy enough though.
Before I knew it, it was time to eat lunch. 2 eggs felt like a treat! I drank the coffee while it was hot and struggled through the wine. By time 4 o’clock came along I no longer had to stare at my computer and this is when it got a bit harder. I began thinking of all the food I’d normally be eating. To stop this I decided to go on a 10km walk. I knew my 150 grams of steak would be waiting for me at the end.
The steak was good, the wine was getting harder but I did it and I skipped the coffee… I just couldn’t think about sculling another poo poo juice. Sleep was just what I needed after a big day of undergoing a science experiment.
Day 2. Thursday, the day that used to be my favourite day ever. I started the day on the scales. I had lost 2.5 kgs! I stood there thinking “wow, this diet is wicked. I could keep this up and be the skinny legend I want to be” ……
Each bite and sip was much harder. It didn’t want to go down and I kept the coffee intake to 1 cup. By 5 o’clock I was knackered. Let’s just say it was a long day but it got worse. I didn’t sleep. I was up all night thinking about food, life and every conversation I had ever had. YIKES.
Friday morning finally came along and this was supposed to be the last day. I weighed myself and had lost another kg, 3.5 kgs in total. I had exceeded the diet plan and thought right thats it, I’ve had enough.
I quit then and there and ate some muesli and yoghurt and had coconut milk in my coffee. I’ve never felt so free.
In conclusion, the diet works but it sucks. I started to dread drinking my favourite wine and eggs just don’t cut it for someone that eats chocolate every day.
Try it, or don’t but please be prepared for the weight to come straight back. I’ve eaten relatively healthy since I stopped this crash diet and I am right back to where I started.
So today is International Friendship Day as you can probably tell by the title… I personally don’t think you need to have a special day each year to acknowledge and apprecaite your friends but it is a great reminder for those busy people to do so.
I have been very lucky in my life when it comes to friendship and I hope you have been too. The key (in my opinion) to finding good friends is being open minded towards everyone you meet. Do not let the surface level or that first interaction put you off. First impressions can be hard and I don’t think I would have many friends if people judged me on their first impression – I am annoying.
Anyway, now that you know my secret to making new friends I’m going to tell you how to keep them around for a long time. Firstly, find the friends that you resonate the most with, create the environment of people that will help you be a better you. Now you need to nurture those relationships. Each one will be different. Some of my good friends are busy, they don’t need me to message them daily to know that I will be there no matter what. Other friends however require different levels of contact and love. I push my friends to achieve greatness by reminding them of their worth and also their goals. Others, I send daily updates of my life just so they can feel included on this wild ride. Basically, you need to understand your friends and their love languages.
Now please for the love of chocolate, listen carefully. It won’t always be 50/50, everyone has different things going on in life at different times. Just do what you can and sometimes a little more. In my case I focus on others quite a bit and try and solve all the problems, except my own. I am working on this and it’s not going great but thats a story for another time.
Anyway, Happy International Friendship day. Special mention to my twin flame Tegan and my life long friends that spent 5 wholesome years at the high school from hell. Plus all the people that have gotten me to where I am today. You really created one hell of a chick!
My focus in life is being better than I was yesterday. Seems easy and in reality it is. Wake up, do one more push up or eat one less cookie. Easy right? No. I do try to do the above things but I also want to better myself in other ways. I want to learn daily, broaden my horizons and expand my skill set.
I’ve done pretty well this year. I am no longer a beginner at the Creative Cloud suite, I can do a pretty wicked headstand and I continue to learn new things about myself daily. Although this wasn’t always the case. I used to just scrape by. There were so many reasons for the change in lifestyle but I had to do it for myself and my well being. It’s probably the best decision I’ve ever made. Commit to yourself, I dare you.
I made a commitment to myself and also a post grad diploma in Business and HR. Fun right! My aim from this is to have the power to fire people. The satisfaction of letting the office asshole go would be second to none.
I was/am excited about this course and up skilling but I nearly let my nerves get the best of me. What if I’m not as good at multitasking as I think I am? Am I going to have the mental and emotional energy to keep up with day to day life AND do this course? Well of course I am! It’s going to be hard, but nothing worth having comes easy.
I’m one week in and I am surviving. The first week is always daunting but I have juggled uni, work, exercise and eating well! The weekend is for fun and it is going to be relatively low key so I set myself up for another epic week.
The moral of this is that, you can do it. Be better than yesterday. Just jump in and get started!
I challenge you to try this with me. Be a better you and do it for yourself. If you end up overcoming your fears or achieving your biggest goals then I will take the credit and I expect an edible arrangement to be delivered to my doorstep.
We thought that before we start bombarding you with our unwanted opinions, it might be nice to give you the opportunity to get to know us a little bit better! Buckle up, it’s going to be a bumpy ride!
On a scale of 0-10 how funny would you say you are?
Tegan
I think regular me is a solid 5, however, hungover me is an easy 9. My brain works in a great way when I’m hungover and it makes for a stellar time.
Katie
About a solid 4 but I find myself hilarious. It’s just that I know I’m mostly laughing at myself…
If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life what would it be?
Tegan
It would probably be Pad Thai. I firmly believe that there is no such thing as a bad Pad Thai!
Katie
Pie and chips. Has to be a nice pie with nice pastry. High end pie and chips. Not sure if I’d stick with this choice to be fair. This choice might be skewed because I had it for lunch today and it went pretty hard. I haven’t stopped thinking about it.
What job do you think you’d be really good at?
Tegan
I think I’d be a really good Cat Cafe owner. Not only because I’d give those cats so much love (like so much) but I also think I’d have a really strange menu that would make for an interesting all round cafe experience!
Katie
Firing people. I know that HR people are not particularly liked in the office and I’m already ostracised at work so why not get paid a nice sum for being a bitch. I think I’d be so good at this in fact that I am going back to uni to study HR.
What do you think is your most annoying habit?
Tegan
I have a tendency to talk over people when I’m excited. I’m working on doing it less/catching myself before I do it but I’ve also been saying I’ll change for years so, take that as you will.
Katie
I click pens a lot and it even frustrates me. I can’t sit still and can’t focus on one thing at a time so clicking a pen is my go to. I used to do the leg fidget but I stopped because I didn’t like the way my thigh would jiggle.
What is one thing you wish people would talk less about?
Tegan
Can everyone quit talking badly about their friends? If you feel the need to talk badly about the people you’ve chosen to surround yourself with, you need to surround yourself with different people. Friends lift each other up so let’s do better please team!
Katie
I wish people would talk less about other people. Everyone spends so much time worrying about others and not focusing on levelling themselves up or listening deeply to others. The world would be a far better place if people stayed in their own lanes.
