Achievement

What are your achievements?

What are you proud of in your life?

What are your values and priorities?

All questions I’ve been asking myself over the past few weeks.

And not just in relation to blogging – there have been lots of things that have cropped up ever since school started again two weeks ago, and I’ve really had to think about what direction I want my life to point in.

First of all, school. Now I’m in year two at secondary school, the standards have really risen. We have so much more homework, and everything just seems… stricter. The teachers aren’t as relaxed as they were last year, and the type of work we are doing has seriously soared. No more playing nice – it’s essays, endless textbooks, tests.

So I had to think about my priorities – and I’ve always known since I was little that I wanted to go to university. Therefore, school is pretty much at the top of my list – it’s the key to everything I want in life.

I’m also really proud of my accomplishments throughout my years at school so far – awards, community events, and so much more.

All this means homework and revision is my number one time-snatcher at the moment. I have to keep up in my studies, so I’m doing my best to complete the work at a comfortable pace, and also fit in a little extra work here and there.

So… what else?

Dance is one of my main activities.

I’ll admit, up until even last year, it wasn’t at all. I took three classes on a Saturday morning. No biggie.

However, this year, I’m taking five classes, all spread out throughout the week, and…

*drumroll*

I’m assisting with two classes!!!

I get to be one of the helpers for two of the younger classes, and I’m ectastic. I still remember a time when I was one of those younger ones, and I looked up to the helpers, wanting to be like them… and now I am!

I honestly couldn’t be happier, and I’m really hoping I can inspire the dancers I’m teaching. For me, that would honestly make my year, my life even – to know that I’ve helped someone achieve their dreams.

So seven classes a week obviously takes up some time, but it’s a massive achievement for me. This is something I’ve been working towards for years. I just cannot believe it!!

And what else is absorbing my time?

Music!

I have one piano lesson a week, one violin lesson, and one French horn lesson. However, I also participate in the school wind band, the school string orchestra, and a local youth orchestra run by the university here. And I also go to junior choir in school too 🙂

… I know. Too much stuff!

But music is something I just couldn’t stop, you know? It’s become such a big part of my life that if I took it away, everything would be different.

The same could be said for dance as well.

Both play entirely individual roles in my life – but both mean so much to me, in different ways. And besides – they’re now taking over a lot of my time, so I think it’s good that I feel this way. If I didn’t? That would, to me, show a lack of dedication.

Right… anything else invading my precious study time…? (XD)

There’s a few other things. Girl Guides, for example, takes up my Friday nights, and occasionally weekends when we have a camp. But nothing too major.

How could I forget golf? In the summer holidays especially, I have golf almost every day! But as the season is drawing to a close now, there’s less and less competitions. And people are all on vacation now anway, seeing as it’s October break.

Just two days ago I was involved in a golf clinic. It was supposed to be MASSIVE! We would be practicing around pros, and the person running the clinic had instructed and coached for some of the biggest names around: Ernie Els, Seve Ballesteros, and Nick Faldo.

How many people turned up to this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?

Five.

I was shocked. But it just proves how people have other things to occupy their time with.

So golf isnt’t the biggest thing in my life right now, but that’s okay. My aim is to practice still in winter – so when next season starts I’ll be back with a bang, ready to take on new competition.

And there’s one more thing that takes up a LOT of my time… can you guess what it is?

Bingo! It’s blogging.

Blogging is something I never thought I would do as a small child. When I had my beginner blog, years and years ago, it quickly got off track and ended up in the trash.

A year or two later, I started a newer blog, all about loom bands (of all the things! XD). It actually went really well for the first few months – I created new designs to show, I got closer to my audience with my loom band fails, and I recorded views from a grand total of six different countries XD (I was nine, okay? XD)

Then predictably, I got bored of loom bands, and decided to open up another blog – which would have advice on “everything”. I was ten, so I wasn’t exactly going to have posts about politics and drinking issues, but it had around fifteen or so topics that I thought related to my life, and that other people could relate to.

Looking back, my only target audience would have been young girls who didn’t know how to plant a strawberry, or wanted tips on how to do the splits… XD

At the same time as that blog, I opened up another blog – but this time it revolved around baking. I would share all of my tips and tricks and recipes for the perfect results. (I’m honestly not sure why I felt I couldn’t put it all in the baking section of my “everything” website, but… oh well. I’ll never really know how my former self thought…)

These two blogs worked for a while, but I wasn’t really posting frequently. It wasn’t just because there were two of them to keep updated – it was also that I just couldn’t think of things to say about every single topic on my list. Oh, and I’d run out of recipes that I could actually make too.

I ended up making a hasty post stating that I’d try my best to “refresh” the blogs – but inevitably I never got around to it.

Three years on, I just had the sudden desire to start a new blog – but it wouldn’t be about loom bands, or baking, or other hobbies I pursured. It would be about my thoughts, and my feelings, and my perspective on life. It would be a place for me to say all those things that occupied my brain space 24/7.

I was unsure, considering my track record, but I gave it a shot.

And here I am now!

I never, ever dreamt of getting this far with my blog – I didn’t expect anyone to even visit in the first few months. But tomorrow is my six month blogging anniversary – so I’d like to thank each and every one of my viewers who has helped me reach where I am. You all have a special place in my heart ❤ (There will be an extra post up tomorrow about my blogging journey, and how things have been for me in this first half-year 🙂 )

So… I guess you could say blogging has been in my life for a while now. Up until this year, it certainly didn’t play a big role in the grand scheme of things.

But now? You could say that is does.

For those of you who don’t know, I post twice a week. And although that really doesn’t seem like a lot, it’s the absolute maximum for me at the moment.

I can’t even tell you how much I admire those who post every second day, every day, or some even twice a day! It must be a tough job, but they must enjoy every minute of it ❤

I appreciate most of those people are grown up, and some even blog for a living. But for me, it’s just a kick of inspiration: If you work hard enough, you can be like them too.

I still don’t know which way I want my life to go, but I know that if I work hard enough at the things I love, and look back on my own achievements as motivation… I can achieve even greater things.

You can too. So don’t hold back.

Incomplete Thinker xx