Be Brave.

Hey you. Yeah you. I've got a message for you. Take a leap of faith. Give it a try. Fulfil that dream. Don't be afraid. Be brave.

Because this life. It's short. Really short. And you get just one chance. One shot. And you don't wanna miss it. Don't wanna waste it on would've beens and what ifs. Some people want to leave their mark on the world. Some want to make this world a better place.  Others just want to be able to stand on their own feet and be independent. Whatever you're dream is. Big or small. It can be achieved. With hardwork and perseverance. With bravery and courage. With faith and belief. One step at a time. Just remember: It's okay to go slow, as long as you don't stop.

Fascination With Words.

Its obvious that I have a fascination with words. But I've never really stopped and thought much about it. When this happened, I realized that whenever I see something beautiful written, be it a poem or a passage from a book, I'm amazed. I'm amazed at the fact that someone somewhere wrote this thinking that its just something simple that they wrote. Something ordinary.  Whereas here I am, marveling at the amazing-ness of it. I guess it's the 'someone's trash is someone's treasure' case.

One of the times when this happened to me was when I was reading 'Why we broke up' by Daniel Handler. That book. *sigh*. It's one of the most peculiar books that I've read. In the good way. It's definitely not everyone's cup of tea. But I fell in love with it. Totally, completely and most of all, blindly, just like the girl in this book falls in love with the wrong guy. One of my favorite quotes from this book...

'I’m a blemished blemish, a ruined ruin, a stained wreck so failed I can’t see what I used to be.'

Another...

'A girl meets a boy, Ed, and everything changes, or so she says. She walks down the street and the storefronts look the same, even as we linger on their flickering reflections. The cars move quickly, slowly, quickly down the block. She gets coffee and says it tastes different, quietly, to herself. The sky looks sad, she says, but she’s not sad. It rains and she sees the boy again. The phone rings—it’s another day, or the same day, who can tell, the girl thinks with her coffee, when the whole world has changed? She gets coffee again, the cars go by, reflected in the window. The world, she thinks, has changed.'

Isn't that the truest thing, ever?

People who can express themselves through words are soo lucky. I just get stuck. People have asked me to review books and I just think how will I be able to explain how much I love 'The Fault In Our Stars'? Or how drastically 'The Book Thief' changed me? Or how 'The Clockwork Princess' made me shed buckets of tears? in just a couple of words? A few paragraphs is the limit given to me to convince someone to give this book a chance. Impossible is what I think. I still attempt it sometimes cause never give up yeah?


As always thanks for reading my ramblings.

Strawberry Picking.

STRAWBERRY PICKING. 

Last Sunday, a family member arranged a spring picnic of sorts in this strawberry farm near her town. I, along with a couple of my cousins, got on a road trip to go strawberry picking. What an experience!

There were rows upon rows of patches like this spread out with strawberries laid out for picking.

The strawberries looked so pretty, lying there, just waiting to be plucked and devoured. The taste! The taste was so amazing and I think I might've had over a hundred. Oops. 

I found the perfect strawberry and had to have its picture of taken.

 Some of the strawberries I picked before I munched on them. Yum!

I have to end this post by this picture of these mini strawberries I found. I saved them for last and they were delish!

Overall. It was an amazing day and I had wayyy too much fun! Strawberries being my favorite fruit, this trip easily became my favorite picnic ever.

As always, thanks for reading. 

Writing By The Lamplight.

I think the reason why most people, myself included, prefer to write at night is because that's when it's most peaceful. When we're winding down from the day we've had and are just relaxing in our 'me-time'. How our day went is surely reflected in our writing even if we're not writing a journal entry. I keep a journal as well as write just because I like it. It's not an everyday journal, more like every couple of days I write something interesting that has happened like an event or a trip. Lately though my journal has been empty because blogging takes up a lot of my writing time.


Writing at night also makes me calmer and really helps untangle the mess in my mind. I sleep better on days that I've spent writing and even better when at night, the last thing I do is write. Tonight is definitely one of those nights. My pen keeps falling out of my fingers and I've dozed off twice. Off I go then. Good night.

xxx

On Needing Friends.

There was a time in my life when I truly believed that one couldn't survive without friends. That a person, no matter how strong, needed someone to lean on. Someone that acts as a boulder in hard times. A shining beacon of light in the darkness.

But I have changed a lot in the past couple of years. I have experienced too many things regarding trust and friendship . I don't want to act like the protagonist of some fictional novel who experiences unimaginable stuff that changes her. I don't even want to pretend like I know what the people who are twice my age have been through but I am not an innocent, no matter my age.

My concept of having friends or 'needing' them has totally changed. I think that everyone should have a few friends who they can trust and count on. But it does not necessarily mean that you 'need' these friends to do something extraordinary in life. Sure, you need to have the support and love they give and give it to them if they need it but you can achieve brilliance and whatever you want just by your own hard work.

Good friends are hard to find but we get our hearts broken and our trust crushed in the process. My advice, treasure the best friend you have but make sure they are someone who deserve your trust and love. Not someone who is using you, even if they are unaware of it.

Can't Be Gone.

Hello! So it's been a while since I've written a story and a couple of days ago I just sat and wrote this baby down. I hope you like it!


Raleen had never been pulled out of class with the news that her mother wanted to see her. And never had she been asked to bring her bags and books too. Her heart pounded loudly, filling with dread with each step she took. He's not gone. He cant be gone. He's not gone. But as she walked towards the principal's office, last night came to her mind.

"It could be tonight." He'd said, his hand gripping hers tightly.
Raleen hated hospitals. They symbolised loss and she wasn't ready to let go of her father so soon. The beeping of the monitor was a comfort as well as a source of pain as the monitor counted her father's heart beats but signalled that they were numbered.
"Oh, Dad," she squeezed his fingers. "You know that I'm not going to give you up to cancer."
She leaned in and kissed his forehead. She smiled at him although her heart ached.
"Combined with your strong will and my stubbornness, we'll beat this sucker."
"Not to mention the power of your mother's strawberry cheesecake," he added weakly, eyes half-closed. 
"That too." I let go of his hand, picked up my messenger bag, then walked to the door.
"I'll see you tomorrow." I turned to look at him one last time and wasn't surprised to see that he'd already fallen asleep.

With tears streaming down her face, she turned the last corner to the principal's office and almost collided with her mother. She was leaning face first into the wall, hands pressed to her face. Her chest was rising and falling rapidly and she looked as if she would faint any second.
"Mom?"
Mara James straightened, breathing in deeply. She was a beautiful woman, long auburn hair and big green eyes that she'd passed on to her daughter. Those eyes were filled with tears now as she looked at her daughter. And Raleen's world came crashing down.
"No." Raleen muttered, her bag dropping to the floor. "No. No. No. Mom, it cant...he...he cant...
"Ray," her mother's arms came around her, holding her tightly. "James is...he's...gone."

Raleen leaned against the wall, trying to breathe. But the air wouldn't move past her mouth, leaving her gasping and hyperventilating. She slid down the wall and recalled the way she'd squeezed his hand and promised him that she wouldn't let go. His kind brown eyes and smile flashed in front of her eyes, just before everything went black.


I really hope you like it and thanks for reading!

Random Clicks - February

Even though February is just two days short of a normal month, it feels like ten days long. And because I was traveling during this month I had very little time to take pictures. Oh well. Here we go!

Random Clicks Of February.

The start of the trip with my OOTD. Comfy shoes, jeans, one of my favourite tees, and a comfy sweater. This outfit screams casual and it is my to go. 

Went to this Cafe called the Coffee, Tea and Company for breakfast. I got these amazing chocolate banana waffles. Heart shaped waffles topped with yummy Nutella. SOOO GOOD!

This picture shows my love for chocolate as well as books. The chocolate obviously is Toblerone and the book is 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' by 'Khaled Hosseni'.

A pretty purse-seat that I saw at a store in the mall. It looked so elegant sitting there that I had to take a picture. 

PS : All pictures taken by me and posted on my personal instagram.

Sometimes I Just Write...

Sometimes I just write and write, my thoughts pouring out of me so fast that I myself can't keep up. It starts as something I think I wanna talk about but as I go on writing it morphs into something entirely different. This happens mostly when I haven't written in a while. All the things that have affected me during the time that I haven't written fight to be heard. So it all comes out jumbled and making no sense to anyone but me. I still post those drabbles though because they're me and I feel better when they're done. I feel better that they're out there floating around in my little corner on the internet.