You Are What You Love, Not Who Loves You!

Back in the day, when I was a kid, I had so many plans for my future. I had plans to be exactly where I wanted to be by the time I was 25, and I would not even think about starting a family before that had happened. Needless to say, things didn’t really go as planned. I’m pretty sure that’s the truth for most of us when we look back on our lives.

I am now 30. I have a 10 year old son. I’m a dedicated YouTuber. I’m working on a poetry collection. The first draft of my first novel is almost done. I’m working in retail and I’m dying to travel more, see more, live more!

This wasn’t how I pictured my life would be at all. Some days that thought happens to get me a bit worried, but most days I enjoy life for what it has offered me so far. How I’ve come to be the person that I am today. And even though I haven’t reached all of the goals I set for my self as a little girl, I’ve already accomplished a lot.

I love the fact that my wanderlust just grows and grows. A lot of the things I thought would be important to me when I was younger, I’ve come to learn aren’t important at all. And some of the things that I never thought I’d care for, has become solid foundations in my life.

But there is one thing that has never changed, and I can say with damn certainty it never will, that is my passion for writing. I found it when I was so young that I can’t even remember it. I’ve been chasing it, and living it ever since. Writing and writing and writing! And I’m just as much a writer as everyone else who loves to write.

Fall Out Boy together with Elton John has a wonderful song (one of my absolute favorites) and in that song there’s a line that always gives me goosebumps:

"You are what you love, not who loves you!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cnBxSB1jUE

I love that line! And I find it to be so true that it sometimes hurt just thinking about it. We let ourselves be defined so easily by other people’s idea of who we ought to be. I know way to many who have given up their dreams for more sensible and safe options, and they almost always feel like there’s something missing. But HEY, that’s what growing up is all about, right? To that I say HELL NO!

I know my passion, my dreams! It has evolved over the years, for sure. Making videos for a passion in addition to writing just grew organically, and now they go hand in hand. Every single day I practice gratitude. And one of the things that I’m just as grateful for, every single day, is the fact that I still have that spirit of the dreaming child that was me so many years ago!

I look at my son now and I hope that he never loses it either. I see the sparkle in his eyes when he dances, or when he creates something, and I always promise myself that I will go down, kicking and screaming, for his right to have his dreams, to chase them, and to live them!

I will try my very best to teach him to LIVE A GREAT STORY, just as I am teaching and reminding myself to do the same, every single day!

YOU ARE WHAT YOU LOVE, NOT WHO LOVES YOU!

Don’t ever forget that! And I will be here to remind you of it, for as long as I can!

FIND IT! CHASE IT! LIVE IT!

Can I go out and play? Can I? Can I? Can I?

This is the feeling I’ve been having for the most of this day. Working in an office can be challenging when you’re in a really good place creatively. Suddenly my head is so filled with poetry and the next chapter of my book that I have to concentrate on what to answer when a customer calls.

Suddenly, all the words in my emails are so unimportant. The rational part of my mind tries to calm me down and trying to get me back into the zone of working, and it manages to do so from time to time. But then there’s that other part of me that needs to come out kicking and screaming, telling me that she is ready to conquer the world! This girl puts my fingers and my voice on some kind of autopilot. I’ve answered the same mails many times, answered most of the same questions that comes after the ring of my office phone. I do what is required of me and with a little sprinkle on top. A tiny poem in an email just because I can’t help myself. Making extra conversation with the man coming to pick up his KitchenAid machine because I can tell he needs to talk. He longs for someone to listen as he tells the stories of how things were in the good old days. I find my everyday pleasure right there. In those tiny moments of smile and laughter that is so easily taken for granted. In the ocean of inspiration they might just seem like tiny drops, but lots and lots of tiny drops can surprise you to turn into an ocean you could have never seen coming.

My mind screamed at me ALL day. Giving me fragments of poems I haven’t yet started. I fumbled and grasped my pen or my phone as often as I could to take notes on them. To not forget what does small drops of inspiration brought to me. My mind wanted to fly away on a cloud, put me down on a mountain top with nothing but a couple of pens, a notebook and a magical cup that could present any hot beverage I desired at any given time. I would write and write until my hands got sore, and then I would write some more.

I opened my eyes and found myself staring at the computer screen. Without even noticing I had typed three letters. Because the feeling that I first felt wasn’t really true. Because the I didn’t realize how incredibly lucky I was to be so inspired by those things that can seem meaningless more often than not.

Three letters glowed at me:

JOY

And I realized that it doesn’t matter where I am, what kind of job I do or what sort of hot beverage is in my cup. What matters is that even though I’m doing what I have to do, my mind is still finding time to do what I love to do. It takes me on unexpected adventures. Stores ideas and experiences. The voices and faces of people that I get to meet. That girl that dominates my mind, she is what makes this life so amazing no matter the imperfections or failures. She travels with me, but most of all I travel with her. And no matter if it’s scary or wonderful the set destination always looks different, but at the same time it is always the same.

JOY!

Football heroes!

I’m not the slightest interested in American but hearing the story of the football players of Olivet middle school doing something so special and heartwarming gave me goosebumps all over. It even made my eyes water of pride for these young and giving athletes. This action was made out of pure love and we can all learn something from it.

Enjoy!

Think Differently – Positive You

I just watched an amazingly inspiring and eye opening video made by David Foster Wallace Literary Trust. I will include the video at the end of the post for you all to see.

The video is about how we choose to think when it comes to the things that bores and irritates us in our everyday life. I felt like I could relate to exactly this. We go through so many routines and tiny problems in our everyday life that spoils our day because we choose to let it.

Growing up is not easy and we learn about it all bit by bit as we go. To be a positive person is not something that you born as, it is a choice you make. You choose how you want to look at the little things that happen in your life. In the video they have a brilliant example that takes place at the super market after a long day at work. How we let ourselves get carried away into that negative place by all the little situations that surround us, and how we should look at it. To know that even though it feels like the whole world revolves around you, it really doesn’t. This is a hard concept to really grasp. To be able to put completely let go and put yourself in someone else’s position is not easily done. But to be able to look at things from a different perspective we really have to try and do so. The things that annoys us in other people might have a perfectly good explanation. We all have a past and a story, often these are untold and not something we wave around for complete strangers to see. Just think about it. The days that you are in a really bad mood caused by a break up, sickness or maybe something completely different, you will behave a little different. Maybe you won’t give that extra smile to someone. Maybe you will answer somewhat rude to a question not even knowing that you’re doing so. The ones around you that doesn’t know what is up with you might let that annoy them and that is the essence of what I’m writing about here.

I’m not telling you to broadcast all of your problems (it will probably not make it any better) or to not let anything get to you (because it will) but I’m encouraging you to not let it ruin your day. Be positive. Choose to think positive. And look at the world a little differently. We only get one life and it is a hard, lovely, complicated and mysterious one. No life is alike, no mind alike. See the beauty in the little things and try to make the most of every day.

This is the only life you will get! Make the most of it!

And don’t forget to smile!