Sunday 20 April 2014

When does childhood leave us?

I was sat watching Toy Story 3 with my mum, having a little cry at the end, when it made me think of a few things. Everybody grows up, but at what point does that suddenly happen?

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I used to be obsessed with the typical "girly toys". My favourites were Polly Pockets (does anyone remember them? Before they were all stretched out and not pocket sized!) and Bratz dolls. I had SO many Bratz, I can't even count. I collected them for years, making sure I had all the characters, all the outfits, everything. They had 4 separate types of Bratz; the normal girls, the boys, "Lil Bratz" and the babies (which for some reason were way bigger than the little ones...), and I had some of all of them! For the normal sized ones, I had a battery-powered catwalk runway (they had something you stuck into the bottom of their shoes, so that they could stand and "walk" the runway. Best Christmas present ever!) and a cafe with all the little plastic food and drink items. And for the little ones, I had the camper-van, the house (with inflatable furniture!), a school, and even a shopping mall! Seriously, I meant business!

I would constantly watch Disney Channel, too. Everyday after school, without fail! But there came a point when I just stopped. Stopped playing with my toys, stopped watching Disney (the channel, not the films. Come on, guys, Disney films will NEVER get old!), just out of the blue.

I don't know how old I was, but one day that all just stopped. At what point in our lives do we suddenly think "Oh, that's not for me anymore!". We just throw away a big part of our lifestyle, without thinking twice.

I'm not looking for some philosophical explanation, it just really baffled me that there's a set time in our lives that we can just leave behind something as big as our childhood. Let me know in the comments your thoughts on this, I'd love to hear them!

Wednesday 16 April 2014

What is Love?

Everyone in the world has a different definition of love. You can love one person, break up, and find yourself falling in love with someone different. And although it's the same emotion, the way you feel it is completely different. You can fall in love with 50 people in your life, and each time, the feelings you have will be different.

I recently had a conversation with my housemate about our definitions of love (I might add that by love, I'm talking about the romantic kind of love). We realised that some people see it as you fall in love, and instantly want to spend the rest of your life with that one person. I don't agree that that's the case. So here's a little list of what love is for me.

Love is having that one person on your mind constantly, if only at the back of your mind.
Love is wanting to spend time with that person, and finding yourself getting a little excited when you speak to them.
Love is wanting to see them happy, no matter how that happens. Whether it's to do with you, or through a hobby of theirs. And finding joy in their happiness.
Love is having a constant feeling of content in your life, knowing that this one person can make you so happy.
Love isn't wanting to be together forever, but not wanting there to be an end to it anytime soon.

Feel free to leave your own definitions below, I'd be interested to see how other people feel!

Sunday 6 April 2014

The Issues With Social Media

I love social media. I love scrolling through various timelines to see what people have been up to (I'm nosy like that!), and reading and writing blog posts about things that are on our minds. Social media's a great place to share things with friends or even strangers; thoughts, feelings, photos, videos, anything! But there comes a point where some people share too much. When too much is shared, where anyone in the world can see it.

Besides writing about my relationships, I'm always extremely careful as to what I choose to post online. I rarely write Facebook statuses, and only tweet pointless things that won't offend anyone in any way. I write blog posts sometimes to vent about things going on in my life, but I have about 10 posts saved as drafts that I will NEVER post online, purely because they are written about people or things going on that I don't feel is the internet's business. It's between myself and the other people involved, I don't need to tell the whole world about it. I feel like most people have a filter, allowing certain aspects of their life to be shared with others, but filtering out the things that maybe the world shouldn't see.

Indirect tweets and Facebook statuses. The way I see it, is if you don't want to say something to someone's face, why would you then post it on the internet, allowing not just the person its aimed at, but ANYONE, to see it? I've had many tweets and even blog posts written about me over the last 6 months or so, for reasons I've made a point of not posting online, purely because even I have respect for the person involved. Even though we may not be close now, I can't deny that when we were, they were a big part of my life that I wouldn't erase. Because of that, no matter what's happened recently, I wouldn't write explicitly about it on the internet because I wouldn't want to hurt their feelings or make them feel like shit. But some people don't share that view.

I understand that people like to vent or rant about things, but in my opinion, that's what friends are for; to rant to, without the whole world seeing. You may be able to delete some things, but there's no guarantee that the person it's aimed at wouldn't see it. Just remember, the internet is forever...