Write your bucket list / 100 things to do before you die?

Even though there might be 100 things on my bucket list the main thing is to live my life to the fullest.  When I lie on my sick bed one day or breathe in my last breath I want do so with a smile and know that I have lived my life and made use of every opportunity.

If I look back at my life now I am happy with my life.  I can die now and be satisfied.  Although I feel that I did make 3 mistakes in my life which two of them involved ex-boyfriends (laugh out loud).  But you know what if it weren’t for my mistakes and for them I would not have been the person I am today.  The other one was where I really messed up and disappointed my parents.  There is also of cause where I wished I could get a better first job, or that I went overseas in my gap year.  But then I would not have been where I am today and I am happy where I am today. 

I am a very realistic person and I do not want to have a bucket list?  Does it make me a weird person?

My big fat BIG dream.

There are two sides of this dream.  The one involve loved ones and the other one involve materialistic things. 

I will not have a fat big dream without all the people that I love.  This involves my Mom, Dad, Sister, and Brother, My boyfriend, other family and close friends.  No matter what my dream is I want them in my life.  I will rather be poor with these people in my life than the richest person in the world without them.

As far as it goes for materialistic things, I would like a beautiful home with a big garden and swimming pool.  The house should be cosy and not too big. I want a closet I can walk into and a separate closet for my shoes and jewellery.

I want a job which keeps me busy but it must not be too much stress and I must have as much holiday as I had in school.  I must also have enough money to go for holidays where I want to without thinking about whether I have enough money.

Wow, what a life this would be.  And it does actually not seem too impossible.

Conventional is a good fallback position isn’t it?

In my opinion convention is a good fallback position no matter in what situation you are.  It is important to live your life to the fullest, but when you are unsure or in doubt you still have your old tradition and knowledge to fall back on.

What you learn through your life will always be a part of you.  One of my motto’s in life, is not to find yourself but to create yourself.  I also believe that although you start to create yourself since the day you are born you only true get a 100% free choice of who you want to be after school.  Till then you need to go to school, you can’t choose with who you are in class with, what teachers you have and what you do every day. Your choices are limited.  The day you leave school your life lies in front of you as well as thousands of choices and you can decide where you want to go and what you want to become. 

You cannot chase two rabbits at the same time

Don’t try to do too much at once.  Even though I am a woman we are all just human.  Concentrate on one thing at a time and finish it and do it well.  If you focus on two things some or other time it will become too much for you and you would have to choose.  It is just not worth it.  It is good to dream well and have all this amazing sounding goals, but be realistic.  I for instance ended up chasing too rabbits this year although I hadn’t planned it and believe me I still don’t know if I will catch the second one.   

I started this year of in a more of an admin position at a small non-profit company.  I already had my diploma and was so desperate for a proper PR job.  I tried looking for a job but no one wanted to appoint me as I did not have proper PR experience.  I then decided to do my Btech degree part-time in one year, with the hope that someone will appoint me with a degree.  I felt like I was already behind after I took a gap year after school.  I then enrolled for my Btech degree taking all 5 subjects.  In June this year it just worked out that through someone who knew someone who knew someone who were looking for a Junior PR I got this amazing job.  Since June I really had a crazy life.  Let me tell you it is not easy working full time and studying full time.  I became a complete workaholic and still don’t know if I will catch the second rabbit – by passing all five subjects and obtaining my degree this year.  Lesson:  Only chase one rabbit at a time.

“Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when you only have one idea” (Alain)

I don’t know of anyone who had only one idea and it worked.  Everyone is different and work different.  Everything starts with an idea, but nothing comes from only one idea.  You start with something and flesh it out and then while busy thinking and working with an idea you will think of better ideas.  One is never enough.  Rather more than less.  Recently I also learned something very valid in our industry.  When a Client told me they want 120 Guests which should include partners – 40 media and 20 celebrities.  You know what I did?  Typically a newbie I compiled a guest list of only 60 people.  I soon learned that you can almost expect a drop-off of 50% on the day and need to invite double the amount of guests.  Luckily I realised this soon enough. 

An idea can just be so much better if you have more than one idea.  This also specifically relates to the PR industry.  I realised this in our brainstorms.  One may have an idea, but as soon as everyone input their ideas it becomes this amazing idea which is thousand times better than the first original idea.

Have you figured out the second head fake?

We are all just humans.  None of us can predict the future – or that is what I believe.  It is all a guessing game.  Sometimes you are lucky and sometimes you are not.  Experience count a lot and research, but there will always be that 50% chance that you can be wrong. 

This makes life interesting.  It is all about how you look at a situation.  A situation has always at least two sides and you have a choice from which side you would have to look at it.  Life is full of surprises.  Don’t get too confident, you never know what might happen the next second or step.

The 4 letter word L*O*V*E

For those of you who do not know I am in a 10 month relationship at the moment.  It is my third kind of serious relationship of my life.  My first relationship I believe was merely because I felt lonely and urged for attention.  It was in my matric year.  I went to a really small school in a very small town and there were not that great option of boys.  Although I loved my single life during all my school friends, by the time a got in matric I was looking for a relationship.  I was evaluating my environment and my eyes got stuck on this kind of ‘hot’ guy with a ‘cool’ attitude in school.  It was really puppy love although I believed I was totally inlove with the guy until about 6 months after we broke up.  Then I only realised what was I thinkg???  Although I believe everything happens for a reason and that is what I took out of that relationship.

My second relationship can you believe evolved through facebook.  He searched for an old friend, found three Nadia Louw’s on facebook (that was 4 years ago) and sent me a message.  I responded and from there on we chatted everyday and got to know each other extremely well.   I have never found someone I can just chat to for hours and we just have something to say every second.  When we met it was love at first sight from his side.  After a while I gave in my struggle of saying no all the time and we became more than friends.  We had a wonderful relationship although I never felt the butterflies, probably because they were never there.  Three years down the line after hours of thought I left one day and never went back.  It is sad that I had to lose such a great friend, but still I believe everything happens for a reason.

In March 2010 it was just a normal day at work.  When I went to get something at the printer and walked back to my office in the corridor this friendly, nice looking guy asked me if he were at the right place.  He came for an interview.  Just when I walked passed him I secretly thought to myself that I hope he gets the job..and he did.  Seven months down the line I started flirting with him.  It took a while for him to bight but he did alright.  Only three months after that we started dating.

Wow what a long introduction to get to my point.  The first two guys we told each other really early in our relationships that we loved each other.  The thing is it is almost a year and my boyfriend and I still haven’t really told each other that we love each other.  Although I am positive we do.   What will the reason for this be?  Have we both learned through previous relationships and do not want to commit too early?  What does it actually mean to say I love you?   How do you actually know when you love someone?  All these questions and loads more are running through my head.

We would just have to wait and see.