& as I looked around at all these kids filled with excitement, wrapped in the cutest winter coats, I suddenly wished to have that feeling again. When December meant strings of multi-coloured lights, and a tree with endless surprises at it's trunk just begging to be opened. Christmas music playing throughout the house every night, and the only worry was what to put on my list for Santa... Christmas time is here again, and getting older just seems to make it less and less exciting every year (for me at least). But this year I've decided to make the effort to be as thrilled for this season as I was 10 years ago! Sand* angels... & so the apartment decorating began! It's no surprise that I bought the most inconvenient set of lights, but with a bit of creativity & malfunctioning tape, the first part of Christmas was in place - the traditional (and oh-so-tacky) multi-coloured Christmas lights! I was already starting to feel like 7 year old me!! P.s. it helps when you're basically still a child at heart. But anyways, as it's December 1st tomorrow, this is finally a socially acceptable time to really get into the Christmas spirit... don't mind the fact that stores have been playing Christmas music since November 1st at 12:00 a.m. I won't go as far as writing a Christmas list for Santa (he has enough reading to do as it is) but I am 100% ready to embrace the Christmas spirit! To help with this, I have just received an advent calendar filled with bath gels, creams, shampoos, and conditioners- 24 different smelling bath gels?! Here's to listening to Mariah Carey base everything about Christmas around one man (&, ironically enough, it ain't Jesus) & to the vodka bottle serving as a star on our student-affordable tree! MERRY CHRISTMAS !! Cin-namon XOXO
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“The purpose of living is to seek happiness.” – Dalai Lama We all find ourselves caught up in today’s society and what we should be doing – work, school, etc. And many of us are constantly asking ourselves “what is the real purpose of my existence?” Well, what if you were told that the sole purpose of your existence is to seek happiness. Many of you would be quick to argue this since it seems “selfish’ and ‘self-centered’ – and of course that’s not what we want to be. However, this does not mean that your purpose is to go through life exclusive of others and merely focusing on yourself. In fact, it means exactly the opposite. Those around us are the materials necessary for cultivating true happiness within ourselves. There are a few things we should look at when seeking happiness… Compassion [NOUN – mass noun]: Sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. Compassion is the root of all actions that involve humans helping each other. It is a feeling that is essential to being happy. At the end of the day, no matter how much you preach about being independent – humans are naturally dependent and without those around us, we wouldn’t be who or where we are today. So take a second out of your day to help someone out, to put someone else first, to make life even just a little easier for them, or simply to put a smile on their face. Intimacy [NOUN – mass noun]: Close familiarity or friendship. In my opinion- with today’s society in mind, this can be defined as “something commonly looked for in a romantic relationship, but exists in all connections or interactions that we have with other beings”. Intimacy improves our overall health and happiness, and many of us deny ourselves this simple source of happiness by looking for it in the wrong places. We go through life thinking we can only get intimacy from finding our ‘soul mate’ or the ‘right person’, and so when we don’t find that person, we are left feeling unloved and ultimately unhappy. But when we look at intimacy and it’s true meaning, we realize that it can be found in everyone around us. Our friendships, our family, even a stranger on a bus. Maintaining a sense of openness and kindness will allow you to find intimacy in the most unexpected places. It comes from connecting with someone, relating to them, sharing a passion. Getting out of your comfort zone [NOUN]: A situation where one feels safe or at ease. A settled method of working that requires little effort and yields only barely acceptable results. Many of us reach a point in our lives where we are so comfortable that we don’t push ourselves anymore- the ‘comfort zone’. We don’t take risks or take on challenges, we let the fear of the unfamiliar prevent us from experiencing life. This is a danger zone. You’re settling for a level of happiness far lower than what you could achieve. It is important that you are aware of this zone, and that you continuously make the effort to get out of this zone. Read ’10 Ways to Step Out of Your Comfort Zone & Enjoy Taking Risks‘ Travel To finish off, I’m going to share something that has personally helped me to be genuinely happier, while experiencing self growth on a whole new level- travelling. If you have even the slightest opportunity to get out of your comfort zone and hop on a plane to an unfamiliar country – do not let it slip away! Travelling, especially at a young age, gives you a whole new perspective on life and the world. Learning all about a new country while being immersed in the culture is so beneficial to your growth and opens your mind up to incredible things. Overall, it is such a great experience, filled with lots of little experiences that will leave you with amazing memories to last a lifetime! Now that you have found your purpose, fulfill it. *This blog was written for one of the assignments I had as a student ambassador during my 3rd year in Ireland. I had forgotten about it until I received an email saying someone had commented on it saying how nice it was and that they had learnt a lot of things from it. So hopefully you guys take something from it too! It's really just a bit of my outlook on a core element of our lives & simple ways to cultivate it. I think constantly finding reasons to be happy is not only very important, but it's also simpler than we sometimes think it is. There are so many little things that can put a smile on your face, and sometimes you find them in the most unexpected places.
Along with this blog, I figured I'd upload some recent pictures I've taken around a seaside town in the south of England called Brighton. It's a super artsy town and you can find some very eccentric places & people here... I've fallen in love with it! I've plenty reasons to be happy and the pictures I'll be uploading are a few of the little things that put a smile on my face. Check them out here ♥ If you enjoyed the blog, it was largely influenced by one of my personal favourites 'The Art of Happiness' by the 14th Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler. Yours truly, Cin-namon xoxo *We owe the pleasure of this blog to easyJet and it's thoughtful extension of my airport waiting time by three hours.* I must say, the announcement of this brought nothing but pure joy to my day. After all, why would I possibly be tired after already making my way through 3 cities & 3 buses over the last 12 hours?? But nonetheless, it happens. Life is full of things out of our control, and it was truly a minor disappointment. To quote Will Smith, "ain't no thang but a chicken wing". Anyways, it was a series of events that led me to being at this airport at this particular time waiting on this particular delayed flight. To be fair, life is a series of events that leads you to wherever you are at any time... Was this a series of unfortunate events? Well TBP (to be philisophical), at times the world may seem an unfriendly and sinister place, but believe that there is much more good in it than bad. All you have to do is look hard enough, and what might seem to be a series of unfortunate events may in fact be the first steps of a journey (wise words of Lemony Snicket). It ain't that serious though. Simply put, an impulse decision at the beginning of summer left me in a place where I was not working as much as expected & therefore I was called upon to relocate to bigger and better things (aka a full-time job in England). Although the reference was a bit serious, it does ring true. This may in fact be the first steps of a journey, & optimistic me is seeing it as exactly that! Who knows what's to come, but I think that for me (& for this blog!!) there are some exciting things on the horizon! So stay tuned ... (N.B. As much as it may seem so, I am not intending to write a whole blog based on irrelevant details of my exciting life.) As I said before, my plans have changed & what the next few weeks were looking like for me has basically changed overnight. This sudden change of my plans for summer & the return of my Irish parents brought the 'living alone' experience to an abrupt end. Something I was fascinated with at first & eager to experience has left me with a couple tips not only for living alone, but also for life in general. And obviously, I'm going to share those now. 1) Make the effort to eat well. So this seems rather obvious, but living alone can lead to a desire to eat the most convenient & easy to make things. Or maybe that was just my laziness and lack of interest in cooking. Nonetheless, do not let convenience (or laziness) take priority over your health. Now I didn't eat terribly the whole time I was living alone. I actually started out great, my diet was better than it was for my whole college year. But there came a few days when I was getting tired of the whole 'cooking' thing and just cooked with convenience in mind. Basically I got very lazy with it. Although it was only a few days, it then led to a few days of intense stomach pains that put me in a doctor's office for the umpteenth time this year. So let's say I learnt my lesson & now hopefully I can help to prevent some of you from making this same mistake. 2) Never underestimate the requirements of dog sitting. I can truly say that when I thought of taking care of a dog for two weeks on my own, I was thinking 'food and water in the morning, all good'. Maybe it was just this particular dog (she is known to be very needy), but this job was a lot more demanding that meeting her basic needs of survival. First there was the excess attention she required, and if not received she would resort to crying. Then there was her convenient bathroom schedule- right after lying down on the couch, right after closing the door to go to sleep, 3 a.m, 5 a.m, 6 a.m, etc. And most of the time her waking me up at these oh-so-appropriate times with her whining and pawing at my face was not because she wanted me to let her outside to release her bladder, which I would only realize after dragging myself out of bed to do so. Quite honestly, I still don't know her reasoning for doing so. Oh how much easier it would've been if dogs could talk. All in all, I'm sure house sitting would've been ever so lonely without her. And it's always hard to get annoyed with such a cute pupper! There's probably plenty more I could tell about the experience, but I'll keep it short- also because I will finally (!!) be required to board this flight soon.
So that's all for now... Stay sweet, like? Cin-namon xoxo P.s. This was almost going to be another blog about how incredible it is to feel warmth & see blue skies after months of rain (because, obviously, the last few days were sunny & yes it was incredible). However, if you want to see what sunny days in Ireland/ England are like for me all you have to do is (!! self promo alert !!) follow me on insta @ cindyvalm/ add me on snapchat - cindyvalm, & just wait for one of those days (trust me, there will be stories). "I was made for sunny days." This is as honest as Google was when it told me that Ireland gets roughly 54 days of sunshine in total per year. A fact that had me near tears (ok I was actually in tears) when I thought of leaving a place that gets approximately 364 days of sunshine per year (365 if it's a leap year) to live in this rain-stricken land. (^ me being asked if I was excited to go to Ireland) However, despite the nerves & outright refusal to come to Ireland, I have come to truly enjoy living here. I owe this to the incredible people that I've met and formed friendships with over the year- many that have come & gone, one Canadian that has made the wise decision to stick around (@Rachel Parker), plus a few Irish people that I have decided I'm not ready to leave yet (for the banter). Above all, I owe it to my 'Irish parents' that have gone above & beyond to make sure I feel at home here, & have gone out of their way countless times to solve my (many) problems! To repay them for taking on this tremendous & stress-filled responsibility (me), I get the pleasure of house/ dog sitting while they are away from home. Oh, I also repay them with peanut butter & chocolate chip cookies baked by yours truly, but that has nothing to do with this blog.. the house sitting does though! I recently got to take on this responsibility as they were on an overnight excursion to Dublin. After enjoying an exciting night of having a house to myself by indulging in ice-cream and watching movies with Roxy (the dog), I woke up to her looking wide awake & ready for the day while watching me and obviously thinking "How is she still asleep at this hour?"... it was 5:30 a.m. Surprisingly, I was able to drag myself out of bed to let her outside, only after contemplating the consequences of not doing so & remembering who would have to clean up these 'consequences'. But don't be fooled, I quickly took myself straight back to bed. A few hours later however, I awoke ready to enjoy a sun-filled day that constant weather forecast checking throughout the week had told me would be a shocking 25 degrees. Now, when you can only count on having 54 sunny days throughout the year, & about 5-10 of these are already gone, you suddenly have a different attitude towards them. One that consists of finding ways to perform every daily activity- outdoors. Luckily, Roxy was just as eager to take advantage of this sunshine as I was! & so after confirming that the house would not burn down in my absence, and checking another 3 or 4 times, we set out on our adventure! It was a day nothing short of beautiful, & the rest of Limerick clearly agreed as they trailed behind overly excited dogs that were more confident in expressing what I was also feeling towards the sun coming out & bringing warmth with it! A 2 hour walk along the river, followed by relaxing beside the lake while others were getting prepared for bath time by making their way into the lake via a sloppy mud trail (no names), had clearly tired this certain someone out & so we made our way back home. After giving the princess a bath, and enjoying the daily activity of eating lunch- outdoors, I was ready to get my sunbathing on & wait for my Irish parents to return. But when I was presented with an invitation to go to the beach, I couldn't turn it down. & so the sunshine adventures continued! With the idea of going swimming in mind, & an understanding of the temperature difference between the sea in Ireland and the sea in Barbados not in mind, we made our way to Lahinch. Upon arriving, it was clear that the tide was in & so swimming here was not an option (for safety reasons). Determined to get in the sea, we moved on to a spot about a 10 minute drive away known as the 'jump-off spot' (which, for my Bajan friends, looked a lot like the north/ east coast of Barbados). By now it was getting on to 7 p.m, but thanks to Ireland's longer summer days, it would be bright out until about 9:30 p.m. Now, earlier on in the day 'bright' also meant 'warm'. But this was not the case as we arrived at the jump-off spot. The sun was periodically being blocked by clouds which gave an opportunity to really feel the temperature of the wind coming straight off the Atlantic, & it was definitely not warm. However, I had set my mind on going swimming & with the words "I told myself I was going to do it, so I have to do it" going through my mind, there was no backing out. This mindset had some competition when my toe hit the puddles of water on the rocks, and was quickly replaced with:
Having made it all the way to standing at the edge of the rock in a swimsuit, I convinced myself that the sea was a warm bathtub & managed to jump (nothing to do with the group of guys nearby that I could feel waiting for me to back out, of course). Two seconds later the image of a warm bathtub, along with any image other than being surrounded by a pool of ice, had quickly been erased from my mind. The initial temperature shock combined with the fear of the hundreds of sharks that were obviously right beneath me just waiting to eat one of my limbs resulted in a totally graceful rush to get out of this ice bath. But much to my surprise, almost instantly my body warmed up & the brutality of the experience was forgotten. Not wanting to half-ass anything, I had to go for round 2. "It wasn't that bad! It was actually kinda warm!" Round 2 confirmed that I do not learn from experience... The day finished with a quick visit to the Cliffs of Moher- an incredible spot to visit if you ever get the chance! Preferably on a sunny day... so that gives you 54 days of the year to choose from. 😉 Well, here's to sunny days & all the adventures they bring! Treasure the endless sunshine you guys are getting over in Barbados. I know it's hard to appreciate something when it's always there, but thanks to my experience in Ireland I am now truly grateful for sunny days! To close, I would like to announce to all you guys that what we all thought would be a year of college in Ireland upgraded & I will be returning to the Emerald Isle in September to begin the final year of my 4 year degree in Marketing & Management. Yours truly, Cin-namon xoxo P.s. pictures & video to come! ♥ Born and raised in Barbados- for my foreign friends that (unsurprisingly) don't know where Barbados is, it is the most eastern island in the chain of islands that lies between North and South America. This place I lived in for 17 years is a tremendous 21 miles in length, and 14 miles wide! Let's just say, you would probably only have to take an hour or less out of your day to drive from the north to the south, depending on the unpredictable traffic patterns (*a blog will follow on the joys of driving in Barbados).
Growing up in such a small place is great- especially one with a year-round summer and surrounded by beaches, one of which has made the list of most beautiful beaches in the world (Crane Beach, Barbados). However, some may say that the smallness of the island may lead to a relative degree of small-mindedness. And so, travel is encouraged! (Dimensions of where you come from aside, if you are fortunate enough to have the resources to travel, it is always a good choice.) The desire to see more of the world, along with a lack of ability to imagine what -40 degrees feels like, led to my decision to study abroad for a year in Canada. This opened doors for me to continue on to other countries- such as the one I currently call home. It's incredible landscape- which due to excessive amounts of watering is a vibrant green all year, the happy-go-lucky attitude attitude of the locals- a fitting description as this nationality is often associated with luck, and the great pride they take in their locally produced beverages- along with their never-ending reasons to indulge in these beverages, come together to make this island as friendly & welcoming as it is. Can you guess where I'm referring to? Ah, the luck of the Irish! Throughout this nothing-short-of-incredible journey from Barbados to Canada to Ireland, I've not only opened my mind to things I never even thought of pre-travel, but it has also caused an immense amount of self-growth and self-reflection that was truly needed. Picking up and going by myself, with no family or friends-since-we-were-five to hold me back, I was forced to step out of zones that I had found oh so comfortable. And thanks to this, I have formed friendships with people from all different nationalities that I truly, truly hope to never lose. Oh, and I can even cook meals for myself now- who would have thought! So that's how I've ended up here, along with the hidden power that controls our future- of course. & if the 'about me' aspect of this wasn't enough, feel free to immerse yourself in the blogs, photography, and poetry that is the truest expression of myself! (Just writing that triggered a feeling of vulnerability much like that experienced when someone sees you naked..) Here's to being naked- in the soul sense! Yours truly, Cin-namon xoxo |