Real, Not Ideal

I am delighted to finally be finishing the review of this series ( see the last post here) . I haven’t been enjoying this series for a while, and I’m thankful to be done now. This novel is set in the mature stages of Lila and Lenu’s lives. After everything that has happened to them, they are now figuring out who they are as even more mature adults. Lenu is finally coming to a reflective stage of her life where she is realising the importance of her family and how important they have been all along. As she keeps making mistakes with her own family, her career, and her relationships, Lenu realises that she cannot return to who she was. Her identity is completely shaken and she is forced to look for meaning in the place she blames for her path in life. She realises that working with her friend, her biggest competition, has been where she needed to be all along. It is through this work that she realises that everything has come full circle and she has failed in many aspects of her lif...

I managed to mention my Austria trip in both a monthly favourites and yearly highlights post, so it is very clear that I was overdue to post something about it. Back at the end of October/beginning of November, Heidi and Natalie came to visit me! When we started planning back in the summer, there were a few ideas thrown out there. Greece was on the list, Amsterdam was on the list, but we went with Austria. The real point of the trip was to see all of The Sound of Music sights, and we certainly accomplished that. I have to admit that since it was so long ago and I wasn’t journaling very well at the time (one of the main reasons it has been placed on my January goals list) , I can’t remember what we did on specific days. I’ve organised this post into cities to make it easier for everyone. London We started the trip by meeting in London. We took some time to settle and catch up in the hostel and went for a little walk around for food. The next morning, we heade...

I find it a bit disheartening to look back on my previous goals post and see how proud I was at what I had been doing in my life. Needless to say, I have faltered. Work got in the way. It is so difficult to stay in a routine with teaching. So many things tend to pop up and I never come home at the same time. I’m working on it. At the end of last term, I was trying to not bring work home with me. Matt stressed the importance of spending more quality time together (his love language), and I addressed that the best I could. This is a process for sure. I guess the essence of goals is that they are always changing. That’s why these posts are a monthly series. Some of the things I’ve said in the past are just not attainable. I mean, read one book a week? I was delusional. This is my updated, learned from the past, taking baby steps to being a proper human goals list for January. 1.        Journal every day. So far, I have written every day ...

One of my reading goals last year was to get out of my comfort zone. As a response, I picked up Educated by Tara Westover. It turned out to be one of the most talked about books in the year (even Barrack Obama loved it). I’ve reviewed memoirs only twice so far (located here and here) and they were both on some pretty sad topics. I think there’s something really special about the emotion in memoirs and this one is no different. Tara Westover grew up in a Mormon survivalist family with strict religious ideals. Their faith in God was so strong that even in the face of pure danger, she could not understand her own feelings because it was believed that God took care of it. Her family lived a rural life and her father was a manipulating, cruel man. Despite all the bad moments her father created, there is so much love and loyalty in the family. We see the struggles Westover faces as she copes with sad situations and we see  the steadfast loyalty between siblings who have to survive...

Happy New Year everyone! In the world in general, 2018 was trash. The Ontario government took a massive step back in education, mass shootings are still happening and “thoughts and prayers” are not working out, and everyone is questioning government. For me, personally, 2018 has been one of the best. I’m proud of myself. I’ve accomplished a lot. I’ve grown a lot. Before looking forward, I’m looking back at the 18 best of 2018. 1.        I interviewed for my first ever career – and got the job! 2.        Brianne visited me in Wales. 3.        I had the smallest, most wonderful birthday celebration with lovely people. 4.        I went to France to visit university friends. 5.        I finished my PGCE – the hardest year of my life. 6.        My parents visited me in Wale...