Lifethrumylense

July 8th 2024

Beautiful Barbados

So, I moved to Tassie! Which was and still is really scary but the endless possibilities in starting new somewhere were enough to overweigh any fear that might have held me back. Moving away from your family and friends which are your main support system is never easy. Especially, if you decide to move to the other side of the world in a completely different hemisphere and time zone but when did good things ever come easy?

I’ve been thinking a lot about that concept, struggle creating greatness. It’s an insane concept to me which I totally understand in theory but it doesn’t mean that I don’t wish we could grow without the pain. If I could, I would have packed all of my loved ones into a suitcase and brought them with me so I would never have to miss them but I can’t. Also, according to societal standards, I’m an adult which means I should be branching out on my own and creating my own little life. In all honesty, I think this pressures kids who have no idea what they are doing into very sad solitary lives where they pretend everything is great but are secretly lost. Of course there are instances where everything turns out great but I wish there was some way society could learn to teach independence without causing loneliness and pretence.

That was a little bit of an off the topic rant. Anywayyy, I’m enjoying my new adventure so far. At the time of writing this I have finished my first semester of uni here! Woohoo! It was definitely an experience. I had many, many, many downs but I’ve learned just as many new things and I’ve had a plethora of great experiences. Since transferring universities, I’ve added Media and Communication to my major and I enjoyed my first taste of it. It was a little challenging adapting to the new expectations of this area of study because I’ve been doing Literature only for a while but in the end I was happy with my progress.

A few photos from during the semester

University life in general was a little lonely honestly. I made a couple new friends who are so great but our schedules didn’t match up entirely which meant I spent most of my time on campus alone. On the brightside, I did enjoy the freedom that this brought. If you have no-one else to consider in your plan making or the lack there of you are free to be as spontaneous as you please which I took advantage of as soon as I was ready to explore alone. I also took advantage of being able to connect with the exchange students I met at orientation. Fortunately, because I moved here just before the semester started, we were having a lot of the same experiences which allowed me to make some pretty cool connections with people of different nationalities. This opened my eyes so much to how major the differences in culture and practices can be. It’s one thing to see the life of an influencer or an online stranger but having face-to-face conversation allows for a greater level of authenticity. It also allows you to see the world from a different perspective which is a privilege many fail to see as such.

I mostly hung out with two lovely British girls who love a good café as much as I do. We tried a few different cafés and wondered around the city together. I wish we had more time together but they are back for one more semester so I hope to see them more then. I also had the pleasure of making friends with an American guy who was down for anything. Which sounds great but that also included walking really far distances and I’ll never forgive him for the day he suggested we walk to the Botanical Gardens. It happened to rain this day and I chose fashion over function with my converse which are so not walking shoes. In all, the hand full of times I was able to hang out with these wonderful people were some of the highlights of this semester. Sadly, my American friend has gone back home and my UK girlies are only with me for the next semester. I honestly am so not looking forward to the semesters ahead without them, I will miss them a ton but I know God has a way of working things out and I have my memories in the form of photos to look back on.

I’ve made one really good friend who lives here and she has helped me through the past few months immensely. A life saver is literally what she is and I’m so thankful for her kindness. We’ve been on a couple little adventures together which included driving up Mount Wellington in the pitch black of night to see snow which we soon realized was a really flawed plan as the road was blocked pretty far down from the snow. We wouldn’t have been able to see that clearly anyway because it was so dark. We’ve also been the life of the party at boring uni events and have had to run to get the bus after deciding (a few too many times) that getting a sweet treat after class was more important than getting home.

I really appreciated these small moments which I believe are what really matter in life. Those memories that you wish you could project from your mind for others to see and feel the joy that you experienced in the moment. I wish I could bottle those happy feelings and take them like a supplement when I feel down or share them with others who need a reminder of how much possibility there is in life. Which is why I love words and writing, some writers are skilled enough to replicate these emotions with just words or they can give you just enough to activate your imagination which can be more powerful than the replication of reality. I hope one day that I can be a writer capable of such greatness and that my experiences can be a source of encouragement and help others to realize that we aren’t alone in this world.

Although leaving everything I love behind was hard, I’m allowing myself the opportunity to grow and become the best version of myself. I’ve realized that while anxiety feels like it’s protecting you it is actually holding you down. Which to me sounds more suffocating than the things anxiety tries to make me believe would overcome me. I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences on my new adventure with whoever decides to read this blog and I hope to encourage you to start a new adventure yourself. Thanks for reading!

Just a girl and her camera