Thank You For Being Here Today

I've almost finished reading The Princess Diaries series. I don't think a series of books has captivated me this much in a long time. That being said, I haven't really been reading many series since Flowers in the Attic back in the summer of 2010/11 (I like saying "in the summer of" because it just reeks of nostalgia and I like to reek of nostalgia).

It's nowhere near Meg Cabot's best work. In fact, I would say it's one of her worst works. I feel very detached from the characters, especially Michael Moscovitz. He doesn't really stand out on the page to me and doesn't have a lot of detail about him except being tall, goodlooking and having a nice smelling neck. Sure, I like nice smelling necks as much as the next gal but give me something, Meg. Tonnes of people have nice smelling necks (myself included, thanks to the Wonderstruck perfume I was gifted for my birthday by some special ladettes a while back) but what makes Michael special and worthy of POG's love (that's Princess of Genovia for those not in the know)?

Despite all of this, I'm absolutely enthralled and spent much of the bus ride home reading, pushing through the nauseating headache I always get whenever I read in a moving vehicle. I had to hide the cover of the book because it is sparkly silver with pink writing and I don't want to damage by street cred. I will be sad when I finish this last book. Really quite sad. I think a lot of it is because I'm getting to relive days gone by by reading a book set in high school.

Psychology of Healing is getting kind of interesting. We talked about positive psychology in today's tute and it makes me want to practice it. You know, thinking about what you're grateful for, what you like about yourself etc. instead of focusing on the negative. This is hard because I always focus on the negative. We also drew these pie charts of our life. For example, how much of your life is spent studying, socializing, being creative etc. And then we drew a pie chart of our ideal life.

It was just sad.

My ideal life was 25% creativity and learning. I learn a lot now (for example, did you know that the basal cell carcinoma is the most common of all cancers in Australia?) but it's mostly stuff I don't want to learn about. What do I want to learn about? That is very hard to say. I enjoy learning stuff that makes me feel like I can contribute to a conversation. Life stuff. Economics, politics, history (apparently I'm very social sciences orientated? I don't think this is ultimately true because I also happen to like learning about maths and physics. It's just that you rarely have a conversation revolving around maths or physics unless you're Helen and like to argue about that stuff. I do not). I like learning about people and observing their habits. Like a stalker. No, really. As an introvert by nature, I spend a lot of my life observing others. You know when people tell you not to worry, no one actually saw you do that really embarrassing thing in public? Or that no one pays attention to anyone else in the gym? Well, I saw you. I've seen a lot of interesting things in my time as an introvert (AKA 20+ years).

My ideal life also did not include studying. And was about 45% travelling/eating. I put travelling and eating together because I feel they go hand-in-hand. Food is the most joyous part of travelling.

I feel sad that my ideal life pie chart is very different to my current life and I want to change that. I'm always the person working hard now (work, work, work) so I can relax later, stress less about exams, get a good job, get a good income so I can travel and have fun. But I still always stress at exams and study a tonne. Why doesn't anyone seize the day anymore? Why do we not do anything fun unless it's the holidays? Why is it so hard to let go of routine and safety nets when we should be embracing every adventure that comes our way? Why do we make plan to have fun in the future when we can be having fun now?

Some thoughts for you to ponder.

In the meantime, I have to finish this lecture on Common Skin Neoplasms. Who said I'm not having fun?

As my parting gift to you, practice some positive psychology today by making a list of three things you're grateful for and that are good in your life. Here's mine:

1. I get to read Meg Cabot books and she is wonderful. A gift to womankind (and mankind!).

2. I get to make decisions about my life. Sure, I let people influence me but, ultimately, if I really didn't want to be in med anymore I could leave and no one could stop me.

3. Split ends.

J