I’m going to be who I really am. And I’m going to figure out what that is.


It’s much easier to not know things sometimes. Things change and friends leave. And life doesn’t stop for anybody. I wanted to laugh. Or maybe get mad. Or maybe shrug at how strange everybody was, especially me. Continue reading

Cricket World Cup 2015: Australia’s triumph inspires respect but no love after our boys’ antics

 

AUSTRALIA are World Cup champions for a fifth time but, while respect for the team’s ability is undoubted, equally there is no widespread love or affection for our boys outside these shores.

Like it or not, we are viewed as boorish, charmless winners whose snarling sledges, send-offs and generally ugly behaviour say more about us than our record of prolonged success.

Mike Walters in The Daily Mirror was strident in his criticism of the Aussies’ on-field chat, juxtaposed so neatly by the sportsmanship and classy touches shown by our New Zealand rivals.

Well done, chaps — the best team won the World Cup, which is exactly as it should be. And, my goodness, Australian cricket has cultivated another extravagant assortment of gifts.

“One conspicuous difference between mother country and champions has not escaped international attention: Boring, boring England were useless but boorish, boorish Australia were not above criticism.

“Not for the first time, when the conquerors’ mask slipped, Straya could not resist the temptation to underline their superiority with gloating send-offs, even in a one-sided final where New Zealand never got out of the blocks.

The eyes have it. Grant Elliott’s intense stare at Brad Haddin tell its own story.

The eyes have it. Grant Elliott’s intense stare at Brad Haddin tell its own story.Source: News Corp Australia

“When Martin Guptill was bowled by Glenn Maxwell, wicketkeeper Brad Haddin appeared to taunt him by clapping in his face like a performing seal.

“Contrast the fate of Black Caps top scorer Grant Elliott, serenaded with verbals on his dismissal, with four New Zealand players lining up to shake Australian captain Michael Clarke’s hand when he was out just eight runs short of the chequered flag.”

It’s clear Haddin’s antics didn’t go down too well across the ditch, if this image of the Dominion Post’s front page is anything to go by.

 

http://www.foxsports.com.au/cricket/icc-world-cup-2015/cricket-world-cup-2015-australias-triumph-inspires-respect-but-no-love-after-our-boys-antics/story-e6frf3ju-1227286687232

We need to think about failure differently

I’m not the first to say that failure, when approached properly, can be an opportunity for growth. But the way most people interpret this assertion is that mistakes are a necessary evil. Mistakes aren’t a necessary evil. They aren’t evil at all. They are an inevitable consequence of doing something new (and, as such, should be seen as valuable; without them, we’d have no originality). And yet, even as I say that embracing failure is an important part of learning, I also acknowledge that acknowledging this truth is not enough. That’s because failure is painful, and our feelings about this pain tend to screw up our understanding of its worth. To disentangle the good and the bad parts of failure, we have to recognize both the reality of the pain and the benefit of the resulting growth…….

 

Failure

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If you are young and nervous, don’t be.

If you are young and nervous, don’t be. I urge you to be curious.undefinedQuestion society and what you are told. You don’t have to live the life that has been laid about before you. You don’t have to live the life your parents, grandparents, and great grandparents have lived. Feed your potential by moving around, by stirring things up.I want to protect youth from false guilt that is projected onto them when deciding what path is their own. You don’t have to answer your neighbor when they condescendingly ask about your plans are after high school. Breathe, collect your thoughts, try things, see what falls in your lap and recognize what feels true. What is time? It’s subjective. You are not the same. You are you. Why are we told we must decide by a certain age? Pressured into decisions with their deadlines, we’re told we won’t be great if we don’t follow through into traditional schooling. Why are we conformed into school systems that control our minds for eight hours a day, telling us we must learn this way, speak this way, perform this way, obey until we graduate, and then live this way, retire, die? The natural latter seems like death to creativity in so many of the young, leaving them silent and straight jacketed walking in a straight line to predictability.

It’s always your choosing to decide whether you’ll live a curious life or a comfortable one. Maybe I’m crazy for not following a path I know that would lead me to a stable life, maybe I’m crazy for following my passions. Maybe I won’t have a big yard or an abundance in my bank account, but I’ll have stories and a heart bigger than my body, a brain with stretch marks. I’ll have films and images, an archive of my life of adventure. My life of constant hunger for better understanding of Earth and my spirit within it.

There are always other options.

Challenge your comfort, let yourself unfold.

– Madison Dube from thewanderlustchild.com