Lisa’s Life List.

My computers internet homepage is www.msn.com. That’s a really boring fact. Where I’m going with this is that an image of snowy mountains with people trekking through them titled “Great adventures you must do before you die” was thrust upon me. It grabbed my attention instantly because I wanted to know; what are these adventures? How do I do them? Do I really want to do them? Do they coincide with mine?
Admittedly there was some stunning imagery in the article & it made me want to do these things but there was only one thing on that list that matched my personal list of things I’d like to do in my life. How achievable they are I don’t know but I thought it’d be fun to revisit my life list & hopefully make people consider theirs …

Ride in a limo.
Definitely one of the most practical. Nearly every one of my friends had a limo for prom so they’re all really shocked by this one-but they forget: I arrived in a vintage car for prom not a limo–I’m so non-conforming. Limos are quite luxury & I’d like to do the whole champagne, hanging out the roof, screaming girly excitement thing.

Write a diary for a year.
Every single year on the 1^st of January I think ‘Yes! This is the year, it’s going to be epic and I’m going to record every minute of it!’ And every year after about 2 weeks I’ve grown bored already. Maybe 2013 is the year for this habit to finally be broken. Or 2014.

Scuba Dive.
This one is outrageously unlikely. I can’t really swim. And I’m scared of open water. If someone wants to get me some scuba gear so I can have a go in the bath that’d be cool, and some gold fish for extra effect.

Do A Presentation At A Meeting.
This is super boring in honesty, but it’s one of those ‘I’ve made it’ moments for me. I’d feel important and like I was doing well in my career.

Be Successful In A Career.
I’ve always pictured myself to be a ‘business type woman’: Someone that rushes to meetings in smart clothes etc. This is a very time consuming one, one I don’t expect to have been achieved by the time I’m about 30. I have less than 9 years.

Hula Dance In Hawaii.
Basically wanting a chance to go to Hawaii. And what better place to don a grass skirt, coconut bikini and shake my hips?

Travel Around Italy.
I’ve always been a little bit obsessed with Italy. I love the food, the accent, the drink, the music type, and the culture … everything about it. I’d seize the opportunity to roam around the most romantic country that has a fascinating history. Another one that I actually feel is achievable.

Drink Tequila in Mexico.
Simple. I really like tequila. And Mexican food. Cancun would be wicked for American Spring Break – Mexico’s a slightly dangerous place so I’d probably stay in the hotel the whole time but I’d still be there!

Take A Picture From The Eiffel Tower.
I’m in love with the idea of Paris; the city of love. I’m desperate to go. Honeymoon material possibly?

See The Pyramids In Egypt.
Of all countries I’ve grown to be obsessed with Egypt has always been the biggest, most important country that I’m passionate about. It goes back to when I was studying Ancient Egypt in history at school; I was fascinated & utterly besotted with everything I had learnt. I’d be terrified of getting a mummy curse in a pyramid or something awful happening but then again I think I’d be too amazed to be that scared.

Go To Disney Land.
Majority of my friends went as children with their family-my parents don’t even own passports so the closest we ever got was Haven or Butlins. It’s one of those mind blowing holidays that I feel everyone deserves to experience at least once. It’d be nice to go with my boyfriend, so we can be kids and explore this whole crazy world together.

Do Something Big for Charity.
I feel like I’ve done something medium for charity. I did Cancer Research UK Race For Life and raised over £400, I debated if I could cross that off as my ‘something big’ but it doesn’t feel big enough. Something like a sky dive of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro would suffice.

Climb Mount Kilimanjaro.
This has always been one of the things I’m vaguely interested in but as I’ve researched it a bit I’m a lot more interested. It can be done in December so that you arrive at the top at midnight on the 31^st – how cool would that be? Nothing would ever beat that! I think it would change my life & my perception on things for the better. BUT I’m scared of everything & can’t handle needles which I’m more than sure we’d need injections to go … Mount Killy is a pipe dream really.

Be A Maid Of Honour.
I’d be a bad ass Maid of honour; I’m overly organised & like making lists. And would get to wear a pretty dress.

Own An Expensive & Pretentious car.
I like shiny things and I like cars. I’m not going into more detail than that.

Buy The House.
In my head I have a blueprint of the house I want to have-it’s big, white, lots of bedrooms & bathrooms, a picket fence & a double garage … I’ve built it many a time on The Sims and it always looks best when I’m living in it.

Spend My Life With The Man I Love.
My own personal hell would be being lonely without the love of a man I’m in love with. I think I’m meant to be with someone. I’m not built to be on my own. I’m a loving creature really.

Go on holiday with my partner.
Go abroad with my partner.

These are all things that matter to me. Only time will tell if they happen or not or how I’ll feel if they do or don’t happen. So what things do you want to do with your life?

A Difference In Beliefs.

Religion is something that divides cultures, cities, countries and the world as a whole. Religion can start domestics, epic debates, division, gangs, and wars but can also create a feeling of unity, wholeness, comfort, security, community, support and understanding. Wikipedia states “Religion is a collection of belief systems, cultural systems, and world views that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to explain the origin of life or the Universe. They tend to derive morality, ethics, religious laws or a preferred lifestyle from their ideas about the cosmos and human nature.”

I expect this’ll be the most controversial entry I write as most of my others have been about shoes and clothes but I wanted to explore something I’m quite passionate about. I’m not passionate about religion in general, you won’t find me knocking on your door with a bible or fasting or anything like that. I’ve not selected a religion to follow, maybe because I’m too lazy to do so but I also think religion can lead to a slight craziness and in some cases a slight loss of identity. Most of my beliefs blend in together and go hand in hand with each other so I just wanted to seize the opportunity to explore my beliefs, do some research and get anyone that may be reading thinking about something different from day to day things. Anyway, here’s a summary of what I believe in and how I feel they’ve come into play with my life.

Everything happens for a reason. I worked at a fashion retail shop for 3 years, at least half of that was spent vaguely looking for a different job-I was never going to develop or get further in that company. A Christmas temp job came up at a local jewellers I happened to walk by and I was a successful applicant, smugly handing in my notice to my fashion job. After my 3^rd day at the jewellers I went home crying my eyes out because everyone was horrible & I was miserable-maybe it’ll get better? I guess I’ll never know. I quit and faced unemployment at the busiest, most expensive time of year but my family, friends and boyfriend said they were there for me and they’d accept rubbish Christmas presents. Within the next week I’d been offered a job at a children’s toy shop by a friend who was conveniently an assistant manager there. It is the lowest I’ve ever been paid, it was awkward to get to and I hated kids. And yet it turned out to be my favourite job ever, the people were wonderful, the hours were easy & it was just such a great atmosphere it never felt like work. Soon enough they wanted to take me further and started training me as a supervisor, but a full time, incredibly well paid job in insurance popped up and I couldn’t resist. The insurance job was great; well paid, wicked friends, easy work and eventually insane boredom due to being too repetitive and soul destroying. If I ever have to ask someone how many years no claims discount they have, I will melt into the floor. Word of advice: Have your documents ready when dealing with car insurance, a sure fire way to piss off the person you’re on the phone to is gallivanting all over your house looking for stupid shit-your heavy breathing when you’ve run up the stairs also makes my skin crawl and do not call me ‘love’. That is a term of endearment for your friends and family only.
I’ve left the insurance job and just started in recruitment; maybe it’s my calling in life? I’m only 21 so I have plenty of time to decide what I’m meant to do with my life and if it doesn’t work out it’s because it’s not meant to. I sincerely believe if I hadn’t left that miserable jewellers within days then I wouldn’t have had the chance to work at my most loved place of employment, and my most well paid which bought me a lovely car and lots of memorable holidays.

Fate/destiny. Fate dictates that events in life are predetermined and out of a person’s control. Luke & I were together for 2 years, we split up for a year & then got back together and have been going strong ever since. If we hadn’t split when we did then I don’t think we’d be happily together now. I found out he was going to be on a night out with all my friends that I was going to and usually I would’ve just said ‘screw that I don’t want to see him ever again’. But there was something that pulled me to being stronger than that and going, maybe I wanted to prove to him I didn’t need him? How much impact could 1 night of my life make? A lot it seems. We reconnected, enjoyed each others company, discovered we’d both grown up and after a few weeks we got back together and lived happily ever after. Not one of my friends said to me ‘you should go it’ll be fine’ or ‘don’t go it’ll rally up old feelings’ to me, no one guided me to make the decision to put a dress & heels on and to do my make up that night: it just happened. I sincerely believe that fate pushed us together that night, to start the first conversation, to decide to exchange numbers again, to see each other, to kiss and to inevitably belong in each others lives again. I don’t know what our destiny is as a couple but I certainly know where I want it to lead.

I suppose these two are my strongest beliefs, I don’t ask anyone else to agree with me and I don’t expect anyone to argue with me, that’s not the point of this. Everyone believes different things, my mum believes that when she dies that’s it; there’s nothing more you’re just a corpse in a wooden box but I think my soul will continue on and I’ll be reincarnated into something else. My sister believes in some form of Christianity, we’ve not discussed it much but as far as I know it’s generally heaven or hell. And most other religion will have some form of belief on life after death & the meaning of life. I have a romantic view on the world that good people will be rewarded by karma and bad people will get what they deserve. I appreciate the world isn’t that black and white and how could it be? There’s so many colours in between.