Firstly my birthday. I had it at home this year and unfortunately I/we took close to no photos. Like always, it was a really good night (for me at least.) I think having it at home really has its merits. It's more conducive (sp?) than say a sit down dinner. People can walk around and talk to other people, particularly people they don't know. Which is surprisingly important for me. In that sense it was really good to see new faces this year, particularly so, when they seemed to be enjoying themselves.
I don't have any photos this year from my birthday. It seems odd to take photos every year. A little too keen.
Shout out to Gab, Amanda, Mina, Sam, Josh and Yash. 5 years of birthdays. 5 years of putting up with me.
To Sam, thank you for doing the BBQ. It really helped when it doesn't tie me down next to the BBQ and I can go around to talk to people.
To Steph, thank you for the cup cakes and taking me seriously when I asked for BYO salad. Everyone enjoyed your cup cakes! The effort you went to was not unnoticed.
To Tom and Mikey, thank you both for helping me clean the BBQ, the house and going shopping. We didn't go too far over catered even though I bought way too many beers.
To David for bringing the ice and breaking chairs.
To Josh and Mina, you guys have been absolute pals. Thank you for helping me clean up despite how difficult I am.
And to everyone, who donated to BeyondBlue. $150 this year. This is the one good thing, I do for society. This pseudo-fundraiser is the only thing I do for charity/society. So, it's important that I can do a bit of difference on my birthday of my day.
I really hope everyone enjoyed themselves. I know not everyone got along and I apologise for that. That is a bit of a sour note, but I hope you enjoyed yourself nonetheless.
Almost all my friends know what they're doing next year and are ready to move onwards post University. I am so happy to see them do well and succeed in their respective fields. Next year, it will be a little odd as most of us will be out of University. I don't know what's happening next year, whether I want it to be the same friends or something bigger, but for now I am content.
The last few months have been difficult. Only in the past couple of weeks have I been able to get ease my mind from clutter and what not. But now, I slightly more at peace and accepting of the cards that I've been dealt.
There was a story recently. Well the story itself isn't recent, I just read it recently. The story was about Peter Norman, the man in the far left in this iconic image. I'll let you guys read his story here in your own time.
Norman was faced between standing up for his principle and his own goals.
To be absolutely clear, we don't face life changing choices everyday. Not everyday are we placed in a situation where the choices we make will affect our lives. However, too often we sacrifice our principle for what people expect of us.
Everyone has goals and dreams. We often put aside everything for them forgetting things that we normally value. Oh, I have to cancel on you, work called me in. Sorry, I can't come, I need to study; we hear these every day.
(Yeah, I hate people cancelling on me if that wasn't clear already)
Whilst I appreciate we have to sacrifice a few things along the way, but sacrificing the promises that we made before we made the goals really detracts from it.
Goals, especially the long ones, often come at the cost of so much. Progress, for the sake of progress is all well and good. Getting to the goal is all well and good. But when you sack everything along the way, who you are, your friends, your principles and your values the goal might not be for you.
One of the challenges of getting to a goal is getting there with "you" intact. Politicians, run for presidency starting on a platform of destroying inequality and world peace and what not. Then, when they get their goal of presidency, prime ministry and what not they forget everything they say. John Howard, in one of his campaign promised no GST and yet we have GST now.
Yeah, John Howard screw that guy! Politicians are probably not the best group of people that you should best hold yourself to. But the point remains.
We all set goals at the start. Just remember when you get to the end, you're still who you are when you first started.
Peter Norman, refused to sacrifice what he believed in for the sake of his career. When faced with between his values and his own goals, he chose his own principles. I hope, I'd do the same.
~TastyJacks~
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