The Book Thief

I just finished reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and I can honestly say it is one of the best books I have ever read. Extremely thought-provoking, the novel highlighted the horrors of the Second World War and just how far Hitler went to exterminate the Jews simply because they were different and didn't fit in with his perfect world. It's beautifully written and I found my emotions were all over the place as it could make me happy in one moment and shocked/saddened in the next. It also made me question death, should it be feared or should it be embraced when our time is finally over? Not the usual book I would choose to read, but I am so glad I did because it has very quickly become one of my favourites and I would highly recommend it.

Trust no one

Hey everyone
Do you ever feel unimportant? It sucks. Not knowing who is there for you and who actually cares about you. I wish I could read minds and understand what people are thinking because right now there are 7 billion people in the world but 14 billion faces. I know longer know who is my friend anymore and who is actually there for me.

Trust no one. Then you won't get hurt.

This is sad, but becoming increasingly true everyday. I'll find out that one of my 'friends' has said something to someone else trying to cause an argument between me and them. Stop, just stop. I can't stand backstabbers, or two faced people. This sounds incredibly childish, but is the only way I can phrase it. I now dread going to school - not because of the lessons or the teachers but because of the people. I can't wait to leave, to get away from it all. I want friends who support you and are there for you through thick and thin. I want nothing to do with many of the people I know.

I'm sorry. This was a rant and a childish one at that, but I'm feeling so worked up right now I needed to vent.

Speak soon, when I'll hopefully be happier.

Losing faith

Hi everyone,
So, this weekend I was taking part in a swimming competition and I did rather well, beating my personal bests in 4 out of 6 of my races - great. However, where I was only knocking up to a second off my times, some of the other swimmers were getting huge personal bests and increasing the gap between myself and them. This made me question myself - am I good enough?
You can't be good at everything and I realise that the races I competed in were not my strongest events. But I found myself getting increasingly upset as others were doing exceptionally well and I was just doing alright. I began to think to myself 'this isn't going to go anywhere' and 'why am I wasting my time doing something I am not even good at?'
But this was a huge life lesson to me. I tried to rethink it and I found myself saying that even if I don't become an olympic champion and smash world records, does this mean I should doubt myself? I am still benefitting from my swimming and I enjoy it - it keeps me healthy, I have made lots of great friends and competitions allow me to see if my training has been paying off. Everyone will have good and bad moments, so why should I lose faith in myself because this one time I haven't done as well as I wanted to.
So, instead of wallowing in self-pity, I have decided that I will train hard so I can achieve what I want to. If I don't put the effort in beforehand, I won't come out with the result I want on the day.
I guess my message is, never doubt yourself. If you work hard and put the effort in, you will reap the rewards! In the end it is down to you. I know this is probably the cheesiest thing I've ever written, but it's helping me so I hope it helps at least somebody else:)

Speak soon...