Stressed

It's officially that time of the semester that every single University student dreads... exam period. It's different at all universities, but at mine it lasts for 3 weeks and exams are held at 3 different times each day (9am, 1:30pm and 5pm), 6 days a week (Monday- Saturday).

I understand that exams are meant to test the knowledge that you have accumulated through attending lectures and tutorials and sometimes extra classes throughout the semester, but I personally believe there is way too much emphasis on some of these final exams. Especially exams that are worth 60% of your course mark and are 'you must pass this exam to pass this course'. Because honestly what a waste all of the assessments and tests and quizzes you've done over the last 13 weeks if you can fail in one 3 hour make or break exam.

Exams stress me out. I've never been the best at dealing with stress that exams bring (or any kind of stress really) but here are my top ways to manage stress and take care of your health. 
*side note: I do all of these things when it gets to stressful times during exam period but it doesn't make me stress free, I've still had my share of nervous breakdowns when combinations of things have pushed me over the edge (exams and personal issues etc.)*

1. Make a schedule and stick to it as much as possible- This one is my number one tip and to me it really is make or break. I like to be organised and I really need a schedule and to write everything down because otherwise I seem to forget everything. Schedule in your work hours, time to study, time to relax, time to hang out with friends. Then sticking to that is probably the hardest part but it is very rewarding
2. Set yourself achievable goals- Depending on my classes and how I find them, I set myself different goals for each class (i.e. Microeconomics- pass, Consumer Behaviour- High credit/low distinction). But more than that I make the goals realistic. If I told myself I am aiming for a HD in economics I would drive myself crazy and go completely overboard on the amount of time I try and study for the one subject, while I would probably forget about everything else and stress myself out like crazy in between all that. Set goals and make them SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-bound)
3. Make sure you have time for yourself- I always need to do this to ensure I don't lose my sanity. Whether time for yourself is catching up on your favourite TV shows, writing a blog post or taking an extra long bath while you read a book- you need something to relax you and put aside the thoughts of study for an hour or so. 
4. If you're going to procrastinate, at least do something useful- Okay, so some people might not think this is the 'best' advice. But I am being realistic, the majority of us will procrastinate studying for our exams. This can be for any number of reasons (for me it is usually because I don't like the unknown and put it off for waaaaaay too long). When I am procrastinating study, I take the time to do something that needs to be done around the house (e.g. I'll do three loads of washing, clean my room, mow the yard, clean the entire house...) I feel better knowing that if I'm not studying at least I am doing useful things instead of watching an entire season of greys anatomy that day instead. 
5. Make sure you keep on top of your health! If you're feeling physically ill because of the stress of exams, it is always important to remind yourself that you need to be eating breakfast, lunch and dinner (healthy meals too), drinking your fluids and getting some exercise each day. When I'm feeling overwhelmed, I like to take a step away from my books and put on my running shoes and go for a jog and listen to some music. By the time I get back home, although I feel tired from the run, I feel better within myself and am ready to get back to the books. 
1. Mental health is important too! Issues with this for me occurred in the first semester this year, I was overwhelmed and wanted to give up so many times. I had a lot of personal things going on which didn't in any way help my stress but I knew that I needed to take care of myself. Failing a class is not the end of the world. It's unfortunate but it happens to many people. I took a step back from overloading myself to the point where I was having panic attacks and couldn't do anything. I failed a class, but I managed to get myself better. And it is the most important thing any of us can do!

I know not everyone will find what I've suggested helpful, but if you struggle and nothing so far has worked for you, I suggest you give these a go!

Some info about my uni and my classes (because they are different everywhere)
Grading system at my uni:
Fail- Below 49
Pass- 50-64
Credit- 65-74
Distinction- 75-84
High Distinction- 85-100

My classes this semester: (and goal marks)
Accounting for Decision-Making: Credit
Principles of Microeconomics: Pass (stupid 60% exam)
Consumer Behaviour: Credit-Distinction
Marketing Research: Credit-Distinction

Classes last semester: (and actual marks)
Marketing Fundamentals: Credit
Introductory Statistics: Credit (stupid 60% exam)
Principles of Management: Credit
Techniques and Elements of Finance: Fail (stupid 60% exam and stupid subject haha)

Thanks for reading!

4 Years

I made a post previously about my anniversary, but it was incomplete to say the least. I talked more about why love was important and then briefly about how I went out to dinner at my favourite restaurant with my boyfriend for our four year anniversary. We planned to do other things for our anniversary, but due to it being on a Wednesday, both of us working completely different schedules, bad weather and just overall busy lives, not everything we wanted to do had been done until now.

All we wanted for our anniversary was:

1. Dinner on the night at our favourite place to eat
2. A day away at one of our favourite places 
3. A special gift that would last forever

I'm happy to say we finally did all of those things (yay). I already spoke about number one here, so now I'm going to write about number 2 and 3. 

A day away at one of our favourite places
A few weeks ago on a beautiful Sunday morning we drove down to the South Coast to go to Kiama. Nothing beats a Maccas breakie and car trips with loud music and awful singing (mostly on my part anyway). We explored Kiama (who knows how many times we have actually done this now, but it's such a beautiful place so it doesn't matter).

Kiama Lighthouse

Kiama Blow Hole

One of the first things we had to do when we got to Kiama was go and visit the Kiama Blow Hole. First of all because it's really cool (duh), secondly because we had something we had to leave on the fence surrounding the area out towards the ocean. I'm sure everyone has heard of this which even though ruined the bridge, is still super cute. Something similar was started near the Blow Hole in Kiama, so Kieran and I thought we should join in on the couples fun. We bought the biggest lock we could find and engraved (extremely messily because it is so much harder than it looks) our names, our anniversary and some random heart. 

The padlock we left at the Blow Hole, Kiama

I put it on the fence and then I let Kieran have the honours of throwing the keys as far as he could into the ocean around the Blow Hole. We were feeling super cute after this and also hungry so we ate hot chips and sat in the sun at the park breathing in the fresh air, soaking up the sunshine and enjoying each others company. 

A bit later we ended up going for a walk around (again) and bought ice-cream from the best ice-cream shop and then went to the rock pool to again lay in the sun and this time swim. 

The Ice-Creamery, Kiama

The water was absolutely freezing, but we gave it a go and then sat in the sun to warm back up. We walked around town holding hands, talking, laughing and it was the perfect day I had imagined. In typical fashion I fell asleep in the car on the way home (he drove) and we got home without getting lost in the dark (first time yay) and had a BBQ at my house with family for dinner. Perfect day.

A special gift that would last forever
Originally this was an idea Kieran suggested about 6 months ago. We came up with more of an idea together but were always a bit hesitant (well I was the hesitant one because I am a little chicken and scared of anything that will hurt). But eventually we found the time and worked up the courage (well that part was only affecting me) and we went and got our matching tattoos. 

Our couple tattoo

Permanent. Yep they are there forever. Just how we will be together forever. Something small and simple to symbolise our love for each other. Some people have literally thought we were crazy to get matching tattoos, but it's not each others names, only a symbol. We thought the tattoos through for a long time, discussing "what if's?" such as what if we break up? But we came to the conclusion, he is my first love and I am his, even if we did go our separate ways in the future we would both clearly have a spot in each other's hearts forever :-)

Moving on to my next point, I was so scared to get this done. I think the pain was greatly exaggerated by everyone though. I cried for at least 10 minutes before the tattoo artist even touched me. Yes, I will admit that made me look incredibly stupid. Once he started, I could feel a lot of pressure and I will be honest it only hurt on the boniest possible part of my wrist.  I didn't cry when it was being done. Only before. I don't know why, but Kieran found it funny. I went first so I wouldn't chicken out. I'm happy we did it. Now for the 3 weeks without the beach or pool so it can properly heal :(

Bottom line, I love Kieran and am extremely happy we celebrated our 4 year anniversary this way.

Thank you for reading guys!

Friendship

If there's anything that I've learnt in my 19 years of life, it's that friendships are important. If anyone else out there is like me, you'll go through phases where you think 'who cares I don't need friends, I'm quite content being alone blah blah blah' but at the end of the day, you do need friends. And you need fabulous ones at that. 

I've struggled a lot over the years (especially in high school) to either make friends or maintain friendships. There's so many reasons why and here are the main ones:

1. I would always choose the wrong people to be friends with. There's clearly plenty of reasons that define the phrase 'choosing the wrong friends' but a main one for me is that some of the people I was friends with on/off throughout high school were just genuinely uncaring, nasty people. 
2. I give people second (and third and fourth and twenty fifth) chances when they don't deserve them. I'm too forgiving. Someone was mean to me or said something nasty that I didn't deserve? I'd forgive them and keep being friends and telling them secrets simply because I'm too forgiving (and naive). I'm not saying there's anything wrong with forgiving people and giving them another chance, but I've learnt I need to be extremely careful with who I give those chances too. Oh and if they make the same 'mistake' twice (spreading lies about you, saying nasty things behind your back), odds are they don't deserve a third chance. 
3. I look for the good in people. Pretty self explanatory but allowed me to overlook the awful qualities that some friends I chose possessed. 
4. Lack of things in common. One thing I've learnt from being out of high school and being an adult, is you can't be friends with someone who you don't have things in common with. Sure you can be superficial friends for a while but you'll get bored with each other and move on pretty fast. 
5. People who don't put the same effort into the friendship as you do aren't worth it. If you're always the one calling, texting or trying to make plans with people who just don't seem interested or never do he same back, forget them. Same goes for in a relationship. You deserve people around you who put 100% into a friendship just the way you do. 
6. You only get back what you give. Same as above it works the other way around. If you can't put effort into a friendship, don't expect them to either. And if the other person is the one always making plans and trying and you don't, you need to either: be a better person and make the effort or gently let the person know you don't think you're compatible friends. 
7. Never choose friends for convenience. It's stupid and it's not real friendship. In high school most people will become friends with each other because they are in the same class, or they saw each other in the playground and want someone to sit with. High school friendships don't often last after you graduate unless you have developed real friendships for reasons other than convenience. Believe me when I left and started my 'new' life I stopped talking to all but (maybe) 10 people. 

I'm lucky that I've found some extremely good friends in my life after high school. It's okay not to have many friends, because I believe the more friends you have, the harder it can be to keep up with them in a realistic world and the friendships can become superficial. I'm still getting to the point where I discover all of the bad friends I have and get rid of them for good like I've done to so many others (see seven reasons above). I want to be able to say you're either my bestfriends or we are acquaintances. It's hard to have a middle ground. Some people won't agree with this but it's MY way of seeing friendships. 

Thanks for reading! 

                                                      

                                  

                                       

                             

                               

                               

P.s there's more pictures I wanted to include but of course I can't find them on my phone when I need them! 

Nineteen

It's been about a month since I wrote last, life has just gotten crazy busy. So let's quickly catch up on all the exciting things that have happened in the last month and what has been going on. 

1. I turned 19!
2. Lifelong dream of seeing Miley Cyrus in concert happened
3. Work work work oh and more work
4. Uni has been kicking butt lately
5. I seem to have become a party girl in between all of that

So that's just a quick summary of the last month of my life. I don't even think the word busy begins to describe how I've been.

My birthday was simple and sweet, I babysat during the day (dislike working on my birthday, but adult life). Then in the evening I went out to my favourite Chinese restaurant with my beautiful family. The waiters sung me happy birthday, gave me free birthday ice-cream, a balloon and chopsticks. Safe to say, birthday's are fun!

first photo as a 19 year old

To celebrate my birthday with some of my best friends, I went clubbing. There was a lot of drama revolving around that night (that I won't get into because it doesn't even matter anymore!) but I went out determined to have a fabulous night (who wouldn't?). The night didn't exactly go according to plan (when does it ever?) but I had a great time regardless and getting home to bed was the best feeling. Day light savings (shout out to NSW here) messed up our body clocks completely, from leaving at 1:30am for the hour and a half journey home, then getting home to bed at 5am???

Always a mission getting to
Kings Cross

so happy I spent the night with my bestfriends

Round three of birthday celebrations continued the following week with just a few drinks at the local leagues club with the remainder of some of my friends who didn't get to come out on the weekend with me. It was a more relaxed night with a bit of drinking and playing the pokies (I actually hate it because I think it is boring). Either way, was a good night once again.

I only like this photo because we look
so happy

Another pretty spectacular thing I got to experience was a ride on a 45 foot yacht with my mum and sister. It was a beautiful day and the views were great. Sydney is such a beautiful place and I was lucky I got to soak up the beautiful sunshine and enjoy the views on the luxury yacht. It would be hard to argue the beauty of Sydney in the picture I got below. 

Photo I got on the yacht of Sydney Harbour Bridge

Miley Cyrus. Do I even need to say anymore? I bought tickets to her Australian Bangerz tour in June (I think) and I had been crazy excited ever since. I lined up with a whole bunch of my friends and some others, from about 7am just to be in the front of the mosh pit. And I am so happy to say that 13 hours of waiting for Miley waited because we were at the front! There was about 10 of us, we all got split up into pairs (I was with my boyfriend) and we all battled for our lives in that mosh pit and I am proud to say I survived and I was so close to Miley I literally started crying (fangirl moment). The concert was the best that I have ever been to and ever since I have been suffering an extreme case of post concert depression.
#mileyfanforlife

Waiting in line with my boyfriend for Miley Cyrus (we both love her)

Best photo I got of Queen Miley riding the giant weiner (because I was so close)

Other things that have happened: more clubbing and a lot of working. A lot. Not sure where all this time comes from, but I feel happy and so alive. I'm grateful for the amazing friends I have and my wonderful family. I have so many opportunities in life (uni, work) and I am proud to say I really am making the most of it all. I'm quickly writing this to share my happiness and fill my readers in on my life in the last month, but now I have a lovely essay to get back to!

Best night in the city last weekend!

Standard couple photo while out clubbing 

Thanks for reading everyone! 

Love is Something to be Celebrated

I would like to raise my hand and say that "I, Kristelle am a sucker for love. I love, love."

Now if you  can think along those same lines as me, then that make me smile. I think love is important and it should be celebrated and acknowledged. One of my favourite times of the year (apart from my birthday which fyi, is in 5 days!) is my anniversary. I like to think as a couple, my boyfriend and I do 'celebrate' the fact we love each other (I use the term celebrate loosely here) quite often. To me that can be anything from sending a cheesy 'I love you so much' text, or going on a date or even just posting a picture of the two of us (I will be honest I post the pictures- my boyfriend isn't a fan of social media because "it's stupid". 

But above all, an anniversary is my favourite thing. When we were younger we would say "happy X months" but never actually do anything to celebrate. Probably because we were <16 years old and probably because even though we said it, saying Happy X Months still sounds stupid to us. If you love the cerebrate months, go for it! Like I said, I'm a sucker for love. 

We celebrate the years. At such a young age (I'm 19 in a few days and he is 18), it's been a struggle to be together as long as we have. Of course there's been bumps along the road (all couples have them) but what makes you strong is your ability to overcome them. Which is why I'm proud to say I have been in a relationship with the most loving, caring boy for the last 4 years. He knows my McDonalds order, but knows I prefer Oporto. He knows that I cry at everything, whether I'm happy/sad/angry. He knows everything about me and I know everything about him. He's my bestfriend and according to him I'm his 'best mate' too. 

We didn't buy presents in the traditional sense this year, we are buying a gift to each other that is still TBA. An anniversary to us is an excuse to dress up nicely and go out to an expensive restaurant and splurge- which is exactly what we do. This year, we went to Ribs and Rumps because, well I love steak and he loves ribs!

Couldn't get a picture of the food because it looked
to good to wait to eat

All in all, our anniversary is just a nice thing to celebrate together and spend time with each other. It's hard for us to make time for each other sometimes, he works full time 8am-4:30pm and nearly always works overtime a few hours, and I go to uni Monday-Wednesday, work 3 nights a week in one job and weekends in another job. Life is crazy busy and we never seem to be free at the same time, which is why when we do get a few hours together here or there and spend Saturday nights together, it's always special.

If you read this cheesy post about me loving my boyfriend, I applaud you and you probably deserve a big piece of chocolate cake. I figured it was about time he got an appreciation post on my blog and this was the perfect excuse for it. 

Conception Day

Hey everyone!

So, university is a fun place. I use the term 'fun' pretty loosely because well essentially university is a place full of learning, never ending homework and assignments and you're meant to study 10 hours a week minimum per subject at home. But, once you get over all that, you get to see the benefits and fun parts of uni. There's the partying, the extra long weekends, the cool people who you find so much in common with. Basically just the adventures you can have (I know there is so much more, but unless you're at uni currently, you probably won't even know what I'm talking about).

One of the greatest days in the uni calendar for myself (and thousands of others) is called 'Conception Day' *pause here for the confusion as to why thousands of people are happily celebrating a day with this name*. Let me start by saying- no it's not a day for everyone to conceive. It has something to do (from what I know) with the birthday of the founder of our uni being at a hard time of the year to celebrate, so instead we celebrate his 'conception' (genius right?).

Essentially Conception Day is a music festival, hosted at my uni with plenty of cool bands, different music stages for different artists/ DJ's (ya know, normal festival stuff). Asides from the music there's cool stuff like jumping castles, photo booths and of course drinking copious amounts of alcohol and hanging out with all the rad people uni has to offer. 

 It's a long day, pre-drinking before noon, making the most of Conception Day from about 12-7pm (and their cheap drinks) before taking the party over to The Ranch. In my case, the party continued first at a few peoples houses on campus before making our way over to The Ranch.

It was such a great day, listened to some great music, saw plenty of people I knew and just got to chill out for a day and enjoy myself. I must say though, it was extremely awkward walking into my uni semi-drunk to start with, but once the atmosphere hits, you're over it immediately. 

 Wanna shoutout to my beautiful friend Katie (above) for her amazing hospitality and lovely motherly skills (spaghetti is always good). 

I'm also glad I got to enjoy the day with my favourite uni pals and that my boyfriend travelled the annoying hour and a half train ride to uni to come and party with us at The Ranch afterwards, even though we were all dead tired.

It was seriously the best day, and I recommend anyone at Mac or who know friends there to go!

Child of the Ocean

I am thoroughly annoyed that I feel like I can't find 30 minutes to blog anymore. My life has gotten so crazy busy that when I have that spare 30 minutes to myself, the last thing I've felt like doing is going back onto my laptop (because I've normally just finished doing homework) so I take a nap instead or call my boyfriend. Blogging isn't the first thing on my mind, but it's been sitting there eating away at me I need to blog again because I actually enjoy it. 

I'm in Week 6 this semester at uni and it is so close to mid-semester break (after week 7) but it still feels forever away. Even worse than that, once it is mid-semester break, it's going to fly by and those two weeks will feel like nothing. 

I got a new job as well (seasonal job so it will be for the summer and on weekends leading up to and after summer) and well I'm pretty excited for it to start. I need a change. I need something fun that I will look forward to going to work again.

I've had plenty of fun little adventures with my friends since I've last posted but I want to dedicate this post in particular to my crazy fun friend Jess. We met at uni this year (well technically she approached me at the train station) and we hung out at uni, then started hanging out outside of uni too. I feel as though she is my mini-me and we are the same in so so many ways, meaning we always have fun together. 

We've been to her favourite place (Newtown) and my all-time favourite place (Narrabeen). From eating Gelato that was so rich it almost made us sick, to swimming in the middle of Winter at the beach, to trying to light a bonfire while it's wet and semi-raining- we've done it all.

Cutest cafe in Narrabeen

The Food was ridiculously good (and cheap) 

Fires don't work when it's raining (learnt the
hard way)

We spend a good 30 minutes taking photos of ourselves
and the beach

Essentially Narrabeen is my favourite place because:

1. It's the beach
2. The drive is fun and it doesn't even take too long when you have a dance party in your car
3. It's actually on my way to uni (hello Summer and good weather, bye uni)
4. It's peaceful and serene
5. It isn't Manly beach or Bondi beach (aka. the only beaches everyone seems to know and go to)
6. It's my little piece of happiness in this crazy world

Jess introduced me to her loves of Newtown and I found my own (bookstores anyone?). I can't wait to go back.

T2 samples in Newtown

I'm still full of regrets from not
trying my luck and buying a book here

Gelato and Gelato Shake. Some kind of
Nutella/coffee flavour if I remember
correctly. So good, yet so sickly

Some of the most beautiful coloured roses I have ever seen. You can tell I am a
flower child can't you?

If you're still reading my blog after all this time, thank you and I will be back soon!

Enjoy all my pictures, I feel they tell the stories more than my words could this time.