Growing up

And life goes by faster and faster the older we get. In the blink of an eye winter is here, summer has become just a memory, and something new is in your life. Or someone new. :) And everything feels right. Nothing is overwhelming you, the future seems to have endless possibilities, and you wonder which path your life will end up taking. There's something wonderful about discovering yourself as you grow older.

Και η ζωή συνεχίζεται σε όλο και πιο γρήγορους ρυθμούς οσο μεγαλώνουμε. Ο χειμώνας είναι εδώ, το καλοκαίρι έχει γίνει απλά μια ανάμνηση, και κάτι νέο μπαίνει στη ζωή σου. Ή κάποιος. :) Και αισθάνεται οτι όλα είναι απολύτως σωστά. Τίποτα δεν σε κυριεύει, το μέλλον φαίνεται να έχει ατελείωτες δυνατότητες, και αναρωτιέσε ποιο δρόμο τελικά θα πάρει η ζωή σου. Είναι υπέροχο να ανακαλύβεις τον εαυτό σου καθώς μεγαλώνεις.

"But love is always new. Regardless of whether we love once, twice, or a dozen times in our life, we always face a brand-new situation. Love can consign us to hell or to paradise, but it always takes us somewhere. We simply have to accept it, because it is what nourishes our existence. If we reject it, we die of hunger, because we lack the courage to stretch out a hand and pluck the fruit from the branches of the tree of life. We have to take love where we find it, even if that means hours, days, weeks of disappointment and sadness." ~Paulo Coelho

Pictures that I took with my friends this summer in Ocean City. Φωτογραφίες που βγήκα αυτό το καλοκαίρι με τις φίλες μου στο Ocean City του New Jersey.

The Little Things

Things to do every day to improve your lifestyle:

-Wake up and look outside your window. Be glad to be given yet another day in this beautiful, spontaneous and full-of-life world.
-Set your alarm 15 minutes earlier than you normally would. Use that time in the morning to sit outside drinking coffee or eating breakfast. Beginning your day without being in a hurry will influence your mood throughout the rest of the day.
-Make note of the first person you see every morning and make it a habit to greet them in the best way you can –even if you are sleep-deprived and don’t feel like talking, put in the effort. When looking back on your day, you’ll know you started off right.
-Read some poetry or pick up a book every day. You never know what could click that could inspire you. Try to read for 30 minutes every day and you will go through books much faster than you expect.
-Smile. Make sure it’s a real smile and not one to satisfy others.
-Check your computer only twice a day for as little as possible. Something tells me that people tend to remember real life experiences more than endless hours in front of a screen. Go out there and live.
-Take a nature walk every day, even when it’s cold. Breathe in the fresh air and strive to achieve internal peace. The environment will help you relax and reflect.
-Spend time with children. They’ll teach you to be happy about the littlest things or even be happy for no reason at all :)

Smells in boxes

Smell. Probably one of the strongest factors in bringing back memories. There have been many instances where I've smelled a perfume I hadn't worn in a while and it reminded me specifically of junior or senior year of high school. Sometimes I wish I could box certain smells so that every time I want to remember a place or an experience, I open the box and travel down memory lane. No, but seriously.

The smells I'd want to capture are those of:
-Nature in the summer in Connecticut
-Nature in the summer in Greece (yes, they smell differently)
-Rainy soil in the summer to remind me of calm summer nights
-Watermelon to remind me of summer in my younger years and of my aunt.
-My ex-boyfriends' cologne to remind me of good memories
-A library filled with old books
-Clothes that came from a suitcase to remind me of my travels
-Sunscreen to remind me of summer
-My elementary, middle and high schools
-My house in Greece
-Morning air in Spain
-My best friends' and cousins' perfumes so that they all feel close to me even if they're far away.
-My house now

Wouldn't it be amazing if every time you opened one of those boxes you felt close to that memory, that place or that person and felt the way you did then?

Picture link: http://weheartit.com/entry/11643889

Childhood

Lately I've been trying to find the words to describe what I'm feeling. I will try my best and see how it goes. This post is about living in a specific place and our notion of belongingness. Having moved to the United States at 13, I felt like I belonged in Greece (and still do). I think there is a certain age in childhood when the world as you know it only makes sense if you are in the place you've grown up in.

Today I was at the park and I was looking at all the children playing baseball, tennis, volleyball, etc. I was trying to put myself in their shoes and see how on earth this place could feel to them like...home. And I couldn't. But when I think about my small town in Greece, my grandmother's backyard where I played for hours with my cousins, my elementary school in Greece and my neighborhood, suddenly that is the only place I could imagine growing up in. And the problem is that I think it's the best place, no matter how many more fun opportunities children have in my current town in the states. One thing that bothers me here is that lots of people move constantly. They move with their children to a different town or state, no matter what age they are, as if life in their current town was just temporary and not good enough. Now, I'm all for traveling and finding the ideal place to live in, but I don't think it's right to move your children away from what they've always known and the people they've grown up with, and to move somewhere else just because of a job opportunity. This thought now reminds me that this is exactly what my parents did when I was 13. I don't hate it here, but I believe that people should try harder to stay at the place they chose and worked hard for. I think there's something very important in being able to visit your parents once you've moved out and to be able to be back in the town you lived in as a child, around the same friends you've had since elementary school and around the same neighbors. Somehow, I think life's cycle is more crystal-clear when your present can meet your past at the same place.

Picture link: http://weheartit.com/entry/11643889

Λίγο ρομάντζο.

Κάτι που έγραψα πριν κάτι χρόνια σε ένα τετράδιό μου, που όμως δεν παύει να με εκφράζει...

Είναι στιγμές που η μορφή σου χάνεται απο τις σκέψεις μου σαν ένας ήλιος που έχει πάψει πια να φωτίζει. Το μυαλό μου αδειάζει απο τις μυριάδες περιπέτειές μας και ψάχνω απεγνωσμένα να σε βρω στις άκρες του. Είναι όμως και κάποιες στιγμές που ζωντανεύεις στη σκέψη μου και επανέρχεσαι, όπως όταν ο ήλιος ανατέλει το πρωί. Και μου χαρίζεις φως..Γιατι μπορώ ξανα να σε δω και μόνο η σκέψη σου με γεμίζει ζεστασιά. Σύντομα όμως σκοτινιάζει...Κι εγώ ξαναχάνομαι στο σκοτάδι. Μακριά απ΄το φως σου, μακριά απο ΄σένα, στην άλλη άκρη της γης.

You, again

Δεν ξέρω γιατί, αλλά αυτο το τραγούδι με έκανε να σε θυμηθώ. Φαίνεται ότι τα πάντα μου θυμήζουν εσένα τώρα τελευταία. Ίσως φταίνε και οι ήσυχες βροχερές μέρες που είχαμε αυτόν τον καιρό. Κι έτσι, ενώ έχει πάει μιάμιση το πρωί, αφού δε με πιάνει ύπνος, εγώ σκέφτομαι το εξής..
Ι want to make art, and love, and music...And I want to dream with you, laugh with you, fall asleep in your arms, fight with you, cry for you, sing to you, try harder to make you mine, and I want to know that this will work out. And even if it means getting hurt later, I want to share my LOVE with you. And then the whole world will sound like poetry, look like heaven, and feel like perfection.

"So hold on to me, don't you ever let me go"

Footsteps in the Sand.

Τι είναι η ζωή, αλλά μια σειρά από βήματα και στάσεις ανάπαυσης; Παρόλο που ακούγεται λιγάκι ανόητο, έχω σκεφτεί πολύ το θέμα της γεωγραφικής μου θέσης και τον ορισμό της ζωής μου όσον αφορά την εν λόγω θέση. Και κατάλαβα ότι δεν έχει σημασία πού βρίσκεσαι, ή πόσο μακριά σου είναι οι άνθρωποι που αγαπάς. Το μόνο που έχει σημασία είναι ότι νιώθεις κοντά τους συναισθηματικά. Η συγκάτοικός μου στο πανεπιστήμιο ζει περίπου 5 ώρες από το σπίτι μου. Όμως, αφού έζησα μαζί της για τόσους μήνες, δεν έχει καν σημασία για μένα το πόσο μακριά είναι, γιατί εξακολουθώ να αισθάνομαι τόσο κοντά της! Ή όταν πάω πίσω στην Ελλάδα και βλέπω όλες τις φίλες μου πάλι (ακόμα κι όταν δεν έχουμε βρεθεί για χρόνια), εξακολουθώ να αισθάνομαι σαν να ήμασταν μαζί χθες. Δεν ξέρω πώς τα πάνε οι σχέσεις σε αυτή την περίπτωση, αλλά νομίζω ότι οι πραγματικές φιλίες διαρκούν (και ίσως ανθίζουν) από την απόσταση. Θα ‘θελα πολύ να μπορούσα να επιστρέψω στη στιγμή που απεικονίζει η φωτογραφία. Ξέρω ότι αυτό το καλοκαίρι δε γίνεται, αλλα είμαι σίγουρη πως σε κάποια στιγμή η ζωή θα με ξανα φέρει πίσω σ’εκείνο το μέρος και θα περάσω ακόμη καλύτερες στιγμές. Έτσι, αν σας λείπει ένας φίλος(οι), σας λέω ότι η ζωή μπορεί να σας πάρει πλήρη κύκλο και να σας φέρει πίσω σε αυτά τα άτομα. Έχουμε σίγουρα πολλά περισσότερα βήματα για να κάνουμε στη ζωή, έτσι Carpe Diem και Hakuna Matata!