New Year, New Posibillities.

Although January is almost to an end, I will allow myself to make the standard "The Year that Past" post. Time flew, and suddenly 2011 was gone, and what a year it was. Lots of good things happened to me in 2011, things I grew from as a person, and also things I wish I was without. All in all, a year I have both loved and sometimes cared less about, but most of all: thankful for. An educational year, that's the word I'm looking for :)

January 1.st last year I drove the car home from Copenhagen with two of my girlfriends, and we both talked about the year that had passed, but also what we expected of 2011. And there were many things I never in my wildest dreams thought I would experience or realize. For that I am grateful. Even the negative stuff has taught me a lot, even though you wish it never happened at the time. But I believe that, was doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, and it must say I've realized that this last year.

2011 was the year:

..where Denmark won silver in Men's handball World Cup.

..where I got a lot of new and amazing friends I am eternally grateful for. Now you're stuck with me ;)

..where I learned a lot about myself and began a new chapter.

..where my cousin beat cancer's but! I'm so glad and happy about that. She is not only a cousin but one of my closest girlfriends. At the same time, she ended the year finding out she was pregnant against all odds, so awesome.

..where my friend held her bachelorette party, got married AND had a little daughter! Wild year and I'm so happy for her :) Bella will be so spoiled by me! :)

..where I got even more good memories with my other cousin and best friend, twins as we called ourselves when we were kids. She also finished the year defying the odds and got pregnant, fantastic!

..where Norway reminded all of us that love is stronger than hate! Amazing people, they inspire each day.

..I completed my "Movie List"! :D Saw all movies in the cinema I had planned (minor stuff, but still very important).

..where I yet again confirmed that I have the most beautiful family on earth. Love, unity, compassion, tolerance, laughter, fun and much more, all this is something we share, so amazing.

..where my Mom and Stepdad (Paps as I call him) had "copper wedding" (12½ years of marriage)! Time flies, love you guys so much.

..where I started on the volunteer work I had always wanted to! Now I can't let go :)

..I'll never forget, like so many others. A year I am eternally grateful for, for all that gave me and taught me.

2011 was a crazy year where many things happened I never thought would happen. There is so much, I can't write about everything, so I've put together a couple of collages. A picture speaks a thousand words, or so it is said :)

Love nature, and 2011 was a year filled with many beautiful walks in the forest.

 It's not just people that enrich your life, I have many amazing animals around me that make the day a little bit more fun an awesome.

The summer of 2011 was awesome in so many ways. Lots of great memories I'll never forget.

Christmas and New Year’s was awesome as always. Have the best family, love them!

 You need to remember the small pleasures, so I've gathered a couple of just that :)

I'm grateful for 2011, both for all the good and bad it brought, and I can't wait to see what 2012 will bring me. I hope you all are able to look at all the good 2011 gave you and bring it into 2012. But also, that you can look at all the bad and learn from it, let it be the fuel to make you fight for a better 2012, turn defeat to victory.

Happy New Year!

Christina

#QOTD - Choose your way

Another good one and maybe not something we seem to forget:

Sometimes it’s easier to pick the easy road instead of the road that will actually teach us something, make us grow and pay off in the end. Not that I judge, I do it too sometimes :) I think it's become a habit for most people. Choosing the easy way because we may have fear of what will meet us in the unknown. Or maybe we don't feel like we have the time or energy to face it. But sometimes I choose to take the difficult road, and each time I gain something that makes up for all the struggles and heart ships. My brain and heart just seems to forget that every time I face the 'unknown road' :) But I'm getting better, and I hope all of you will face the unknown and choose that road we deep down know but just don't feel like taking :)

Have an awesome weekend :)

Christina

New challenges :)

Finally got started on some volunteer jobs, I been keen to do this for so many years but just didn't get around to do something about it until now!

I have been elected to the Board of Ventilen Denmark. This is a volunteer organization which operates venues for quiet and lonely young people between 15-25th. I funded Ventilen with money before, and has a sister-in-law who has been a volunteer there a few years now, so I was familiar to the organization, but was a spontaneous choice that made me take the plunge and become a Board member. Many will probably think it's a bit of a mouthful; I like to think of it as a challenge:) Of course I am not superman/woman, and there's a lot to learn, but I am convinced it will be a very exciting year.

Personally, I think Ventilen is doing a tremendous job and the work they do is super important, and that I have the opportunity to help shape the organization and make my mark, I find super exciting! It is also a bunch of enthusiastic young people who run the organization, double plus:) So all in all, it's a win-win:) So far I have decided to become a part of the education committee, something which I find interesting, while still being close to what I daily work with.

Then I actually started on something else, something I've been part of since July, but which really only just got official. Have signed up as a volunteer writer for an organization in the U.S. called TwitChange! I supported them, and their mission to use social media to spread news about all sorts of good charitable organizations or events, through Twitter.

TwitChange, as their name indicates, is a volunteer organization that wants change the world 'one tweet at a time' through social media. At first they focused a lot on Twitter. Many celebrities, well-known organizations (etc.) have profiles on Twitter, and you can easily "follow" them and see what they "tweet" about on their timeline. TwitChange saw the idea of ​​teaming up with celebrities and using Twitter as a way to get people to donate money to good causes. It has worked extremely well and resulted in many good auctions and collections! Now they have expanded their horizon and want to spread the word about how social media can change the world. Celebrities often use their Twitter or Facebook page to spread messages and get their fans to support a charity they support. Media like YouTube and Google+, also forums where messages can easily spread, have now become one of TwitChange's focus areas. They want small articles that focus on a charity being promoted through social media, and therefore they have asked many of their supporters on Twitter if they would like to be volunteer writer for them.

What this long story was leading up to is that, since July I signed up to be a writer for TwitChange, and now I am! Have never written anything but essays, reports and short stories in school, and now I'm about to write articles. Really exciting and scary, and also, I have to write in English. English has always been my second language, and I already read many books in English, but it's nice to sharpen my grammar as well:) All the while I can help spread good stories about good charity and much more. Have just posted two articles, and will write if/when they are posted on the website.

Are more of you interested to know anything more about these two organizations and perhaps even support them with money or anything, you can read much more about them on the following pages.

http://www.ventilen.dk/

- Join and steadily at 75 kr. (Danish kroner) per year. If you want to give more, you can too!

http://twitchange.com/

- There are no an auctions right now, but there will be sometime soon:) Otherwise, there is a lot of interesting articles to read, or even the possibility to become a writer yourself!!

Looking forward to making a difference:)

Christina

Long time no blog? ;)

Haven't blogged in 2 weeks, sorry, have had a lot on my mind :) Felt like my mind has been going on and on and on these last couple of months, many thoughts. Shared some of them last time, and they are still on my mind. Maybe I sounded a bit "preachy" last time, hope none of you took it that way :) But i like to find answers, or try to when i stumble upon something I just don’t get. So I still think a lot about the whole "Is love too hard to believe in" question. I think it is a tough one, and I don’t believe the last post i wrote gave all the right answers, but i tried.

I also worry too much, hehe, that’s a no brainer. A worry about everyone, and I want everyone to be happy, and that’s not something you always get to be the boss of :) So when I meet people who tell me that they don’t believe in love, or that we someday might be a more loving, united, caring and compassionate world, I get kind of sad. Sad is not the right word, but it’s more like, I really want to help these people feel the love and trust that I have for the future, because it is hard for me not to feel like these people are missing something. Not that they are bad and wrong, but I sense I little lost child inside them, each with their own "loss", something the desperately need and want.

Everyone that know me knows that I don’t just speak my mind and try to "push" my beliefs on them. On the contrary, I hold back, observe and try to see behind the facade or "mask" that we sometimes wear when we leave our home. When i then feel i have the best idea about that persons true color (or soul), i then try to build trust, compassion and positive attitude toward him/her. It might sound a bit to "easy-peasy" or "goody-two-shoes" to some of you, but that’s just how i am (most of the time, because of course I also have bad days ;)). So I’m not trying to give a picture of myself that you can put on a pedestal to look at, or show myself as a better person, this is really me, right down to the marrow! I think we could get along so much better if we respect each other more, and use trust, compassion and tolerance as tools to get more united as a people. And that does not mean that we don’t get to have different opinions and be individuals, because that is just as essential to this world. Being different but still showing respect to one another. I think it is awesome that we don’t all have the same opinion that we look at things differently, because that just gives us all views of a point. We are here to learn and grow, otherwise why even be here?

So, I’m not perfect, and hell, I don’t want to be :) But i want to show respect! And I think we need to be more respectful. Respectful does not mean not fighting for what you believe in, or doing what you like, but it just means not putting down people on your way through life. Are we always going to live up to that, no, but the beauty of life is also that mistakes are allowed. Accept that you don’t always makes the best choices, and you might sometimes want to scream at the world because thing aren’t going your way, just remember that you can always try again.

"Any new attempt justifies all past mistakes!"

 I also love this quote by Albert Einstein:

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.”

Why not just trust that we have to be where we are, and if not, we also have the power to change our life. But it’s not easy, I fight a lot, my own battles, and so do everyone else. So let us respect that and try to learn how we can live more in peace and compatibility with each other's differences. (Ended on a preachy note again, but what the hell, I don’t care ;)).

Christina

New knowledge, new challenges :)

Sooooooo, tired. These past few days I have been on a course in "Pedagogy, didactics and methodology". VERY interesting, I know shocker, but man I'm so busted. Feels good learning about this stuff, but my brain is definitely not use to being "the student" and not "the teacher" :) I know life i s all about learning, but three days of intense learning leaves its mark on you.

One very positive thing I realized these days, and I didn't expect this, was how much the school is ready for change!! To clarify it all: the average age of the teachers is 50, and a lot have been teaching in 10-25 years (some more some less). Many of the teachers I've met have seemed very narrow-minded and "to set in their ways". To put it harsh: Old and only caring about their own little world! Of course not ALL of them are like that but many are. And my two colleagues and I (we are a small team of three), really believe in change and that this school needs it big time.

Many of the people I took this course with had the same view of things. This course is for newly hired teachers, but there was still two who had been there for 13-15 years, and it was nice to meet some "old guys" who felt this way. Most of all, three of our four lecturers were from the administration in this school, and the ALSO felt this way. THAT felt really good, and they were truly inspiring to listen to.

SO what is my point? My point is, if we all (or mostly all) feel this way the why don't we start making a change? I have some ideas on the why part, but I will think about it some more before I go into a full on analysis :)

Conclusion: Change IS coming. Students WILL be taken better care of. BUT we need to act, and that is the biggest, most expensive challenge we have now. I say challenge instead not problem, because problems make everything seem more difficult, hard and confusing that they can be. The challenges awaits, but…..

…..right now the couch is calling!;) Have a great evening peeps :)

Xx