New Year: New You????

Dear Sarah of 2016,
I am sitting here writing this post at 11.15pm on New Years Eve 2015. It is a time when realistically most people will be with their friends or family wanting to bring the new year with a set idea of what they want to achieve. I suppose I am also part of this, like you I have 50,000 things that I want to achieve and narrowing them down to a small amount is completely unlikely. Some people will tell you that New Year's resolutions don't work and others will tell you that they do. But for most people they might last the few months and then break them. I know that I am overly rubbish at this, I try so hard to achieve things, but the reality is that I am gonna fail at least half of these things.

It's ok to fail, and I know that. This post is more for myself to look back and know whatever I do if I fail ultimately who cares? It is so easy to fail and live by other people's standards and even easier to disappoint your self. This past year I have discovered my love to write, like most writers I am impulsive.  Always finding another distraction and this is why I suck at sticking to things. I will start a project or have a dream that might last a few months. Every year I make a list of the things I want to achieve and I try to keep them. My problem is that alot of things won't be achieved by the end of the year. And it's not because I don't care about them. It's because everything on my list is either simply unachievable or I just don't get round to it.

I have wanted this blog to be so many things but it never seems to fit them. Rather Coral Sunset is turning into a place where I seem to share what is on my mind and be done with it. For me this seems to fit my personality to a tee. I always write what I feel on here and so this year for the blog I am going to just see what happens, and see where that takes me. That way whatever happens I am not failing, but I have also realised it doesn't matter whether I fail or achieve because whatever happens I will eventually get there. This is not me giving myself a lecture or you about resolutions or even failure, I suppose this is just me accepting myself and seeing what happens. Let life take place and see what curveballs it throws at us!

So Happy 2016!!

Christmas Blues

Over the Christmas period it can be hard to find the wood from the trees. We can get so overwhelmed with trying to capture the joy of Christmas, into one day forgetting the true meaning of Christmas. With all the stress that it brings, Christmas is about family; whether you believe in God or not and the story behind it. Christmas should be a time of love and care.

For some of us Christmas can be even harder, like the January blues, people can often find Christmas stressful for the same reasons.  Whether you have a form of anxiety or suffer from loneliness or a mental illness it can be hard. I know this from experience, I wanted to write this piece to encourage anyone who is suffering this Christmas to talk to someone about it. For me talking about my problems can be hard, because I felt that there was no one willing to listen. But you will find that there is amazing amount of people who would be willing to share and listen to you.

I have often been my own worst enemy, stopping myself from doing something or finding a way to express myself. Don't ever restrict yourself, for you are amazing!! This Christmas please find someone who you can share with, and if you have no one to share with I have enclosed a few links at the bottom.

Give your self the best Christmas present possible by not being afraid.


Sarah


List of Links:
The Samaritians
http://www.samaritans.org/

Childline
https://www.childline.org.uk/Pages/Home.aspx

Book 1: Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

Sarah Dessen is one of my absolute favourite authors. I have read this book so many times that I have lost count. So for the sake of the challenge I have decided to read one of my old favourites again. Prepare for spoilers within my review!

My review:
The story follows Auden, a girl whose world is turned upside down by the divorce of her parents. Her parents break up with no explanation, leaving a gap in her life. The book then starts a few years later just after she has finished her senior year, and deciding how to spent her summer. Being an over achiever Auden decides to spent her summer getting ready for college and studying. Both her parents are professors, so she studies to impress them. For years of being unable to sleep due to her parents fighting, Auden has been unable to sleep at night. Having enough of staying with her mum for the summer, she goes to stay with her father and his new young wife Heidi. Who have just had their first daughter together, Auden's half sister.

During this time away, Auden reconnects with her dad and meets Eli a withdrawn teenager with a lot of his own secrets. I found Auden and Eli's relationship inspiring, it starts small but leads to an easy friendship and then relationship. Something that Auden had not experienced well before. Not only does Auden meet Eli, but she breaks free of her mother's expectations and learns about herself.

Reading this book again, brought me back to the emotions of my teenage self, who was just trying to find herself. A lot like Auden in this book who is trying to find herself no matter what the consequences are. My favourite aspect of Dessen's work is her ability to give great character development, whilst being able to continue on with the main plot of the story. Coming away from reading her books always leaves you thinking about the deep meaning that Dessen puts into her books. Reading Along for the Ride was just the same, I learnt the values of meaning and friendship from Auden and the book keep me on my toes all the way through.

So for that reason I give the book 5/5 stars, Auden's story is a spine tinkling journey of life from a realistic perspective.

Wishing for tomorrow?

This is a more personal post,  I  will soon be putting up my first 5 books in the 100 book reading challenge. I have been bouncing between books trying to read as many as possible but only getting half way through. Finally, I have managed to finish some of them and I will be sharing them with you. This has also affected the way I feel in my personal life, I have had so many options that it has been hard to focus on what is true.

For awhile having too many options had left me feeling terribly overwhelmed, but in the last few days I have been given a new perspective. Perspective is a wonderful thing, it allows you to look back or look at a situation in a new way. Instead of being overwhelmed by the possibilities, I am now feeling free to start again. Finishing university, getting a better grade than expected on my degree, as well as watching my friends take on new but surprising opportunities is amazing. Just as equally, as it is scary, life is full of random but interesting moments that can make tomorrow a million miles away. Instead of wishing for tomorrow and wondering what will happen next; I am going to try and make it happen. Wishing for tomorrow, can be a fun and healthy thing that gives us a chance to dream. Dreaming allows us to imagine and can fuel us to do incredible things, but sometimes we can get stuck in it. By wishing for the things we don't have or wish to have we forget what we have now.

With the pressure of deciding what's next it is difficult to not do this, but I don't want to fill my life with options or possibilities but truth. Possibilities are not solid in their nature, they are incredibly fragile and by wishing for tomorrow in some ways I am doing this. This is not me trying to get you to stop dreaming but to be realistic about your options and take risks if you get to comfortable. Having too many options can hinder you and be the problem rather than the solution. I have recently discovered that waiting can be the hardest part of this. During this time, I have found that for me writing, has been a form of self expression, helping me to make sense of this and I hope that this blog can help express that feeling.

Sarah

A shift in the blog??

For the next few months, posts on Coral Sunst will be a bit more varied. I want to bring in new posts ideas which will focus on:

• More creative and organisation posts- fun things that I will be making using my trusty showing machine, that you can make too.
• My 100 book challenge- I have decided to read a 100 books, which I will list on the blog and review. This challenge will run from June 1st 2015 until December 31st 2015. I will add new page to the blog, so you can see my progress at every point and join in if you want.
• TBR- if you are wondering what a TBR post is, then I shall enlighten you. TBR means the books to be read, all books in my TBR will be from my reading challenge. So it will force me to read the books, (I am being me to myself)
• Expect more lifestyle question posts to continue, because I love to talk about the great questions in life

Well that's all for now

Sarah

What do we really need to make us happy?

I suppose in life in the 21st century it can seem to be so easy to know what we want. In a century where we have so much choice, technology, and freedoms. It can seem easy to be overwhelmed by the this choice, where do we go to university, how do we communicate with one another? Is it important too....

So many questions in a such a small space and time. In a way we can lose a sense of who we are and be overwhelmed by the amount of decisions we have to make in a daily basis. Some decisions are instinct, like to eat when we are hungry or to cry when we are in pain. Other decisions can take a lifetime to make. We can be so overwhelmed that we have no idea which way to go. This always for me seems to come to the question: What do we really need to make us happy?

I could answer this question in so many ways, and I know for some of us it is our families. Who take precedence over every one else. For others it is material things, or just simple events of everyday life. Happiness can be defined in so many ways that it means millions of different things to lots of different people. I asked in an earlier post What is happiness? At that time I was trying to seek answers for myself.

Normally I plan the posts I write however today at quarter to 12 at night I just decided to write this. For me this question has no answer, and I feel like this blog is turning into something bigger for me. A place to discuss the thing and issues that I don't always have the answers to. This question has been eating at me for a while, in three weeks I finally graduate and have to begin my new life. Its scary for me, but  it has made me think about this question. As I have had my head stuck in books writing essays, it has been burning in my mind.

For me time never seems to stand still and the only way I can see to answer this question is to think about the things I love. In some ways this makes it easier, I know I love my family, friends and the feeling of the breeze through my hair and watching a coral sunset (hence the name of the blog). Sometimes it can be so hard to answer. In 21st century Britain we are kept so busy it is hard to remember what is is important to us. Decisions can be the hardest and cruelest things in our lives but there is no need to be afraid. It is just important to remember the question: What do we really need to make us happy?

Please share what it is that makes you happy, I would love to know!!

Sarah x

Future Plans

A few blog posts ago, I wrote a post talking about not knowing and not being afraid to be who you are. Now I want to tackle something that has been plaguing me for the last year. It can be hard to admit but I am at the stage in my life, where I am about to graduate in two months. It is a scary thing to think about, that I will have no essays or exams left and my three years at university will be over.

I have absolutely no idea what to do with my life after I finish, there are so many people who are around me, who have their dreams. I could do some many things, and there are so many choices to come. I guess I am writing this post to agains so that it is ok to feel like this. To not know what you will be doing in six months or how frustrating it feels to not have yet discovered my dream. Hopefully I will be able to look back in 6 months  at this post and would have found it somewhere. But if not I know that one day it will hit me in the face.  Until then I will take every opportunity to find it.

Remember its ok not to what will happen next both for you and for myself

Sarah x