University Life with Lili – Topic 1: Boys Or The Super Unfortunate Process of Forming A Crush On Someone

Hola!

It’s me, Lili with another blogpost. This could also be a Youtube intro, I am just so bad at saying a normal hello to you. Let’s try again: Hello, how are you doing today? Now that seems more normal. I am starting a new series called University Life with Lili, where I’ll be talking about everything that concerns me and my life at universities in hopes that you do not make the same mistakes I did, like getting drunk and spilling your heart out to your crush or start studying for an exam the week before or just never attending this really boring lecture that you just don’t understand. We’ve all been there and if you’re not at university well then you haven’t but I still hope you take some important life lessons with you.

The topic I want to talk about today is boys. WOOO! What did she just say? Yup, I know. pretty risqué and all but we’ll make it through. Now I am not talking about what types of boys you meet, what I’m trying to say is: University can be like a fun zoo experience full of great guys but as soon as you develop a crush all hell breaks lose. Cause a crush at university is sometimes even worse than at school, cause normally you’re out of your awkward puberty age meaning things should get serious pretty soon. Some of your friends might even be married already so you start thinking time is ticking.

1. Spot the guy

As I said University is like a Zoo full of cute guys, well they’re not always cute but they’re all so grown up and ambitious and smart and most of them are single and in a time of their life when they just walk from one girl to another but oh wait a second. You won’t be THAT girl. Nope! You’re the one that’ll make him realize he wants to spend the rest of his life with you. So go out there, find your guy!

2. Watch him – carefully and not obvious at all

Got your guy? Good! You’re one step ahead in the downward spiral of College crushes. Now all you gotta do is watch him, all day. I mean it. You’ll turn into a walking plant with very hidden binoculars, you’ll make more of an effort when going to a lecture and you’ll make sure to come at the exact time when the lecture hall is not too full so that there is still a seat left somewhere around him but also not too empty, cause you know he might not be there, and lets face it, you don’t want to come off as creepy…and then one day he’ll look at you and the way you see things will change forever.

You two are now engaged in a very sophisticated, very sexy starring contest, at least in your mind you are. Enjoy it while you still can! It might not get any better than this.

3. Stalking aka Make his friends your new best friends

From now on you’ll spend every minute of your life finding out his name, memorizing his schedule and befriending his friends. Soon enough you’ll be at the level where you can walk past his group of friends and quickly waving at them, only to have him ask “Who is that girl?” and you’ll know you two are on your way to finally actually know each other. As in him actually knowing your name. You will be pretty invested in it, and you might lose yourself in it, but hey it’s for a greater good, right?

4. It’s on like donkey kong!

Now stage four usually involves you actually talking to him. Drunk. At a friends party. He’ll probably think you’re funny and you’ll think this is it. He’ll ask you on a date.

But don’t be fooled. He’ll probably lure you into bed with him and well…things will happen.

5. Blissful, wishful thinking

It’s time. You can finally start planning your future together. A small text won’t hurt.

But darling that text won’t ever be noticed by him and from now on you live in denial and in pain. Because you have to see him every day. And his friends are now your friends except they do not know anything happened because you guys never dated.

6. Getting over him

Now you’re at the point where you’re just done with it. You guys did not even love each other, it was just a stupid College fling nothing more. You will have to avoid each other until you have your Bachelor, but you can do it.

Until you are getting annoyed. He is already over you, he still doesn’t know your name but he’s still attending the same lectures as you. How dare he?! He is just so annoying.

And your friends don’t help either, cause they will remind you of him every step you take.

7. The “U up?” Message

Wow, congrats! You’ve made it to a booty call. He must be drunk beyond comprehension and cannot keep his manhood to himself. Don’t give in sweetie, he’s just another fuckboy and he’ll sooner or later learn his lesson but you do not have to get involved.

8. You’ve overcome the crush

Finally! You are not following him anymore and you could care less about his contributions to some sociologist theories, you can analyze the readings yourself, you don’t need a man.

Well that is until you suddenly see that guy from 2 rows in front of you in a very different light…and we’re back at the beginning. So good luck!

Lots of love,

Lili

Relationships

So for some reason this semester I feel like my friends and me have talked a lot about the meaning of romantic long-term relationships and marriage. Maybe it is because we are in the scary part of life where people our age are getting engaged, married, are starting to have kids, buying flats or houses. Granted most of them are like 2 or 3 years older than me or they are simply in a different stage of life (such as they are already in a proper job because a) they didn’t go to uni or b) they already graduated).

Talking to my friends I find it funny and sad to see that the largest number of us has in some way come to terms with the idea that romantic relationships might not last the forever after and that a lot of marriages end. We have accepted that in the times we live in now it seems to be more the norm than the exception to have divorced parents and maybe that is the reason many of us do not believe that we just have the one person that we spend the rest of our lives with. Or we are quite scared that we are too awkward or too weird to ever find one person that we are romantically interested in that will accept us the way we are.
Like don’t get us wrong we do all like the idea that that it is a possibility and I am a romantic and would absolutely want to meet the love of my life, get married, have four kids and three dogs and life in a small house on the outskirts of London while having a job that I like, but I think what our generation is good at is accepting that dreams like that do not necessarily work out.

So when we talk about long- term relationships we have all started to believe that maybe we should focus on the long- term relationships with our friends. You know the to an extent silly promises of when we are all 40 and still not married we will marry each other. And on New Years while drunk, my friends and I were talking about how that wouldn’t even be such  a bad idea. We all agreed that there is practically no point in a romantic long-term relationship just so that you have someone to grow old with. I mean yeah that would be cute, but can you imagine waking up in you 70s retired and all you get to do is sit on the porch of your house with a cup of herbal tea and homemade scones that you and your friends you live with made yesterday and just gossiping about the good old days, reminiscing about the guys/girls that went in and out of your life, about the bands you crushed on while the dogs/cats you own are lying in the sun next to you. Like I could imagine worse things.

What I am trying to get to is that yes romantic relationships are important and great but I think we should never get to that point where that is the only thing we focus on and our partner is the only person we rely on for everything. I have seen it with friends who have been in all consuming relationships for years and pushed all friends away in the process and when they broke up they were all alone and struggled to get back into the friendship group. I have seen it with my mum who was since I was born a housewife and mother and is now that my parents are split up struggling to get her feet on the ground as she never really had a group of close friends around to pick her up.
I have also seen it with my host mum, who is one of the strongest, and most independent and impressive women I know, but she is lonely as she since the death of her husband has also never had a close group of friends around.
Friends are so important to be in your life because the right ones you can count on no matter what. You know that you can call them in the middle of the night and they will be there for you, they will try their best to cheer you up when you are down, they share your values and have things with you in common, when you are around them you can 100% be yourself and they would never judge you for it, with them you can have silly dance parties or pizza parties in the middle of the night or during the day, you can sit next to them and read or watch a film or just lie there and don’t say anything and it won’t be awkward because they know you and you know them inside out, so you are just 100% comfortable around them. You can have cuddle parties in the morning when you are hungover and are contemplating your life choices, you can laugh and cry together.
Basically keep your friends close and keep them around because at the end of the day you need each other and you are the best people in each others lives. Without them you wouldn’t be you and they wouldn’t be them and that would just really be a shame!

A big shoutout to my friends, my 40+ marriage and dog farm friends, the people I love most in the world. You are amazing and we are all going to have an incredible year together ❤

Lots of Love and a Happy New Year,

Katie

Trying Something New

Hey there,

I know it’s been a while. Uni has been taking over my life and I rarely get a moment to sit down and relax, which is annoying but obviously comes with the territory of going to uni.
However, today I decided procrastination can be productive so here we go.

Trying new things is incredibly scary, isn’t it? I mean you don’t know what will happen and if you are an over- thinker like me, you will often miss out on opportunities and experiences just because you get terribly scared of failing or making a fool out of yourself or getting hurt emotionally or physically.
This semester I started with an attitude of “hey I don’t really care anymore what people think, ’cause here at uni no one really seems to care”. And for once that attitude actually lasted longer than 5 minutes and I actually attempted something new.

I went to my uni’s Ultimate Frisbee club. Yes it is a sport and let me tell you it is a lot more exhausting than you’d think. So why was this a big step for me? I love sports yes, but sadly I am not that talented which is part of the reason that I have stuck with badminton for over 10 years because I am decent at it and it means I won’t make a fool out of myself when I play it. I would say I am okay at the other racket sports that I have tried too, simply because I felt like I knew what to do with a racket in my hand. Now going to a sport that involved throwing and catching and running a lot when you have no hand eye coordination whatsoever and are predestined to fall every five seconds because you fall over your own feet might not seem like the best idea in the world.

So why would I do it? Well I have a lot of friends in the club and I spend a lot of time with them and knew all their training times and for two years they were like “oh yeah you should come by, it’s fun” for two years I said no being too scared of making a fool out of myself. This year I jumped the biggest hurdle by actually going to the give it a go where there were many other people who had never played before, so I didn’t feel like I was the only person completely lost. Now 9 weeks into the semester I really enjoy going, I have been to tournaments with them and played outdoors in the freezing cold and I slowly don’t feel as lost anymore and now only second throw completely sucks, but hey it’s fun.

So what did I get out of it? Well a lot of sore muscles that is sure. An evaluation of how horrible my fitness level is. Less time for the uni stuff I should be working on. But on the other hand I have gained confidence, I have learned that yes it may be hard at first but the more I do it the easier it gets. I have grown even closer with my friends on the team because they are just happy that I actually tried it and admitted that I liked it, plus I spend so much more time with them which is nice. Also, I have made new friends, other people who just started playing and are just as lost as I am but if you are lost together it suddenly doesn’t seem as bad and became friends with people who were mere acquaintances before and I spend sooooo much time with now. Everyone has been really supportive and taken the time to help me.

So why am I boring you with this? Well what I wanted to show you is that trying something new is hard and scary in any part of your life, may it be academically, sports-related, love and relationship related or any other part of your life. But usually the hurdle of making the first move is the hardest because it means you have to make yourself do it. We have a great saying for it in German actually saying “den inneren Schweinehund überwinden”, which literally means to overcome your inner pig dog and figuratively means to take that first hurdle which is usually your own mind.
Yet it is worth it and you’ll learn something, make experiences and despite things often not being the way you’d want them to, it’s worth a try because it can always be better!

Happy Tuesday and happy trying my loves,
lots of love, Katie

An Apology (That thing about having a writers block…)

Dear Blog readers, dear everyone else,

I was basically non-existent on this blog for at least a month, maybe two and I wanted to say sorry for that. I’ve been really stressed out living in a new place, making friends, catching up with university and that made me kind of have a writers block.
I still have a writers block but I wanted to make sure you knew about it! I also owe the girls and apology for really letting them down.
Right now I’m at a stage where I cannot find time to really do anything apart from uni work. I am constantly in the library and it really stresses me out. Thing is, I just don’t have time thinking about topics that I think would interest you.
BUT! I am trying to make you a promise. I’ll work hard on my uni stuff but I will also try and commit to this blog, to my youtube channel and to my Instagram account again. These things are fun to me and I WANT to do it, but I also want to make my mental health a priority and my heads been a bit crazy during the past month. I just prescribed myself a 2 week holiday and I am back and better than ever. Sometimes it’s important to listen to your body and your mind and just take a break and hopefully it will help me out of my writers block.
I didn’t want to leave this blogpost without any advice or content so here are 7 things that lead to a writers blog and how to get out of it…so it’s more like what you can do to avoid getting stressed about essays and that kinda stuff but it doesn’t sound as important…:D ENJOY!

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The wondrous, extraordinary, mind-blowing stages of writers block:

1.Your head is empty

So when the writers block starts kicking in, your head just stays as empty as the word file you’re working on. It starts off by thinking you just need a break so you’ll make yourself a cup of tea, if that doesn’t help, you’ll tell yourself you just need a nap or watch an episode of Downton Abbey to then realize you finished 2 seasons and are full on hysterically crying cause someone died (I won’t tell you who died, in case you haven’t watched it yet…it’s such a good show!). All of a sudden the day is already over, you ate a whole jar of Nutella and look like Cruella DeVille in her menopause.

2. The pressure starts

Stage two will probably start a couple of days after your failure to complete an assignment, an essay or a blogpost. You will wake up early, be really determined to start and so you do. You write about 500 words until you realize that what you’ve written doesn’t make any sense whatsoever so you’ll delete it all, promising yourself that better research will make the situation better. Therefore, you set off on an adventure to the library. WOOHOO! You conquer your way through millions of bookshelves to then be so proud of yourself for finding that one book that has everything you need and then…never finishing it. If you’re lucky you’ll half heartedly flip through it, only look for quotes that look like you’ve read the book when in reality you didn’t.

3. Denial

At this stage there is no turning back. You abandoned your social life – actually your life in general – you stopped caring, you started googling “farms for sale“, informed yourself about how to breed huskies and how to build sleighs to then check on the next flight to Canada – Not talking about my own experience in any way. You will deny you ever took any seminar, or that you have a blog at all and you will tell yourself there are more important things after all…your blog doesn’t really exist. It is some numbers somewhere inside the system of technology. It is not even real, because if you cannot see it, how can you be sure it is there? What even is there? Is it real? Are you real? Who knows, as far as I’m concerned I could be some laboratory experiment and they implanted everything I know about my world into my head… maybe I live in a matrix, maybe I’m part of a dream and it’s all about inception.

4. Accept you failed at life

Basically the end of everything. You accept your failure, you surrender.

(I have a thing for cheesy gifs, so let me have some fun..taken from tumblr)

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*Insert drum roll and dramatic X-factor announcement voice* Now you wanna know how to turn your life back around? Then read on!

5. Allow yourself an actual actual break! Not a procrastination break

Seriously, sometimes you just need to get away from everything and breathe some fresh air. Whether you just take a walk through the forest or by the ocean or get away for a couple of days. It will clear your head and give you a new perspective on things. Who knows, maybe inspiration will come to you when you’re enjoying a nice cup of tea in one of the cute cafes in your town you never got a chance to go to.

6. Take away the pressure

This is the hardest part if you ask me. How are you supposed to not put yourself under pressure when you have to hand in an assignment in 2 days. But creativity cannot flow if you’re under pressure, it just won’t work. Try getting a new perspective on things. Maybe change your approach on the topic you’re writing on – make it more interesting for you.
You’ll be fine but not if you keep telling yourself how dumb you are for not being able to write an essay.

7. If it’s not helping ask someone for help

There’s nothing wrong with admitting to people that you need help. In fact, it will give you an excuse to meet a friend and discuss what you want to write about. It seriously helps to get your topic sorted out and if you can explain your essay to others you’ll be able to understand it. They might help you by recommending sources or just be there as mental support! Don’t let them write for you though…would be kinda mean.

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There you go! Writers block isn’t all that bad after all. It gave me an excuse to write about it so that’s something. Let’s hope genius strikes me and my head lets me write something for next Friday. If you have any suggestions please don’t hesitate to message me on our social media!

Lili xx

Instgram: @castawayminds
Twitter: @castway_minds

PS.: To cheer you up, here’s this super cute gif of Charmander eating a Marshmallow and if that doesn’t count as and Apology I don’t know what does

Someone on tumblr made this! But I forgot who…

Types of friends you might have at Uni

Hey guys ,

New Semester has started this week for me, so I thought I’d write something about one of the most important aspects of Uni life : friends . Because yeah friends are the best thing ever and without them life would be sad. So here are some different types of friendships you might find yourself having when you go to a University or College or whatever.

1. The Uni Bestie

Your other half at Uni. You might have another friend you’ve known before and are forever best friends, or your Uni bestie is actually your very best friend over all, but at Uni nobody will top them.You two stick together whereever you go, hang out after Uni, go to Sports Clubs or Societies together and try to get into the same courses, so you can also study together. You can talk to them about everything from love trouble to what your old friends from School did to problems with your coursework. They’re just the best and you couldn’t be without them. Most likely your friendship will last long after you’ve done your degree.

2. The drinking Buddy

You’ll probably hardly ever stay sober with this friend. All you do is go out drinking and even if you just want to go for a quick drink things will escalate quickly and you’ll probably end up going home at 5am completely wasted. Nights out are always good fun with this friend, you have experienced the most legendary stuff together and they’re the one who set you up with all the people you met while partying. There are many times you lead deep drunken conversation from how much you hate your life right now to if they think your boobs are weirdly shaped. You can always rely on them to help you get home when you’re to drunk and hold your hair back if you need to throw up. Of course the can be an amazing friend during the daytime as well.

3. The course neighbour

Sometimes it’s just fate and you get along really well with the Person you sit next to in a certain course so you end up sitting together every time. You’ll start keeping them a seat and you have their number. You probably wont text them unless you Need the notes from the last lesson or something but still. They make boring courses super funny and you probably don’t really know what the prof is talking about most of the time because you’re too busy chatting. Of course real friendships can develop this way, but lots of times it just lasts as long as the course you had together. You’ll still say hi when you see each other on Campus but ultimately it will fade away.

4. The flatmate

Yep if you’re sharing a flat, it’s always better if you get along with your flatmates. The can be everything from the People you go out with, to the People you just occasionally make dinner and Play boardgames with , to your very best friends. Of course there will be lots of trouble, like disagreements over household duties or just being pissed off by each other because you see them all the time. Good flatmates can sort that Kind of stuff out though and become really good friends.

5. The Society/ Sports Club friends

It’s really easy to find friends in a Club, as People there will have the same interests as you . It’s probably more than one friend, because you always see each other as a group and you most likely will end up doing things as a group all the time. Sometimes these Groups only hang out together at the Club they’re in together or after, sometimes real squads develop who also meet outside Uni. I’d definitely suggest joining a Club or soc if you want to meet new people.

6. The first Semester friend

The friend you make in the first few days at Uni on the Basis that you’re both new and friendless. Of course it won’t always be a perfect match  ( unlike me, the first person I talked to became my bestie). You probably hang out together a few times, but you might be pretty different characters and you both make friends in other courses who fit better, so you Kind of grow apart after the first few months. You might still meet up later because you don’t really want to let it fade away as you still like them and they were a huge help getting through those first weeks, but it probably wont last that Long.

Yeah of course there are mixtures and waaaaayyyy more different kinds of friendships but that’s it for  now

Have a great day

Alli xx

 

Why I love studying social sciences:

When I told my family that I wanted to go to university to study International Politics they all had that kind of smile on their face of “That’s not a real subject to study but okay” because yes social sciences are real studies but to many people for some reason it doesn’t seem as hard as a lot of ‘proper’ sciences. Which to some extent may be true.

Even if it is not hard in the sense of being hard meaning to do it right to get to the solution that you are looking for and in the sense that you have to know a lot of formulas in order to actually be able to do it, I think Social Sciences are often misconceived. Sure we don’t sit down to do incredibly hard maths exercises or have to memorise all the bones in the human body or what happens within a cell, but we too have to memorise a lot of theories, very, very old theories and believe me to fight your way through the original texts of let’s say Thomas Hobbes or John Locke is not easy peasy as they used such a different English than what we are used to today. But this isn’t supposed to be a posed on justifying the difficulty level of social sciences, but on why it is great to study them.

First of all you get to read a lot. And by a lot I mean you are basically supposed to be constantly reading. For each of the modules I am taking this semester I am supposed to be reading 10 hours per week, which simply adds up to basically a full time job of reading. But you read interesting things most of the time (tbh I didn’t really enjoy reading original texts of people that died centuries ago, however it was fascinating to see how much and how little has changed at the same time and how some theories developed hundreds of years ago still could be applied on our society today), for example this semester I am doing a module on Human Rights and I would say that is a topic that even if you are not usually politically interested is interesting to read on simply because it applies to all of us. One aspect that I love about the reading is that it often contests your ideas of what you believe to know and challenges your opinions or gives you reasons to justify them. Going back to human rights growing up in my Western View bubble I wouldn’t see anything wrong with them but if you think about it they have been created by countries with very similar values and some countries due to their own traditions reject certain rights that seem perfectly reasonable for us, so it kind of raises the question of why we think we should be allowed to pressure our ideals on other people, doesn’t it?

Another positive point about the reading is that your general knowledge and your critical thinking abilities grow a lot. You start questioning things in the news or on media, you challenge a lot of statements by experts and people pretending to be so on TV, you start to have a good ground for what seems to be ‘sophisticated conversations’ (That’s what other people seem to think, I just like being opinionated and to ramble on about things that I read).

A second thing that I like about social sciences is that it is always relevant. No matter what you talk about or what is going on either in your life or what you see in the news you usually can related it in one way or another to your degree and it often starts conversations. Especially with Politics. The amount of times I have mentioned that I study politics and people went straight into asking my opinion about all the elections that are currently going on or have happened in the recent time is quite impressive. Also for some reason people seem to think that you are smart when you know what is going on in current events which is a great benefit.

A third aspect that is great is that you can never be completely wrong or right. Tbh it can be annoying too but it is a great way to start discussions and get a lot of different opinions from different people as well. You learn to structure arguments and to make a convincing point, you learn to be tolerant, you learn to listen to people and to hear their opinions and you learn to accept that not everyone will have the same view as you. This is probably the most important lesson that you learn from social sciences is that there is always going to be more than one way to do things and that there will never be a perfect way to do it and that there are always going to be people who are not going to be happy with whatever you do.

Basically what I am trying to say is that social sciences may not seem to many people as hard or as ‘proper’ as other subjects and the question “What do you plan on doing with your degree” will always be a steady part of studying, but a degree in social sciences will give you a well rounded education not only subject related but also in the ‘transferable skills’ that everyone always goes on about. It’s definitely not a waste of time and if nothing else you’ll be able to at least able to win an argument against the people telling you that simply because you have the skills to build a proper argument.

 

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TED TALKS

This week I have returned to Uni and let’s just put it that way: I am mildly excited to be back! Like I am so excited for my classes and yes I do realise that makes me sound like a geek, but I honestly just love my degree. With the new Uni year for me there are almost as many New Year’s Resolutions as on the 1st of January such as you know eat healthy, study a lot, go to the gym etc., like your standard thing. As a politics students I have added some others to the list as I have talked to friends about it and these two resolutions are hopefully going to become habits soon. The first resolution is to watch the news every day. I mean how hard can it be right, 15 minutes and it’s done, I tried it last year and sometimes I simply forgot a lot of times, but this year I am going to attempt it again, because duh I am a politics student, plus I think everyone should get their daily intake of what is happening in the world and with that I don’t just mean being up to date with all new puppy videos they are, which to be honest I always have a look at too. The second resolution is the reason for this blog post. It is about watching a less than 20 minute video on TED or TEDx. What is that? I am glad you asked.

TED is a website that uploads videos of people doing talks about something that is their field of expertise. It originally started as a conference in 1984, but it became a regular event every year in 1990 and has since then grown and spread. It started as a conference for Technology, Entertainment and Design but now it covers 394 topics (yes I counted them myself) so you can be sure for there to be something that you find interesting or something that you have never heard about but may find interesting if you give it a chance. It also doesn’t matter which language you speak because there are subtitles for most videos in over 100 languages. The aim of the organisation is to be able to “make great ideas accessible and spark conversation” (https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization) so yay it’s free, at least online. They post a new video every day of a speech that has been held in recent time or at one of the conferences. There is for once the annual TED conference, there is the TEDGlobal Conference, the TEDWomen conference with a focus on female empowerment and a TEDYouth Conference that is aimed at middle to high school students. In addition to the official TED Talks there are also TEDx Events that are independent events which are organised which have a free license from TED to hold them. All these videos are uploaded and shared as well.

The first time I came across TED talks in any form was actually on facebook when people were sharing the video of Lizzie Velasquez who has been named the ugliest woman alive. She held an inspiring speech on how she defines herself and how she struggles with a syndrome that only two other people have in the world.

After this I sadly forgot about the side again, but a friend of mine actually reminded me on its existence and his plan to watch one video a day from them. So I thought, sure why not! I am attempting to watch a 15 minute video a day, so I can surely add a second one and it’s great. Luckily though there is a random video button, because there are so many choices and I want to branch out in what I know about so maybe a talk about the universe or archaeology might spark a completely new field of interest for me.

Anyways I am off to do just that. Watch a video and keep up with my resolutions on Day 2 (I know it’s impressive). To everyone starting Uni, I hope you enjoy every minute of it and to all the returning students: I hope you don’t have too much work yet. Lots of Love,

Katie

Check Out TED Talks on their Website

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New Releases in the music world

Every time I have turned on the radio last week everybody was talking about the new mega releases artist have, so I thought, what better do than write about it and talk about some of them.

1. Lady Gaga – Perfect Illusion

How could I start this list without putting the queen herself first? After what felt like years the queen of pop has released a new song, finally for all the little monsters taste.

So far I’ve only listened to it once this afternoon when I drove home from grocery shopping and I have to say, although it’s a bit different to her last album, you clearly can hear the Lady Gaga edge to it.

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2. Green Day – Revolution Radio

After what felt like centuries Green Day are finally back with a new song (gosh, punk/rock fans are blessed, with the new Blink 182 album, Good Charlotte Album and now this) which is the first ssingle off of the same titeled album which will be out on the 7th October. So far I haven’t heard it, I know how dare I, but as everything Green Day does it can only be amazing and a right treat for every Green Day fan or people who enjoy this kind of music.

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3. Kings of Leon – Waste a Moment

Once again, Kings of Leon must have put out music years ago. Surly everybody remembers iconic songs like ‘Sex On Fire’ or ‘Use Somebody’. I don’t think I’m exhilarating when I’m saying that surely everybody must be exciting to hear new stuff by them playing on the radio.

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4. Mac Miller ft. Ariana Grande– My Favourite Part

Do I even have to say anything about this song? Every song Ariana Grande is on is a smasher and I’m sure this song isn’t different. This girl could touch poop and it would turn into gold. With this incredible voice this isn’t any wonder, isn’t it?

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5. Post Malone ft. Justin Bieber – Deja Vu

Every Belieber hold on to your seats. If you are like me and not quite over JB’s last hits ‘Cold Water’ and ‘Let Me Love You’ you must be very strong now. Here he is with a new feature. As we all know since his little break and he came out with his album ‘Purpose’ full of hits, he’s doing incredibly well. Can’t really be a bad song with him on it at the moment, can it?

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6. One Republic – Future Looks Good

After ‘Kids’ and ‘Wherever I Go’ ‘Future Looks Good’ is One Republic’s new smashing hit off of their upcoming album ‘Oh My My’ (which is coming out on the 7th October by the way). Since the last two songs were super successful all around the world, there is basically no way this song won’t be a hit either. With a front man named Ryan Tedder there is nothing different to expect, really.

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7. Sia – The Greatest

Don’t think I have forgotten Sia, nono, I haven’t. How could I forget her? As I read online Sia fans are on the edge of their seat from excitement since she released her new single. But could you expect something different from her? I’m sure ‘The Greatest’ will be as successful as her other songs in the past. Hair like this must produce great songs.

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8. Melanie C – Anymore

Spice Girls fans be prepared, Mel C herself released a new song. I guess I’m not the only one who will listening to this song with a following celebratory Spice Girl dance party, right?

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9. James Arthur – Say You Won’t Let Go

You remember James Arthur? The absolute talent who won the British X-factor back in 2012 and had his massive break-through with his incredible single ‘Impossible’. He is back with a new song. I personally couldn’t be more exciting because I think he has an incredible voice plus is an amazing artist and I could listen to him even sing about poop and I would buy it.

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10. Busted – Coming Home

Every Busted song is amazing and takes me right back to when I was little/ an early teen, so when I read that they’re bringing out a new song I couldn’t wait to hear it. Definitely check them out if you haven’t yet.

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Of course they have been more releases this week, but I thought 10 would be enough for today. If you want us write more about music like this let us know and we’re sure to do so because we’re all great music lovers with similar but yet different music tastes.

Lots of love,

Jenny xxx.

Lilis #GuyBoss of the month – Jack and Finn Harries

Happy Sunday Sunday everyone!
This week it is time for my #GuyBoss of the month. This month I don’t really have only one, but technically two, as I chose *insert drum roll here*: JACK AND FINN HARRIES or Jackson and Finnigan Harries, which are their full names.
You may know Jack as a YouTuber from his channel Jacksgap, that he created out of fun during his gap year. You may also know Jack from some acting he did when he was younger. Well, obviously you then know Finn as he is Jacks twin, duh! Kind of obvious but I mean there might be a few out there who just don’t know any of them. Finn never actually made his own channel, instead, he does more of the behind the scenes work.

Jack started out like every other Youtuber, posting Vlogs or challenges, just talking about his life and in some videos Finn would appear and they’d open fanmail together or do other goofy things.
However, over the years the content on Jacksgap has changed dramatically and in my opinion it also got 100 times better.
After not posting videos for quite some time they came back with a documentary on their experience participating in a Rickshaw run in India. Videos about climate change, documentaries about people with quite peculiar jobs or backgrounds and their shed sessions followed.
What is most striking about these videos is the quality and the content. It is not some of the meaningless content you can often find on Youtube (I consider my videos meaningless content as well, although I try to bring messages across, I know that for example my hauls aren’t of high educational value). They do their own research, they film and edit with a team that is close to them and of course they also get sponsored by Skype, as an example but I mean how else are you gonna afford traveling around the world to film your videos, that at the same time have such important messages.
What I admire about them as well is, that they went to University. Jack only for a year, in Bristol but still! Finn went to Leeds to study there for a year and is now at University in New York. Showing that pursuing an education at Uni can be fun and important is just lovely and I think more Youtubers should be concerned about this topic just like they are. Of course they have other focuses but it just makes education more appealing and that is such an important message to bring across to young children.
Back to their Videos: What mainly makes them a #GuyBoss is, that they weren’t afraid to change their content. Yes, maybe they were hesitant about what people would think but they had a message and they managed to bring it across. Their videos deal with such important issues, it’s inspiring. I can just hope they change young peoples opinions about our world, in a positive way. Furthermore, their editing skills are truly mesmerizing. I sometimes wish more Youtubers would put quality before quantity. I am not bothered by the fact that they don’t post a video every week or sometimes not even every six months but when they post one, I do know I can look forward to some great content that is interesting, eye opening and has an awesome message. That is what makes them my #GuysBoss of the month.
All in all, I just hope that Jack and Finn continue their amazing journey on becoming, what I think you can consider, incredible directors and film makers. They inspire all of us to think outside the box and consider important issues in this world to be more relevant than we may perceive them. We tend to think about ourselves way too much, without seeing the big picture and I think Jack and Finn do a wonderful job of objective and still highly interesting content that shows us the big picture.

If you have not checked them out yet, where have you been? Go and watch their videos NOW! That’s an order.
Loads of love,
Lili xx

Twitter: @castway_minds
Instagram: @castwayminds

Featured image taken from the jacksgap website: http://jacksgap.com

Do My Fashion Choices Make Me A Bad Feminist?

Sláinte me loves!

I officially settled in in Ireland and I know this means “cheers” but this is beside the point. This week we had our feminism theme week, which had me very excited. I thought about all the different topics I could write about and to be fair the girls already got you covered with super interesting insights on their opinions about feminism in media, stereotypes against feminism or what it’s like being a feminist.

Now as you know, I am a Make Up and Fashion addict and I like to express myself through my clothes but I also strongly identify as a feminist. I believe in equality and that everyone has the right to live their life in whatever way they choose to, as long as it is not degrading or hurting anyone. At the same time, I enjoy dressing, what some people might consider, sexy or let’s just say I like tight dresses and heels.

Over the past couple of years I’ve grown from an awkward teenage girl into a kind of more confident but still pretty awkward 20-year-old and the older I got the more I identified as being a feminist but I also got more and more into fashion and make up. It just happens that people ,therefore, don’t take me seriously anymore, as a feminist and as a confident woman that has the right to be treated just the same as any man.

Does it make me a bad feminist if I enjoy wearing dresses and skirts?

To me, this is very similar to the whole rape culture topic and I loathe having to talk about it over and over again. But you know what? Why don’t I show you dresses that might be more appropriate for someone who identifies as a feminist, after all, this is a really tricky topic. You want to be seen as a serious woman and that of course depends immensely on your outer appearance as society has taught us.

    

Maybe dress number one or two from Boohoo.com would be more suitable or the little black dress from tophsop? What makes them so incredibly feministic you may ask…well..nothing of course. My fashion choices do not determine if I identify as a feminist or not I also do not share the opinion that I am setting a bad example for others or that I am reducing my role as a woman to a sex object or a dumb doll. If you didn’t know already, I feel comfortable, I dress for myself

found on tumblr

and if that is not a feminist thing to do, I don’t know what is.
It is this concept that people have in their minds of women in dresses or skirts, who cannot be taken seriously because after all, little girls like dresses, princesses wear dresses. Why on earth can’t I feel like a princess and at the same time believe in feminism, why can’t I stand up for equal rights in that dress. If I’m standing up for my rights then I want to look the part, so I will for sure rock that bodycon dress that accentuates my curves and that I feel comfortable in. It is then society, that has to change their way of perceiving feminists and women. Same goes for Make Up:

Am I less of a feminist if I enjoy wearing Make Up?

 

found on tumblr as well

To be honest, I do struggle with this question as well as the clothing question. The beauty industry makes money off womens insecurities, kind of, and that does not really sound too feministic. On the other hand I strongly believe in the concept of us being stronger when we have the chance to truly be ourselves and discover all facettes of our being. It makes us better humans and to me personally make up plays a big part in this. It gives me the chance to make myself feel beautiful not for anyone else but for me. That is very feministic indeed and therefore I doubt anyone could ever say that just because I like to dress up and put on some fierce looking lipstick, I am less confident and cannot be a feminist.

 

My point is: Society and men like to make girls, that identify as feminists, believe they now have to give away all their clothes for charity, curse every make up tutorial ever created or let their eyebrows turn into a wild rainforest. In my opinion you should not feel like this. What matters are your believes and that you stand up for them and if you like to do that in jeans, chucks and a charity shirt, in a tennis skirt, polo shirt and boat shoes or in heels and a cocktail dress should not matter to anyone. Therefore, we as feminists also have to make sure to let people know that wearing Make Up does not determine the level of how much we are involved in feminism. We should feel free to experiment and we should always feel confident, especially as feminists.

Have you encountered any situations in which your clothes or your Make Up were used to make a point against you being a feminist? Let me know by tweeting us or messaging us on instagram, of course you can also leave a comment.

Lili xx

Twitter: @castaway_minds

Instagram: @castawayminds