Retail therapy and other topics I managed to creatively weave in
For me, there is only one kind of therapy: retail therapy.
Not that I’ve tried many other alternatives, but this one works perfectly well and I see no reason to put a halt to it. There is something so calming and refreshing about the purchasing process. Call me materialistic, but it really does work! Sure, it won’t fix all your problems, but after an intense month of 10 hours a day of studying, and all you’re thinking is…..
…..it’s amazing to just let go and embrace the pure joy of shopping.
Retail therapy has somewhat become a post-exam stress release for me. The mama and I hit up the shops for about four days in a row. Being the lucky Melbournians that we are, we are spoilt for choice when it comes to shopping districts. So, in the days after exams, my life motto becomes ‘another day, another shopping trip.’ Today, I think we exhausted both ourselves, and our wallets. Although a month’s salary just escaped my bank account, me is happy because me has an iPad and new boots (amongst other things…) and me is on holidays.
But I am getting off point. This post isn’t really about me telling you how good spending money is, because although it is very fun, frankly, half the stuff we buy isn’t exactly a necessity, but something that excites us for a week or two and then becomes old. The $60 pair of shoes we bought for one occasion (speaking to the girls out there) probably would have been better spent as a donation to the World Vision stall standing outside the shoe shop, but selfishness is a quality that too many of us possess, and one that is hard to overcome. So although perhaps not a great quality to possess when it comes to purchasing what seems like half of Chadstone, it’s a quality that should be well exercised during life as a student.
Let me elaborate on that last bit. The student lifestyle is so peculiar, luxurious (in terms of time off), and for lack of a better word, beautiful. How many times in your life do you get 3 or 4 months of the year off, free to relax (or work!), travel, see friends and basically do whatever you damn well please? From what I’ve heard, not many, unless you’re one of the ones who retired early (stay at home parents don’t count, from what I’ve heard they do a lot of work for everyone else in the family).
My advice? Use this free time wisely. Be as selfish as you can so as to make the most out of every free day that you get! Now I’m not advising you to make the universe revolve around you for three or four years in a spoilt brat manner, but rather to use this time to pack your life with as much fun as you can, travel as much as you can and experience as much as you can, so that you can grow and nurture your soul to become your best self. Be selfish in the sense that you spend your time off discovering new places, people and yourself. Devote your time to creating memories that you will never have the opportunity to create again. These years are the gift that we are given to decide who we are and who we want to be.
What am I doing with this post-semester time off gift? Well, now that my shopping ritual has come to an end, I am planning on spending the next 6 weeks on a journey of self-discovery. Sounds lame, but during every semester, I feel like I lose my way a little, in that I put my personal hobbies on hold in order to pursue study, all the extras that come with it, and work. Looking for an example of this putting on hold? Well, this blog: for someone who claims to love writing, I sure show it really well by writing so frequently on this blog…
So, I’ve started this self-discovery journey by a) writing my first blog post in far too long, and b) getting stuck into ‘The Element’ by Ken Robinson. It’s a book that is supposed to enlighten its readers about why finding your true passion is important, and I believe it points you in the direction of how to find it (fingers crossed!). I’m going to be a little selfish and make this time all about me, in the hope that I will become a better, truer version of myself on the other side of the tunnel. I hope that this will benefit not only me, but also those around me, as I again trade my holiday life for a whirlwind semester. But there are still six weeks until then. Maybe you’ll hear from me in the near future, I’ll try not to be a stranger.
Yours,
H.
The Girl 