I’ve finally reached the end of high school, which means the end of one chapter of my life. It’s really exciting though because right now I face a world of amazing possibilities, but this time also leads to a lot of introspection and reflection.
Looking back I’ve realized that I’ve done a lot of crazy (and fun) things that make amazing memories. I don’t believe in regrets but there are few moments where I do wish I’d done things differently, and it’s a futile train of thought considering you can’t go back and redo the past, but the other day I remembered one new year’s eve. It was my first real party and it was absolutely amazing, several dance floors, beautifully warm starry night, hot boys and girls looking to get lost in the music. Back then I was, I suppose, quite uptight so I was really just enjoying getting lost in the music and ignored any male attention. At the end of the night at about 4ish I was dancing with this absolutely gorgeous, buff Australian who was literally in town for 1 more day. He was trying every move in the book to get with me and as much as I was having fun, I didn’t say yes. Why? I can’t remember one rational reason as to why I didn’t just go with it. Nowadays I’m much more of a ‘Carpe Diem” kind of girl but maybe things would be a little different if I had always seized my day.
Already I’m facing situations where I possibly will regret saying no, I want to seize the day, but what price will I have to pay?
I know they say it’s better to have a life of “Oh wells” rather than “What ifs” but isn’t better sometimes to leave the door open, not for regrets, but for a world of unexplored possibilities?
Reflection
At the beginning of the year there was a hilarious meme about Kylie Jenner talking about how 2016 is the year of realizing things. Everyone completely ridiculed her at the time but now that we are at that reflective part of the year we’re all looking back and saying Kylie may have had a point. I feel like I haven’t blogged in eons. In the interim so much has happened that I could literally write a book and a la Kylie Jenner I have realized many things. What I’ll do to get you up to speed is simply pick up from where I am right now. I’m a tad obsessed with lists so this my list at the moment:
- I have a job (woohoo)!
- I started a food & lifestyle blog, Future Somebody.
- I am now close friends with different people than I would have expected.
- I am in my third year of my degree (yikes!)
- STILL single
When you put things down in a list it makes it seem rather uninteresting and inconsequential, which I love. I have so many things that I would love to divulge all the details about (that will come with time, keep on coming back) but for now I have to announce it’s comeback season in terms of blogging.
Reflecting on all the posts I wrote in the past was so eye opening, I would never ever have predicted where I am today. Although my fundamental in belief in everything working out has always been resolute I now have gone beyond that. I know everything is going to work out sensationally! What I loved most about ‘old’ me, is that my pieces of advice were actually really good. I thought they were silly at the time but looking back, I had a point and sometimes the ability to see what I needed even though I didn’t realize it. So I will keep leaving myself (and you) little pieces of advice,do what you will with it but sometimes you need that little reminder that you have this life thing under control even when it doesn’t feel like it.
Since I haven’t blogged in forever here are three pieces of advice that are based on things I have figure out in the last few months:
- Boys: “It is never as world ending as it seems, there will always be another one. Trust yourself enough to let go as soon as you think you should.”
- Friends: “Cultivate friendships that push you to be better; better at living, loving, laughing and everything in between.”
- Life: “Enjoy the journey for absolutely everything it has to offer. Throw yourself into everything you do with reckless abandon.”
In some ways I know what the next couple of months has to hold for me but in other ways I am completely in the dark. Whatever happens though I am excited to share the next phase of adventures with you!
Man I Love College
There’s a song by Asher Roth that is not half as popular as it should be, granted it came out six years ago, but anyone who has truly embraced the college culture can say it is an apt song. I love college captures the light hearted, whimsical and downright fun stage of our lives that we’re living. As a student, I’m lucky enough to be in that age gap where you have just enough responsibility to be taken seriously but not enough that you actually can’t throw yourself wholeheartedly into bad decisions which lead to greater stories.
Wednesday night was definitely one of those college nights, we were playing night hockey and it somehow escalated into a crazy night. I can genuinely say between sucking at playing the actual sport, socialising with old friends, making new ones and just being so blissfully happy I had an amazing time. This weekend is a long weekend so that can only mean debauchery, more stories, terrible decisions and phenomenal memories.
Even if you aren’t in college anymore, this weekend embrace the spirit of college and throw yourself wholeheartedly into having fun and acting like you don’t have a care in the world.
Piece of advice to my future self;
“Life is too short to take yourself too seriously. Always have a college spirit.”
Not So Made In Chelsea
It feels like it has been absolutely forever since I’ve written anything to do with what it is happening in my crazy life. I can’t say that there has been a lack of inspiring material but I got a little caught up in living. This means that there is oh so much to catch up on, the question of the day is where to start?
The begin is normally the best place to start but the beginning is so far back that I wouldn’t want to bore anyone with the all that. I’ll give the highlight reel that brought me back right to my favourite place, this blog. My favourite show at the moment is Made In Chelsea, it’s all about upperclass drama, debauchery and the oh so fabulous young and wealthy London elite just living their lives. My best friend and I are so into Made In Chelsea, we discuss their drama as if it is our own. This has lead us to coin any moments that should only be found on Made In Chelsea but are happening in our lives as #MICMoments. It’s a marvelous way to laugh at the absolute ridiculousness of what happens in our lives.
Our first #MICMoment was when we were out partying one night in Long Street and we struck up conversation with a pair of guys at the trendy hangout and bar, Beerhouse, in Long Street. That seems ordinary enough until we run into the one guy, who I think was very much feeling my best friend, at varsity and then again on a random night out. Our exchanges and encounters have the subtle awkwardness and disbelief that characterize the Made In Chelsea run-ins. What makes it truly hilarious is that we’ve encountered each other several times and I always confuse his name and I am 100% sure he has absolute no clue what our names our even though we now know so much more personal information about each other.
But beyond the boys I must say that I’ve noticed an unfortunate paradigm shift between my best friend and I. I have moved from being the sweet and desired but slightly mysterious Caggie Dunlop, to the oh so unfortunate Casanova and resident heartbreaker of Chelsea, Spencer Matthews. No, it doesn’t mean I have become a man. However, my mentality has done a complete turnaround. I think I used to believe that if I waited patiently enough on the sidelines that the love bug would bite me sooner rather than later. I most definitely have changed, now I’ve jumped into the dating/hooking-up game like a woman on a mission. It also seems that I am making up for lost time, and guys that were once off-limits are now all fair game. This is worrying, only because Spencer Matthew’s lack of boundaries have gotten him into trouble more than once and as much as I enjoy danger, I have no desire for trouble.
Recently my best friend and I have partied in a different way from our usual hedonistic ways. From hanging with well know drum ‘n bass DJ’s like Niskerone at Fiction to breaking it down with the wicked and wealthy at Asoka it’s definitely been a good time and worthy of more than a few #MICMoments.
I am not in the mood to party much any longer but I do think that I’m in the mood to play a dangerous game chasing one or two bad boys. Like Spencer, I thrive on the thrill of the chase and getting what I want. It’s not the healthiest thing in the world, but at the moment to balance out the workload I can either party like it’s 1999, which is never good idea, or I can channel that energy into a Spencer-esque chase. I have no idea where this road is going to lead. The road to hell is paved with good intentions but as the Nikyee Heaton songs says, “I got bad intentions.” Maybe these intentions will lead me to heaven? Either way I’ll enjoy it and when in doubt I’ll ask myself WWSMD, “What Would Spencer Matthews Do?”
Piece of advice for my future self:
“The worst ideas usually make for great experiences and even better memories. Leave no room for regret when you do something, pursue it absolutely wholeheartedly and know you wouldn’t do a thing differently.”
Best of Your Life
“Ugh, do I really have to get up today?” We’ve all had that thought more than a couple of times. Most people I know don’t look forward to their days. In fact they wake up wishing, wanting, praying for something miraculous to happen so that they don’t have to go to class or work or do whatever they’re committed to.
Over the past week we had a short vacation (more like a working break in all honesty) and in this time did a bit of the ussual going out and something a little different. I went out to First Thursday where the art galleries are open late in the Cape Town CBD and you can walk around, drink wine, and mingle with the hipsters. It was absolutely fabulous with some really captivating exhibitions and the vibe at HQ restaurant and bar, which has half price Tapas on Thursdays anyway, was incredible. There was the right blend of beautiful 20-somethings, sexy music, dim light and potent cocktails. Other than that I discovered a dining gem in Kloof Street, Cafe Paradiso. The name does not lie, it’s a little piece of paradise. The restaurant setting transports you somewhere magical and the food transports you somewhere out of this world. It’s authentic Cape Town, in that it is not pretentious and you are guaranteed a good time.
Beyond just exploring my city, I actually took time to think. That might seem a little bit ridiculous, I mean I am a university student, what am I really taking time out to contemplate? Well I figured out that some people by the age of 18 have made their first million, had kids or even travelled all across the globe, what am I doing? How am I going to define the end of my teens? I must be honest, I’m happy with my early teens, I accomplished enough and experienced enough that I don’t regret anything but, what now?
Well there’s a grand life plan I have devised, and over time you’ll get to see it play out. But beyond that I made one fundamentally life changing decision, and that is to change how I approach my life. I will now wake up everyday and take 2, 5 or maybe 10 minutes to own my day before it even starts. I am going to visualize, plan and get my attitude in gear so that by the time I set foot out of bed I am excited, energized and electrified for the day ahead. We, as people are in control of one thing and that is how we approach life. The right attitude will take you further than you could have dreamed.
Continuing with my little bits of advice I am leaving to myself I’ll end off with a quote I read somewhere;
“If you lived every day the same way you did today, what kind of future would that create?” ~ Jesse Lear
Crew Love
Coming to university I thought I’d make a close group of friends and meet people in first year and become comfortable with them and slot into a ‘crew’ of people I party with, chill with and all that jazz. What I hadn’t expected was to find many crews, various mixes of incredible people that bring something different to my life. Last night was all about my newest crew and showing them love.
I met my new friends, I suppose you’d call them, through my best friend. They are the exact opposite of me, innately cool, hipsters with ridiculous lifestyles. When you walk past a table of them you can’t help but feel like they up your street cred infinitely. The greatest thing about them has to be that they are genuinely nice, chilled people who are warm, inviting and as it turns out incredibly talented. Last night the crew hosted an event for Karabo aka IPMan who is the resident rapper accompanied by Tim ‘Cheescake’ on the decks.
When my girls and I first walked into The Waiting Room, a trendy, downtown vibe club in Long Street I was worried at the lack of turnout. Granted it was 9pm, and no respectable clubber leaves the house before 11:30pm especially on a Wednesday night. Grabbing the opportunity to enjoy an empty dance floor my friends and I jammed to the old-school Hip Hop the DJ duo on the decks was pumping. It was amazing to just enjoy the music and to have those throwback moments. As the night went on it got progressively fuller and it seemed like within the blink of an eye the dance floor was heaving with writhing bodies and flashing lights, it was incredible. When IPMan hit the stage everyone took to him like crazy, there seemed to be an insane synchronicity between the audience’s energy and IPMan’s jams. When I thought it couldn’t get better after the performance Drake came on and it seemed like the entire club got pulled into a mass jam session. I have never experienced that kind of synchronized mass rapping/jamming, turns out we are all fans.
I honestly did not feel like leaving the house last night but it was well worth me rolling off the couch to show the crew some love. Sometimes the best people and nights are not where you expect to find them.
Continuing with my snippets of advice I am leaving for my future self to read (and probably laugh at) I must say this;
“Take a chance, make a change and get off the couch. You’ve got one life to live, no point wasting it on watching other people enjoy theirs.”
Boys, Booze & Bars
They say that bad things happen to you in three’s, I think even good things are supposed to happen in three’s. After all when you score three goals in soccer, it’s a hattrick and everyone celebrates. Boys, booze and bars are a trifecta that somehow always goes together.
At the moment I have no interest in boys, even when good-looking, articulate and downright sexy guys approach me I end up talking to them about finance and their future careers. Probably not the kind of conversation that they expect to have when they engage a girl in a conversation at the bar. I may be in a funk but it seems like everyone else around me is flourishing, my best friend has more issues with boys than Vogue, my other friends are going on dates like they’re going out of fashion and there’s me. I must be honest though I love this state, because it keeps me out of trouble.
Nothing can last forever though. Our short vacation is coming up and the festivities are already starting. This means bars leads to booze which in a haze always leads straight back to boys. I am taking a conscious decision though to go for guys that are good for me. Under no circumstances will I allow the allure of a sexy, mysterious, quiet guy to pull me in. There is no mystery to solve, he just has the social skills of a tree or he is trying to pull by not approaching you, don’t get it twisted to believe that there is secretly more to him.
Whenever I attend a talk with executives and chiefs of industry I have a question I like to ask; “What advice would you give your younger yourself?” So in light of this, I am using this year to leave pieces of advice to myself, that I can look back on and really analyze whether or not I possessed an ounce of sensibility at this age.
Advice on boys, booze & bars:
“You know your worth, so don’t let the allure of booze in bars lead you to boys who don’t.”
Be Better
I feel like in the past I was constantly changing and making grandiose declarations about how I was going to change completely. The crazy thing that I have learnt over the past couple of months though is that when you stop talking about how you are going to change, it just seems to happen naturally.
I was at a trendy club in Cape Town one night when a girl drunkenly shouted, “Be better!” to my best friend and I as we were leaving. This was a while back but at the beginning of the year we took a decision to live our lives differently and just be better. It’s probably one of the better decisions my best friend and I have made together. I haven’t posted this year but so far I’ve attended the J&B Met, hit Shimmy Beach Club where I had the most amazing night listening to the likes of Shaun Duvet and the Strange Loving, I’ve also tried out Dragon Room (Cape Town hotspot) for the first time. Met Das Kapital, a remarkably talented and innately cool Cape Town-based DJ, had a raucous night or two and naturally had some boy drama just to keep things interesting.
There’s no point on dwelling on what I have done already, this year is all about looking forward. (If you are at all interested in the highlight reel of the past couple of months though you can check out my new Instagram account: @lithachickita). Being better means trying different things, pushing yourself to the next level and living a life worth remembering. All I am saying is a back with a bang, and there are a whole lot of misadventures coming your way. But in the meantime, seize the day and be better!
Faith
We may not all believe in the same God or even believe in a higher power of any sort but I think we all find ourselves having to have a little faith every now and then. By faith I mean believing that things will come together for you or even more basically, faith that there will be a tomorrow.
The thing about faith is that sometimes it can be really hard to believe. I am a glass half-full, silver lining seeking kind of girl. I am actually the person that gets frustrated when people don’t believe that good things are coming to them and that things are going to work out for them. I partially attribute this inherent belief in the universe to reading The Secret at an early age, purely out of interest initially, and also to being raised in a Christian household.
At the moment though as Bon Jovi said, “I’m living on a prayer.” This week a couple of things need to come together for me, and although I know in the grander scheme of things these are not the life changing moments, I can’t help but be completely invested in their outcome anyway. I am having complete faith though that everything is going to work out even better than I could have dreamed. What I have learnt as I have gotten older though is that faith is not the absence of fear it is the inherent understanding that fear is simply false evidence appearing true in moments of weakness.
In the bible somewhere it says that we live by faith, not by sight. It is so easy to say have faith yet so much harder to actually go through with and believe wholeheartedly. This week I am going to challenge myself to have complete and utter unwavering faith, why don’t you try the same? After all we have everything to gain and nothing to lose.
The Grand Finale
I recently wrote about the misadventures my best friend and I have embarked upon in Johannesburg, the city of gold. All good things must come to an end though and Friday night was the closing chapter of our time together in Johannesburg. After more than a week of debauchery and adventure together we honestly did not expect anything from the night other than a great night hearing my favourite house music trio, Mi Casa, perform.
We arrived at Cafe Vacca Matta, the club where Mi Casa was set to perform, quite early. We genuinely were only there for Mi Casa but we ended up dancing like groupies to the amazing line-up of DJ’s they had on offer, I even discovered a new favourite, Ms Cosmo. Finally at 1am the guys made their way to the stage, considering we had danced for 4 hours in the same place in order to make sure we got a place front and centre, I was relieved and excited. When J’Something, the tremendously talented front man of the trio stepped on stage and I realised only centimetres separated us I laughed at how amazing the situation was. The show started and to say I had an amazing time would be an understatement. I decided to do the whole fan thing 1000 percent and I got my friend to write, “I ♡ J” on my chest in red lipstick. (Classy I know, but you’re only young once right?) When he responded by saying something along the lines of I love you too and I love telling you, I melted into a puddle of ecstasy. Having seen them perform multiple times, I had almost given up on the idea of any one of the trio noticing me but like a cockroach that won’t die, I have a certain dogged tenacity that makes it hard for me to give up.
To say that it was the grand finale to a spectacular trip with my best friend would be undervaluing just how amazing each day was. Neither my friend nor I could have imagined actually making this trip happen, let alone could we have dreamed about how it would turn out. The crazy thing about life though is that when you stop worrying about the how and just stay firm in your belief that somehow great things will happen and go about taking action that allows for this, it delivers in spades.
I have no idea what amazing things tomorrow will bring but I am sure it will be beyond even my wildest dreams. This certainly was a spectacular way to end off this chapter of my life, but I know there is so much more to come.
PS: Go out and grab Mi Casa‘s latest album, Su Casa, available in all good music stores and on iTunes. My favourite song from their latest offering is Turn You On, let me know in the comments which your favourite is. If you’re in South Africa this summer they are definitely a trio you have to see perform.☆
2014 continues
Oh what a year it has been!
I think it’s Charles Dickens who wrote, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” This line eloquently summarises the rollercoaster of a year 2014 has been thus far. But I am not one to dwell on negativity, everything happens in order to put us in the best place for the next opportunity.
I will focus on the best of times it has been for the past two weeks or so. After finishing my exams for the year (fingers triply crossed they went well) I headed straight to the city of gold, Johannesburg. You always hear people saying that a change is as good as a holiday but sometimes a holiday is really as good as a holiday. Leaving Cape Town seemed like the best way to begin my Madonna-esque reinvention, but more importantly it’s a whole new city, so there is room for a whole lot more misadventure.
The first couple of days were really chilled, if you call galavanting the city having lavish dinners where vintage champagne is ordered without batting an eyelid chilled. But the vacation really began when my best friend and partner-in-crime arrived.
From the minute we stepped into Sandton, the richest square mile in Africa, we ran into 2 rappers, got free drinks, made friends and even got propostioned by an obsecenly rich businessman. This was all in the space of one day. I literally laughed out loud at how unreal all of it was, we certainly weren’t in Cape Town anymore.
Since then things have slowed down but each day has brought new hilarious occurrences that could only happen in Joburg, 2 invites to Durban from young guys who have too much time and money, more indecent proposals and even the opportunity to star in an up and coming rapper’s latest video. If I wasn’t living this week I would laugh at how ridiculous it seems.
The attitude we have adopted for this trip is that it is one for the memoirs, there is simply too much insanity for me to go into detail right now but when the time comes it will definitely be worth a read. After last night’s shenanigans at Tiger Tiger Fourways, a popular Johannesburg nightclub, where there were R2 drinks for 2 hours I can only say that this city never disappoints.
I am not sure what new adventure will come my way today, the day is still young after all. I spoke to my granny last night and she said to me, “Act your age, being old is boring.” I pondered what she said for a minute and came to the conclusion that since she has lived more than a couple of decades, she might have this life thing figured out just a little bit.
So this weekend how about we all act our age and live it up, after all we have the rest of our lives to be boring.
Love & Other Misadventures 