Getting My Hands Dirty

I will give you this: I am a very impulsive person. I have explored many a hobby, music genre and craft form, all out of very impulsive interest. However, I can say with certainty that despite these new interests coming on as impulses, I never treat them as such! When I start liking something new, I'm not likely to drop it quickly after like a kid with a new toy that they were just DYING to have. Instead of getting a new interest and dropping all of the others behind me, I just add stuff to my list of interests! As of now, my new interest is gardening.

My new interest is not even as impulsive as it may seem. Though, yes, I did get triggered by a cute little pot with daisy seeds which I got from my sister for my eighteenth birthday, but that doesn't mean that my original interest in gardening wasn't already there!

Illustration by Julianna Swaney

First of all, growing up, two big influences in my life were my mother and her father. My grandfather has books' worth of knowledge inside his head about plants and nature, and I suppose a lot of this knowledge he taught to my mother. Now, I've never really received any lessons of the sort from my Mum, but growing up I would just look at her in awe at how she could name pretty much all the names of plants and herbs we passed. So that's where I think my first spark of interest derives from.

Illustration by Julianne Swaney

Secondly, I went on a holiday to Dirim Guesthouse in Yenikoy, Kusadasi (Turkey) last summer, which was a very memorable vacation culture-wise. At the guesthouse, a small house on top of a mountain, Lydia, the Dutch hostess, grew a lot of her own vegetables in her garden. She would also sometimes surprise me with herbal tea, like fresh mint which she had then just plucked somewhere on the mountain. I suppose it wasn't only the factor of eating homegrown food that made it taste so good, it was especially the factor of eating it in the right season. In the Netherlands, getting fruit and vegetables from the supermarket, we can eat almost everything throughout the entire year. Being in Turkey where eating with the seasons is still very common, was a real eye-opener for me. How logical it is, especially, that what the earth provides you during a certain season is what's best for your health and the most delicious in that time of year! While we were there, you could tell by the offers at restaurants that they truly focused on the vegetables that were available during that time of the year. I really enjoyed their dishes with eggplants in particular, and that lovely taste combined with their green peppers! A specialty during our visit in July, was juice made from mulberries that were right in their season. They would serve ice-cold beverages made from this fruit at markets and it was the perfect thirst-quencher during those hot summer days.

By Lydia Barends, hostess of Dirim Guesthouse in Turkey

The last, and rather selfish, factor that plays a part in my increasing interest for gardening, is that I've discovered how great it feels to receive the results for something you made/did/grew yourself. I'm pretty late to learning how to cook, but when I first created my own tomato/chicken/basil/tortellini soup, it just tasted like heaven on my tongue. A great deal of that 'taste' most probably derived from the fact that I had made that dinner myself! I was proud of it, I put work into it and it paid off. It's like buying something off of your first owned salary. (I'm remembering my first trip abroad with friends, to Switzerland, which we had earned all by ourselves...)

Illustration by Julianna Swaney

Now, I've only just begun with my gardening project, and only tiny bits of green are popping up here and there, but I can just imagine how GREAT it will feel once (hopefully) I will be able to harvest something I planted and took care of. Imagine then cooking with that. Imagine the INCREDIBLE taste that dinner would have. No matter whether the taste is really all that great, it will make you feel amazing. I put up a quote in my room the other day, and it says something like "To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow." (Is that Audrey Hepburn?) Being my little optimistic self, I will not let anyone rain on my parade by saying my plants will probably not grow so well or that I'll probably get bored of this new hobby really soon.

I planted my garden, because I believe in tomorrow.

See you all in my next post!

Love, Eva

Worrying | World Views

Hello everyone!

Wow, saying that my World Views would be 'coming soon' was a bit of an exaggeration. I am an incredibly busy woman this year, but despite being busy I found this to be a good time to get back into my writing flow and get this project off the ground already! I will soon be starting my final exams, so those will definitely cause a delay in my posting, but I just want to stop making excuses for starting this project that I'm still really passionate about!

The first question that I sent around the world for my wonderful friends to answer, was what they spent too much time on.

In my case, this is worrying.

I'm a worrier. I say it in this way because it makes it sound a lot like 'warrior', and that makes me feel at least a little bit better about it. Truth be told, it's horrible. For me, it's not the type of worrying that means I constantly feel like something bad is going to happen. In fact, I'm too stubborn and too much of a blind optimist for that. My problem with worrying is that I constantly worry that the steps I'm taking in my own life, are the wrong ones. I base these worries not on realistic reason, but mostly on what I see happening in the lives of those around me. Whenever my path is not like theirs, I worry that mine is wrong. Despite the fact that I do realise this happens to me, I will admit that it does not help me get rid of these irrational worries. The most horrible thing is not even the worrying itself, but the self-sabotaging that happens because of it. I keep myself from achieving a goal, because the world tells me this goal is not ideal. Or I keep myself from trying to achieve something, because I'm afraid of what will happen when I reach the other end of it. If I've learnt anything these past few weeks, it's to not be afraid to be my own, individual self, and to not punish myself if things aren't going as smoothly as my environment makes me think is 'normal'. There is no normal. There is only me, and I need to learn how to go from there. But, like this adorable illustration says, I'm still growing. And that is okay, too.

Not my illustration

My friend Gabriela from Puerto Rico could relate to my problem with worrying. "I spend too much time worrying and being scared." She told me. However, it seems to be in a different way than I experience it. "I'm too sensitive, and I never want people to feel bad or offended. This often leaves me with burdens I should just have left behind. I am too nice and people see me as someone to run over easily. It's that which has made the last couple of months incredibly hard for me."

So what did others feel like they spent too much time on?

Astrud, from the United States, told me about spending too much time organising all of her personal belongings.

My dear friend Maria from Spain says that most of her free time gets absorbed by her listening to music, or just overthinking silly stuff. (Glad to hear I'm not the only one!)

Othilie, from Norway, tells me about her surplus time spent dreaming of being a teenager in other centuries. "Basically any other time than now, haha!"

My Slovenian friend Tjaša has to admit that it's YouTube she spends too much time on, and I wholeheartedly relate.

Clarissa from America seems to be in the same boat. "I spend too much time on my computer. I tend to watch videos and movies, and I spend a lot of time on Tumblr." - Don't we all? :') - "I wish I could stop, pick up a book and read instead."


We all have things we spend too much time on, some positive, some negative. Can I just say to everyone spending too much time on something positive: Turn it into something good! For example, use that daydreaming to create something new! Write a story, paint a picture, become a poet! Use that part of you to bring something new and interesting into this world! :) And to those, like me, who tend to spend too much time on something negative: Try to learn from it and not be too hard on yourself along the way.

On that note, I will end this very first edition of World Views. See you for the next one? Its theme will be 'first experiences', and I'm excited for you to read it!

Love you lots,

Eva

World Views | Coming Soon!

Hello everyone!

For the past half year or so, I have been busy with a project that I began out of desire to blog more. It's called World Views, and it's an interactive series of blogposts that my friends in all corners of the world are helping create.

Why World Views?

Personally, I feel that people can have a tendency to stay inside their own bubble. You have your own routines, your own values, your own traditions and your own opinions. However, with a growing list of friends in foreign countries, I noticed that it can be very nice and useful to broaden your view on even the littlest of things. It can help you lose fears, get rid of bad habits or help you feel solidarity towards others more easily. The aim of this series is to shine different lights on one, simple or complicated, topic, based on origin as well as personality. If anything, I hope this series can help people alter their mindset where they would like to have it altered. One tiny step at a time.

How will it be structured?

With World Views I will post one question each week, for four weeks each 'block'. These questions have also been sent to friends all around the world, and respectively answered. Every post will be an assemblage of answers that were written with uttermost honesty, by them and myself. This type of blogging is very new to me so I hope it will turn out nicely and worth reading. I'm really excited to take baby steps into journalism.

Can others participate?

It would be lovely if people could share their own view or experience in the comments! Don't forget to mention your country of origin or your age in the comment!

This project goes with special thanks to all of my wonderful friends around the world willing to participate in my project! You guys are amazing!

See you for the first World Views?

Lots of love,

Eva