I’m 30 now. I remember finishing up a piano lesson last Wednesday and looking over at the clock and seeing it was midnight. That was it; my birthday. The start of a new decade. I suppose in Canada I was still twenty-nine, but in my life in Scotland, I was thirty. I went straight to bed and woke up at 4am to watch the sunrise on Arthur’s Seat. I did that last year too, except there was too much fog and I didn’t see a thing. This year, the sky was glorious. I don’t know if that means anything; I hope it does. I hope it symbolises everything the year ahead will look like. I’m always trying to find hidden meaning in things. Maybe thirty is when you’re supposed to stop doing things like that. Maybe by the time you reach thirty, you’re supposed to realize that sometimes a sunrise is just a sunrise.
Continue reading “Thirty”Tag: Life
The Wind
I walked a lot in January and so far, I’ve walked a lot in February too. Over the weekend, I was walking into town to meet up with a friend for coffee and it was pouring rain or ‘pissing it down,’ as they would say over here. It’s impossible to use an umbrella in Scotland because of the wind. That’s why I had to pull my hood over my head, holding in place the entire journey.
Continue reading “The Wind”January Walk
Lately, when I go for evening walks, it’s been cold and clear. I stuff my hands in my pockets and try to disappear inside the puffiness of my jacket. I hate being cold. I made a promise to myself once that I wasn’t going to be cold ever again if I could help it but here I am.
Continue reading “January Walk”Sunsets
There is something that I think everybody loves, at least a little bit, and that is a sunset. Some of us purposely take time out of our days to watch it. Others are lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. Sunsets are cherished images in love songs and puzzles and travel photos and maybe even pictures taken in the city you grew up in.
Continue reading “Sunsets”Skies and Sadness
One time, when I was very sad, I saw a picture of the sky that someone posted on Instagram and wondered how it was possible for people to be happy and post beautiful pictures of nature when I felt the worst I had ever felt. I wanted to look at the sky and feel like maybe life wasn’t so bad. Maybe it mostly isn’t – but it took a long time to remember all the reasons why.
Continue reading “Skies and Sadness”Seasons
At long last, it is sunny, crisp, windy, chilly, rainy, cosy, sometimes all at once. I have been waiting for this. I didn’t realize how badly I was longing for fall until suddenly, one ordinary morning, I felt cold and had to hug my arms to my chest. Fall is here – finally. And all I want to do is wear an orange or mustard coloured sweater.
Continue reading “Seasons”Now vs In Two Weeks
This morning I woke up at 6:30 and lay in bed reading Atonement until 8:00. Time seemed irrelevant because I had nothing to do and nowhere to go. So I stayed in my pajamas for most of the day. Strangely enough, having nothing to do made me feel important.
Continue reading “Now vs In Two Weeks”Summer in Reality
Even though it’s still summer, everything about September automatically feels different. The mornings are chillier, the songs are sadder, and I’m annoyed at myself for letting the whole season pass without wearing jean shorts even once.
Continue reading “Summer in Reality”Car Thief
Today was the kind of day where you wake up and don’t expect anything particularly interesting to happen. It was Monday, it was raining, the beach was perfectly calm and not at all windy. But then, against all odds, at 2:30 in the afternoon, I witnessed somebody rob a car.
Continue reading “Car Thief”