#Blogtober14...Day 1 & 2

So today I stumbled upon the #Blogtober14 challenge over on Helene in Between's blog, and I decided to do it because A) It would give me a chance to do some serious blogging and B)It would give my readers the opportunity to get to know me better! So I obviously missed day 1, and day 2 is an hour shy of being over, so here goes - Day 1 & 2!

Day 1 - If I won the lottery I'd...
Well it all depends on how much I win, but lets be optimistic and say I hit the big time, a couple Million Rand, a few Hundred Thousand Pound, yeah, that sounds about right!!

After doing my little Sue Heck scream and a happy dance, my rational thinking self would immediately want to put about half of the winnings into some form of savings/investment and settle any debts we have owing - Boring right!!!

Then my spending splurging self would do the following:
1 - Give both my parents, Riaan's parents, and our siblings a portion of the winnings.
2 - Go on an amazing vacation or 3 - like proper bucketlist vacations or if I could I would pack up our stuff, put it in storage and travel the world!
3 - Buy a giraffe or 2 and a place to keep them - a farm or manor of sorts.

Me with my absolute favourite animal in the whole world!

4 - Open a bakery/cakery.
5 - Splurge on some high tech gadgets.
6 - Do a bit of a wardrobe overhaul.

Basically I would live out the uninvested money and enjoy life, it is short afterall!

Day 2 - Dream Job when I was little...
When I was about 5 I wanted to be a marine biologist. I had visions that my days would be spent swimming with dolphins...in hindsight I think I was probably watching The Little Mermaid WAY to much!

As I got older my dream "when I'm big" job changed, I wanted to be a doctor, then a veterinarian (this was highly protested by my family, because I would most likely bring home every animal that didn't have a home or had to be "out to sleep").

Then the big one - I wanted to be a singer/actor, I wanted to be famous, to make it. I watched grease and dirty dancing countless times. I wanted to be the girl on tv. That kind of stuck...I watch Glee, I'm a self-confessed Gleek and I still catch myself daydreaming of what it would be like to have a day job that requires you to entertain people and to be a completely different person than yourself. I love expressing myself creatively.

Then I wanted to be a paediatrician, then a teacher... HOLY COW! It seems like I didn't know what I wanted! Or that I had big dreams for myself!!

 
My parents always always said I got the brains in the family, they encouraged me to follow the academic route, because I was good at it and it was a more certain thing. So even though I love singing, dancing, painting, and all things creative, that's what I did, now I am well on my way to becoming a Qualified Certified Chartered Accountant! Not bad eh!! I am proud of myself and my achievements, it most definitely hasn't been easy, but that's what makes it worth it!

As a side note I do think it is important to encourage your children to follow their dreams and to keep their creative juices flowing even if it isn't exactly what you had planned for them.

Follow your dreams

I will drill this into my children's heads one day...because I believe it is important! (Within reason of course - I most certainly don't want a little Evil Knievel running around!)

It is important to follow your dreams, try, and if you don't succeed at least you gave it a go.
You'll be happier knowing you gave it your all and it didn't work rather than always wondering what would have happened if only you tried...

I read a quote on pinterest a while ago - it changed my perspective on life immensely. Here it is...

"Making a big life change is pretty scary. But, know what's even scarier? Regret."

I think the reason that this hit so close to home at the time is because I was just given an awesome job opportunity... Changing jobs really isn't such a big life change, hell some people change their jobs more often than I change my hair. So what's the big deal then?? The big deal is that the job is in another country...on another continent...Thousands of kilometers away from everything we know and everyone we love.

I started waitressing at the age of 15, not for spending money, but to save so that when I matriculated I could take a gap year, move to the UK and have a working holiday. That never happened. Life has a funny way of changing your story, just when you think you know what you want and you have this great big plan of how your life is going to be, BAM!, a curveball! My curveball's name is Riaan (I say this with love), I am so lucky to have met him, I am grateful for him everyday and I never once thought "What if I went to the UK", all thoughts of moving faded away after we started dating, I found my happily ever after. *Awwwww* Ok! End of being soppy!

Call it fate, call it destiny, call it whatever you like, but, as life would have it, we'll be going to live in the UK afterall, the only difference being its a few years later than what I had dreamed of in my early teen years, and I won't be going alone. There it is, the big scary life change!

In the past year ALOT has happened, life is short and I have learnt that you should do what makes you happy. Live your life for you! We are lucky enough to have families that have always encouraged us to follow our dreams and support us in the choices we make.

So that's that...Be happy, live life, and follow your dreams!