You'll Never Shine if You Don't Glow
Hey, hey, hey, folks! How you doing? I'm doing just fine.
Yes, I'm on vacation, thank you very much.
Ah, I'm finally going to have time to do things such as, yes, writing here. And there's also a bunch of other stuff I want to work on, but I guarantee that keeping this Blog updated definitely makes the Top 3 on my To Do list.
Anyway, I haven't really gotten around to doing that many vacation-ish things. Not that I ever do. Till now, I've only walked around the neighborhood with my friends and taken a whole lot of pictures. And I've been spending an amazing amount of time online.
But other than that, nothing much.
Ooh, I watched Slumdog Millionaire on Sunday and let me just say: wow. Really, it is just such a beautiful movie. I read the book in March or something, and I loved it, too. There are some significant differences between the original work and the movie version, but the adaptation was made beautifully, and it made the story even more romantic, though slightly less dramatic.
Loved the soundtrack, too. I'm totally addicted to Jai Ho now. Seriously, this movie is absolutely "unmissable". No wonder it got so many Oscars - eight, to be exact.
The actors were great, too. You know, it's nice to get out of the Hollywood scenario for a change. I mean, yes, it's great to watch an Angelina Jolie movie, but there's something nice about watching a low-budget movie with no Beverly Hills-originated stars.
Dev Patel and Freida Pinto as Jamal and Latika in Slumdog Millionaire
Fine, so now that I've given my opinion on the astonishingly awesome Slumdog Millionaire, I'd like to move on to the good - but nowhere near as magical as Jamal's love story, of course - Hollywood-star-filled He's Just Not That Into You.
The two stories - as well as the cast - are completely different of course, and have nothing to do with each other, I guess. But I just watched HJNTIY this morning - yes, being able to get out of bed after 9 and then jump to the couch to watch a movie while having breakfast without even taking off your PJ's is definitely one of the great wonders of going through winter break - and I just figured, why not just throw that in here, too?
Seriously, I totally loved that movie, too. It's not exactly romantic, it's not even that funny, but it's definitely therapeutic. To be honest, it didn't really teach me anything I didn't know already, but it did help to raise a couple of questions and stress their points. How come women always blame themselves at the end of a relationship, no matter how much of a jerk a guy was while they were dating or how insensitively he broke things up? How come men can do sneaky, obnoxious things such as cheating and treating girls as if they were disposable pieces of meat and not even feel bad about it? Seriously, it just seems to come off naturally. And - this is a big one - how come we have to make things this complicated?
If a guy's jerk to you, that's because he's a jerk. Why do we bother to make excuses for people who don't even care about us enough to give us the respect we deserve? If a guy's a dick, that's his fault, his problem, not yours.
Sometimes I really wonder how men get to be the way they are, but I just lay my head down in frustration every time. Men are the way they are - just like we are the way we are - but Lord knows what makes them that way.
As to the last question. That's a tricky one. This is really something I've always wondered about. Why is there so much bureaucracy surrounding the whole dating system? Why is there even a system? Is it really because, deep, deep down, we're all addicted to a little something called unnecessary drama?
If I like a guy and that guy likes me, why can't we just leave it at that? I get it's different when you're like friends with the person or something of the sort, but let's take the movie example. A girl goes to a bar and hangs out with a guy, so, if he likes her, why can't he just tell her so? And, if he doesn't, then why, in Heaven's name, does he even bother to tell her he's going to call? Why does he even get her number or give her his if he has absolutely no interest in ever seeing her again?
I, myself, can't find an answer for that one. Perhaps it's just the way things are done, just one of those things no one can really explain and no one's really satisfied with it, but nobody cares enough to do something about it. I don't know.
But, either way, even though we've still got that time-traveling question unanswered, the movie was still pretty helpful.
It makes a lot of good points. We all have an image of happiness set in our heads: the girl has to find her prince to be happy. But why? Maybe the answer to real happiness has more to do with being okay with yourself than to be okay with everybody else.
It's like they say, you can't get out there and love someone unless you love yourself to begin with.
That's not exactly true, I mean, technically, you can do whatever you want and, hey, it's not like you can choose when to fall in love with someone.
But I think I get the point in that saying. Let's say you have a boyfriend - yey: that doesn't mean you have to make it all about him. You can't just have one source of happiness, you have to be independent and secure enough to know that. if you ever get to a point where you find yourself single again, you'll be sane enough to live with yourself, to pick up the pieces and start over.
Being with the person you love is great - more than just great, really. But you have to have your own life. You have to know how to make it when that person's not around, because, if you don't, chances are that, at some point, you'll find yourself lying on the floor in a fetal position, feeling absolutely, irrevocably miserable, not sure what to do with your life or if even want to live on at all.
And, hey: that's not good.
So, yeah. Maybe dating is overrated. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be by yourself for a while, there's nothing bad about trying to make something of yourself on your own. When you're on firm ground, then, yeah, why not share said ground with the one you love? But you have to make sure to never let go of yourself, your dreams, your ambitions, your independence.
You've got to hold onto that, but that doesn't mean to shut yourself from the world. Sometimes, you just have to take a risk, to take a chance. You see an opportunity for happiness, please, go ahead and grab it! Sure, things might go wrong in the end, but at least you will have tried.
What's worse: getting a point blank no or spending the rest of your life wondering what could've been if you had just been brave enough to give it a try?
To me, it's the second. I don't know. I mean, just like most things is life, this is all just easier said than done. But I'll be sure to give all of this a try.
I'll make an effort to stick to all the things I got from the movie - and it'd be nice if more people would, too.
You know, the important thing in life, in my opinion, is to try to make the most of it. Maybe you'll never get around to getting certain things, but the important is to try. It's the intention that counts.
The courage, the amount of self-confidence it takes to just try, to put yourself out there is truly admirable.
You know what? It's true, sometimes you might have a very small chance of getting what you want if you try, but if don't try at all, then your chances of getting what you want are reduced to a fat, round 0.
I know I must have said this about 300 times, but I'll say it again: what doesn't kill us makes us stronger.
See you.
You can't make it unless you take a chance.
Love,
Bruna.
Hand picture taken from Little Manhattan poster - Title: taken from song All Star by Smash Mouth
Yes, I'm on vacation, thank you very much.
Ah, I'm finally going to have time to do things such as, yes, writing here. And there's also a bunch of other stuff I want to work on, but I guarantee that keeping this Blog updated definitely makes the Top 3 on my To Do list.
Anyway, I haven't really gotten around to doing that many vacation-ish things. Not that I ever do. Till now, I've only walked around the neighborhood with my friends and taken a whole lot of pictures. And I've been spending an amazing amount of time online.
But other than that, nothing much.
Ooh, I watched Slumdog Millionaire on Sunday and let me just say: wow. Really, it is just such a beautiful movie. I read the book in March or something, and I loved it, too. There are some significant differences between the original work and the movie version, but the adaptation was made beautifully, and it made the story even more romantic, though slightly less dramatic.
Loved the soundtrack, too. I'm totally addicted to Jai Ho now. Seriously, this movie is absolutely "unmissable". No wonder it got so many Oscars - eight, to be exact.
The actors were great, too. You know, it's nice to get out of the Hollywood scenario for a change. I mean, yes, it's great to watch an Angelina Jolie movie, but there's something nice about watching a low-budget movie with no Beverly Hills-originated stars.
Dev Patel and Freida Pinto as Jamal and Latika in Slumdog Millionaire
Fine, so now that I've given my opinion on the astonishingly awesome Slumdog Millionaire, I'd like to move on to the good - but nowhere near as magical as Jamal's love story, of course - Hollywood-star-filled He's Just Not That Into You.
The two stories - as well as the cast - are completely different of course, and have nothing to do with each other, I guess. But I just watched HJNTIY this morning - yes, being able to get out of bed after 9 and then jump to the couch to watch a movie while having breakfast without even taking off your PJ's is definitely one of the great wonders of going through winter break - and I just figured, why not just throw that in here, too?
Seriously, I totally loved that movie, too. It's not exactly romantic, it's not even that funny, but it's definitely therapeutic. To be honest, it didn't really teach me anything I didn't know already, but it did help to raise a couple of questions and stress their points. How come women always blame themselves at the end of a relationship, no matter how much of a jerk a guy was while they were dating or how insensitively he broke things up? How come men can do sneaky, obnoxious things such as cheating and treating girls as if they were disposable pieces of meat and not even feel bad about it? Seriously, it just seems to come off naturally. And - this is a big one - how come we have to make things this complicated?
If a guy's jerk to you, that's because he's a jerk. Why do we bother to make excuses for people who don't even care about us enough to give us the respect we deserve? If a guy's a dick, that's his fault, his problem, not yours.
Sometimes I really wonder how men get to be the way they are, but I just lay my head down in frustration every time. Men are the way they are - just like we are the way we are - but Lord knows what makes them that way.
As to the last question. That's a tricky one. This is really something I've always wondered about. Why is there so much bureaucracy surrounding the whole dating system? Why is there even a system? Is it really because, deep, deep down, we're all addicted to a little something called unnecessary drama?
If I like a guy and that guy likes me, why can't we just leave it at that? I get it's different when you're like friends with the person or something of the sort, but let's take the movie example. A girl goes to a bar and hangs out with a guy, so, if he likes her, why can't he just tell her so? And, if he doesn't, then why, in Heaven's name, does he even bother to tell her he's going to call? Why does he even get her number or give her his if he has absolutely no interest in ever seeing her again?
I, myself, can't find an answer for that one. Perhaps it's just the way things are done, just one of those things no one can really explain and no one's really satisfied with it, but nobody cares enough to do something about it. I don't know.
But, either way, even though we've still got that time-traveling question unanswered, the movie was still pretty helpful.
It makes a lot of good points. We all have an image of happiness set in our heads: the girl has to find her prince to be happy. But why? Maybe the answer to real happiness has more to do with being okay with yourself than to be okay with everybody else.
It's like they say, you can't get out there and love someone unless you love yourself to begin with.
That's not exactly true, I mean, technically, you can do whatever you want and, hey, it's not like you can choose when to fall in love with someone.
But I think I get the point in that saying. Let's say you have a boyfriend - yey: that doesn't mean you have to make it all about him. You can't just have one source of happiness, you have to be independent and secure enough to know that. if you ever get to a point where you find yourself single again, you'll be sane enough to live with yourself, to pick up the pieces and start over.
Being with the person you love is great - more than just great, really. But you have to have your own life. You have to know how to make it when that person's not around, because, if you don't, chances are that, at some point, you'll find yourself lying on the floor in a fetal position, feeling absolutely, irrevocably miserable, not sure what to do with your life or if even want to live on at all.
And, hey: that's not good.
So, yeah. Maybe dating is overrated. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be by yourself for a while, there's nothing bad about trying to make something of yourself on your own. When you're on firm ground, then, yeah, why not share said ground with the one you love? But you have to make sure to never let go of yourself, your dreams, your ambitions, your independence.
You've got to hold onto that, but that doesn't mean to shut yourself from the world. Sometimes, you just have to take a risk, to take a chance. You see an opportunity for happiness, please, go ahead and grab it! Sure, things might go wrong in the end, but at least you will have tried.
What's worse: getting a point blank no or spending the rest of your life wondering what could've been if you had just been brave enough to give it a try?
To me, it's the second. I don't know. I mean, just like most things is life, this is all just easier said than done. But I'll be sure to give all of this a try.
I'll make an effort to stick to all the things I got from the movie - and it'd be nice if more people would, too.
You know, the important thing in life, in my opinion, is to try to make the most of it. Maybe you'll never get around to getting certain things, but the important is to try. It's the intention that counts.
The courage, the amount of self-confidence it takes to just try, to put yourself out there is truly admirable.
You know what? It's true, sometimes you might have a very small chance of getting what you want if you try, but if don't try at all, then your chances of getting what you want are reduced to a fat, round 0.
I know I must have said this about 300 times, but I'll say it again: what doesn't kill us makes us stronger.
See you.
You can't make it unless you take a chance.
Love,
Bruna.
Hand picture taken from Little Manhattan poster - Title: taken from song All Star by Smash Mouth