A Letter to My 30-Year-Old Self

Hey, you!

It's weird thinking that you're already 30! Please let me know what that's like? Is it all we imagined it to be? Or is still age primarily just a number?

As this letter is being written, you're only 25 and are currently going over the biggest dilemma you've ever had to face. I'm so curious to know what path you chose to follow! Whatever it is you decided, I hope you didn't make anyone too sad.

What is your job like? Are you still working the same field? I hope you still have in your heart the best intentions for people, and doing everything the best way you can. You were never one to half-ass anything, and I hope that never changed.

Are you in a relationship? Are you married? Do you have any kids? You always said you weren't ready for any kind of relationship until you found your sense of stability. I hope you let your guard down just a little and allowed this to happen.

Where do you live? Is it a cozy apartment with a cafe down the street that you visit regularly to read books? You always said you wanted that. That, or an apartment in a high rise building with ceiling-to-floor windows overlooking a busy city with bright lights. I hope you got either of the two, if not, something better. You were never one to settle.

Speaking of books, do you still enjoy reading them? That was always your favorite thing to do, and you always found time to do it. I hope that this, too, didn't change.

Did you learn to drive? I really hope you mustered up the courage and did that! You knew you wanted a sense of independence and you believed that this was an important step to achieve that.

How's your relationship with your family? They're the most valuable thing you have right now and I do hope you still keep in touch with them!

What things did you cross off your bucket list? Did you finally get to visit Paris? Was it as magical as you thought it would be? I hope you're working on ticking off everything on that list! Don't make up excuses, we both know we're better than that.

Do you still write posts for this blog? I honestly hope you do, so you can find this letter and remember the person you once were and hopefully still are; someone who was never afraid of chasing her dreams, no matter how big or small they seemed.

Above all, I genuinely wish you're smiling and finally meaning it.

With the best wishes,

Your 25-year-old self.

How I've Been Using Spotify in Kuwait

While tons of apps are made available worldwide, it still sucks that there are some great ones that aren't. Spotify is a popular audio/video streaming service that has been out for quite sometime now and while it's slowly opened it's availability to some Asian countries more recently, the Middle East has yet to be acknowledged.

However, where there is a will there will always be a way! When I found out this little trick that allows you to use Spotify and other apps not made available in your country, I was so excited and knew I had to share it with you guys!

Disclaimer: I'm still unsure if this is totally legal but I've been using this method for almost a month now and it's been going smoothly so I figured it's okay?? Please let me know in the comments if you have further thoughts about this, please!

Step 1: You will need to download a VPN! The one I personally use is called Betternet (available for both android and iOS) and I highly recommend it. It's free and gives you unlimited hours of use!

Step 2: After installing the app, you'll see a screen similar to the one below. Since I knew I wanted to use my VPN primarily for streaming, it's what I chose.

Step 3: Once that's out of the way, just press to install your profile (no personal information is asked) and allow the app to add VPN configurations.

Step 4: Once that's done, the screen below is what you will now see every time you open up the app! I like to activate my connection only when I'm using Spotify, otherwise I turn it off because I have noticed that it eats up my battery so I recommend you do this too! :)

Step 5: Welcome to a world with no boundaries! Aside from Spotify, I've also been using Betternet with an app called go90! Currently, my favorite things to watch there are Betch and T@gged!

As long as that little VPN icon (displayed at the top of your phone's screen) appears, you're connected and good to go!

Technology advancements right now both scare and fascinate me and leave me thinking if there is anything else the Internet cannot do?! I hope you're all having a nice start to your week!

Learning to Say It Out Loud

For a great deal of my life, I struggled with saying things out loud. It's just the way I've always been and I guess, in a way, still am. I've been in multiple situations where I would like to state my opinion on something, but then I hold back. I feared that maybe if I said something, it could either be wrong, grammatically incorrect or that my voice wouldn't be loud enough and no one would hear, let alone understand, what I wanted to say.  I feel that's why I'm better at putting my thoughts through writing. When I'm writing, I feel I can organize my thoughts better and really get my point across. You could say that writing has always been my ultimate comfort zone.

This year, I've been trying to allow myself to speak out more. Key word - TRYING lol. It hasn't always been so easy, though! I went on a little holiday trip to the Philippines early this summer and while I was there, decided to try a Thai massage for the first time. I hated it. I honestly felt like my masseuse was trying to release the devil from my insides. Now I'm not so familiar with Thai massages but surely it wasn't supposed to feel that way...? I wanted it to end STAT but physically endured the torture because I was scared of hurting her feelings. I've had several experiences where I was so concerned with how the other person would react that I would rather just keep what I was thinking to myself, even if it meant enduring lots of pain! Yup, I was that scared!!

Moreover, I've also realized that I do this with blog ideas as well. If you've been a long time reader of this blog, you would notice that I constantly talk about wanting to put up different kinds of posts but I never get around to it! The ideas are constantly piling up inside my head but for some reason, I never let them out. It's something I really want to improve on and actually why I wanted to write this particular post. I wanted it to be more of an encouragement to myself (and maybe a little bit of a test to see if I can still remember how to write lol!). I'm slowly realizing how important it is to speak your mind and how there are so many ways to do it while still being cautious not to be offensive or rude. If you're anything like me, I encourage you to try this with me as well. Little steps are key! 

I know I've said this countless times before, but please, stick around because new blog posts are sure to come your way very soon!