Happy birthday, Lucy

21 years ago today a baby was born. That baby would grow into a beautiful young lady named Lucy, who would become a good friend of mine. I wrote about Lucy here. But this post is different. This post is celebrating what should have been her 21st birthday.

I was talking to a good friend today and we spoke about Lucy. In our conversation, my friend said “something about not reaching 21 just seems so wrong.” That says it all really. There is something wrong about someone passing before they even turn 21. Lucy was 18 when she passed. Far too soon. Cancer, more specifically, thyroid cancer, is a bitch!

In celebrating Lucy’s 21st birthday, a good friend of mine, Lisa, joined me in honouring Lucy. Lisa had a rehearsal for a orchestra show she is part of and she played with Lucy’s initials and birthday on her hand so she could see it while she played. That rehearsal, she played for Lucy. This from someone who never met Lucy, but has just heard her story. I couldn’t be more thankful.

Lucy was such a warm person and even in her young years, she knew she wanted to make a difference to this world. Everyone that knew her considered themselves extremely lucky to have Lucy in their life. She truly was a very special person and made a positive influence on everyone who’s life she touched.

When her thyroid cancer came into her life, that didn’t change her outlook on life at all. She remained this amazingly positive and beautiful person. She really was an incredible person.

It just goes to show that sometimes bad things happen to good people. Definitely in this case!

Lucy, my gorgeous girl, happy birthday sweetie!! Everyday something you said to me comes to mind and it influences how I do things. Thank you for your friendship. Thank you for touching my life in the way that you did. I miss you. Everyday.

Happy 21st birthday, Lucy dearest.

Life Defining Moments

Yesterday I read a post by the lovely Sam at The Annoyed Thyroid about her take on life defining moments and what those moments were to her. I commented on her post and went about my evening. I didn’t realise it until later in the night, but her post really got me thinking and my life defining moments have been floating around in the back of my mind ever since.

To me, life defining moments are those moments which can be positive or negative, that define who you are and reshape you at your core. These events often make you question who you are and what you think, and leave a lasting impact on your life.

For me, there have been a range of life defining moments which have shaped me into the person I am today. Most of these are positive, but negative moments have also influenced my life and defined my life from that moment forward.

The first of which happened in June 2008. My best friend Brad, who I’ve previously written about here passed away long before his time. He was just short of turning 20 and I was 17.

Brad’s entire life was ahead of him – he had the most amazing brain and the potential to do whatever he set his mind to, but also the most beautiful soul. He was the most amazing friend. And I’m blessed to have had him touch my life in the way that he did. His passing shook me to my core. But it taught me something. It taught me that life is unpredictable. Life is short. Life isn’t always fair. These lessons made me realise that one day there won’t be a tomorrow. This set me up for the remainder of my teenage years and my young adult life and taught that I should do the things my heart is set on. Today. Don’t leave it until tomorrow, because tomorrow may not arrive.

The life defining moment that was Brad’s passing also prepared me for the next major event which has defined my life. I got sick. Quite sick. This is when my thyroid started giving me trouble. Fighting the thyroid taught me a lot and changed my life for the better. I learnt about how strong my body can be. I also learnt that recovering from an illness is one of the most extraordinary things the human body can do. When I was diagnosed and told of the treatment I needed, and also the lifetime of medication which would be ahead of me, it seemed insurmountable. Then I did what I had to do to get well. Fighting the thyroid and my path to recovery changed my life in a good way.

Even though I went through the battle of the thyroid a few years ago now, my recovery is still surfacing in my daily life. Just a few days ago, someone I love dearly said to me “I have to tell you something Nat. You’re looking fantastic! So healthy. Your skin and hair are radiating and you seem happy and healthy.” This made me realise that my road to recovery has been visible to other people too and that the people around me can see the difference between unwell Nat and well Nat. This proves to me that it really has changed me as a person. The things my health journey taught me are evident in my daily life and the changes I’ve made to improve myself after getting well are noticed by those around me.

My battle with the thyroid came right in the middle of my university degree. Surgery was done during the uni holidays and after surgery, I took one semester off for the immediate recovery period and the following semester, I eased back into it slowly on a part time study load rather than full time. When I deferred a semester, it was a tough decision to make. Even though I knew I needed the time, I didn’t want to do it. It felt like as soon as I took the time off, my degree would remain unfinished. What if I don’t get back into it? What if this is the start of loads and loads of time off? What if my health is never good enough to get back to uni? These were all the questions in the back of my mind. But I knew I had to go easy on myself and let my body recover – how ever long it took. Thankfully it did only take one semester and I did get back into my study and only graduated about 7 months behind where I should have been.

Getting back to uni and graduating was another life defining moment. I realised that regardless of the hurdles in my way, I can do the things I want to do in life. I had just completed my study with the health battles just a few months prior! I did it. Even though I doubted it at times….a lot of times, I achieved it. Knowing the struggles I faced, graduating was such a sweet moment. I achieved so much and with so many hurdles.

Every time I’ve doubted myself ever since, I think back to that day. I think back to how I was doubting I’d ever finish my degree…and I did! I still doubt myself…but I also have memories of moments which have made me realise I can do it. Whatever it is.

I’m 23 and already have these life defining moments which have shaped who I am as a person. I imagine in the coming years as I live more of my adult life, more of these moments will happen and they will continue to shape the person I’m growing into. But these early life defining moments will always be important events in my life and things I look back on. I wouldn’t be me if these events hadn’t shaped my life.

So, life defining moments….I’ve told you about mine. Tell me about yours! I’d love to hear! 🙂

Social media: are we losing it if we don’t ‘get’ it?

I’m sitting chatting with the beautiful Kellie who I’m lucky enough to be staying with for the next 10 days. She blogs too, and we were chatting about Bloglovin. I like it, but at first she didn’t get it. After a quick lesson from myself, she’s got into it, and she wrote this post about it .

After reading her post (and laughing at the funny bits…she thinks she’s losing it!), I got thinking about social media and how different social media sites seem to come more naturally than others. Even people who consider themselves tech savvy and social media savvy generally, find themselves stumped at times. Yet other people will get it right away.

This was the case this afternoon. I have been using Bloglovin a while, and I seemed to catch on to the idea right away, but Kellie needed a quick rundown before it clicked in her head.

There are things about certain sites which might make them more manageable at first and others might seem a little confusing until you’ve had some time to play around with it and work it out.

I don’t even really know what it is that makes certain sites seem more difficult to work out than others for some people. Maybe it’s like books – some people just connect with certain topics or ideas or layouts…so maybe people just connect with some social media sites easier than others because of how they’re set out or the idea behind the particular site.

It’s like Twitter I suppose. The people who tell me they don’t like twitter, I maintain they just don’t get it. Sites like Twitter and Bloglovin which are different to Facebook (because let’s face it…most people think of Facebook when you mention social media!) seem to be not as ‘cool’ or people will be so used to the Facebook way of doing things and other formats just aren’t followed as well because they’re slightly different.

It doesn’t really mean you’re “losing it” (in Kellie’s words)…and it definitely doesn’t mean you’re turning into your Mum or Grandma who is not tech savvy at all.