5 life lessons Walt Disney taught me.

I feel as though some sort of Disney-related post is long overdue considering the fantastically creative and appropriate title of my blog.

The fact that I have a hugely extensive (and impressive) collection of Disney DVDs and I spend a considerable amount of my time watching those DVDs meant that it took me quite a long time to decide what I actually wanted to write about in relation to my child-like obsession with all things Walt.

I shall refrain from disclosing any other ideas that I came up with because I suspect they will be subject to a post not-so-far in the future. But after much deliberation I decided today was the day for...

5 LIFE LESSONS WALT DISNEY TAUGHT ME

The idea for this stemmed from a conversation with my mother this morning about how I am going to cope with living this weekend when her and my dad swan off to Lincolnshire and leave me here alone. Naturally I protested that by leaving me she was subjecting me to inevitable starvation because of my inability to cook, she came back (pretty harshly might I add) with the reality of my nearly 19 years of living experience amounting to, seemingly, absolutely nothing.

So that got me thinking, would I be any more of an acceptable 'adult' if I didn't spend my life talking, thinking and obsessing over Disney World, films, princesses, merchandise and everything else that can be even loosely associated with it. 

Personally, I think not. 

So here are all the lessons I've learnt from being a self-confessed Disney addict.

1. Cutting your hair will never, EVER be a good thing.

So most of you will know that my favourite film of all time is Tangled. For those of you who haven't seen this film; a) what the hell are you doing with your lives? and b) all you need to know is that it's basically the story of Rapunzel but with spectacular animation, beautiful music and a truck load of emotion. 

Anyhowwww, Rapunzel is not only the most beautiful Disney princess of all time, but she also has the most gorgeous hair ever to exist in the entirety of both the real and fictional world. 

Since I can remember I have always loved the story of Rapunzel and my hair has always been a massive swore spot, I absolutely despise getting it cut and all I ever want is it to be long. So when I watched Tangled I pretty much made up my mind that I will never ever get anything more than inch cut off of my hair. If even Rapunzel, the most beautiful character to ever be drawn, doesn't look all that nice with her hair cut off, then I most definitely won't. 

So that's what Tangled taught me. Long hair takes a life time to grow and only a second for your boyfriend to cut it off using a shard of glass to stop your evil stepmother/kidnapper from using you for your hair. Life skill numero uno: don't cut you hair. EVER.

Happy Rapunzel...

I hate my hair and consequently my life Rapunzel.

2. Don't take food from strangers.

Even if you're hungry and they're offering Mcdonalds.

Fair enough, I probably would have learnt this lesson somewhere along the line anyway but my girl Snow White pretty much hammered this lesson into me. We all know the story of Snow White eating the apple and falling into some sort of coma and what child, realistically, isn't going to be fucking terrified by that?!

What I find amusing is that the food Snow eats is an apple, so not only was us innocent children taught about the taking things from strangers rule, we were also taught that apples are to be avoided at all costs. I definitely took that lesson on board.

So yeah, if a randomer approaches you in the street and offers you food - would probably be wise to give that one a miss. 

Lets hope the apple was tasty enough to justify the coma...

3. People die.

I admit its a bit blunt and morbid but it's true that kids need to learn about it sometime and how better than to see a poor fawn see his mum get shot by a hunter.

I was never a big Bambi fan but I am almost certain that watching that movie would have been the first time that I was ever exposed to the idea of death. In true Disney fashion, the tragedy is soon masked and goes on to lead to a nice happy ending but they still introduced the idea and that was a pretty brave move so hats off to them. The movie was and still is absolutely heartbreaking though.

Maybe too much for a child to see?
I don't know...

4. Animals are so much better than humans.

This is the truest thing that I have ever written.

I am not by any means a people person and I am very much the animal lover so there is a slight possibility that there could be an element of bias here, but it is so true that Disney has shown over and over again how animals will always trump the humans.

Allow me to provide you with some examples:

Cinderella - Now I totally believe that Cinders was a nice enough person and all of that but there is no way in the world she would have been able to finish that dress on time for the ball if it wasn't for her furry friends.

Rapunzel - Again, an absolute top lass but she would have sent herself round the bend in that tower if it wasn't for good ol' Pascale keeping her company all the time.

The Lion King - An all animal cast and probably one of Disney's most famous creations. That says it all.

You get the idea. Animals are better than humans. Period.

Legends.

5. There will always be a happy ending.

I truly believe that this is the main reason why I am so addicted to Disney movies. Doesn't everyone just want to believe that eventually there will be a happy ending?

Walt Disney has a true knack for helping us to believe that everything happens for a reason and that everything will always be okay in the end.

This is my favourite lesson of all. And I think that for those of you who think you're too old for these kind of films - you're probably right. But for as long as I keep feeling inspired by them, they'll still take pride of place on their beloved book shelf.

There you have it people, 5 lessons that Walt Disney taught me.

Until next time. 

x

Love, Friendship and Everything in between.

So I'm almost 100% sure that I am not the only person who does this.

I hope not anyway.

Every now and then I discover (and sometimes re-discover) songs that force  me to contemplate everything about my life. This happened to me a few days ago when I was driving home on a particularly nice evening from uni.

 I always play my music mega loud in my car and I tell people its because I like to feel the music 'soaking into my pores' but in reality its really only so that I can sing at the top of my lungs and not have to listen to my own voice.

Anyway, this is what I was doing when driving home the other night. Just driving down the A13 with Spotify on shuffle and enjoying life. 

Queue the life changing set of songs.

So I would suggest you give these songs a listen because they are honestly amazing.

Nirvana - Sam Smith.

Lay Me Down (Acoustic) - Sam Smith.

Strawberry Swing - Frank Ocean (Originally by Coldplay).

All these songs are so beautiful and as I sped home in my Fiat 500, I gave life a long, hard think about. 

~

Starting university is hard for everyone, but it was especially hard for me because it seemed to make things that used to be so easy for me, really really hard. 

It never occurred to me that happiness is sometimes only temporary, I always presumed that if you were happy, that was that. But that isn't the case. Which brings me to the first section of the incredibly cliché and not-so-original title of this emotion fest.

Love

Anyone who knows me will vouch for me when I tell you that my history of all things 'love' is very sketchy. But I thought I had that all figured out now. One big lesson that I have learnt is that when two people love each other it isn't enough to make things easy for them, relationships take hard work and trust and dedication - not just love. 

I'd be a liar if I said that the changes in my life haven't affected the wholeness of my heart and there have been more than a few times that things have felt too hard to bare. I feel like I understand more what people mean now when they say that growing up is the hardest thing a person has to do. Because growing up hurts. And, unfortunately, with growing up comes change. 

I have no idea where things are going to go and whats going to happen. All I know is that being a grown up means having to change and adapt to the people you love changing too. Growing up means growing together or growing apart and accepting what happens regardless. And it means that you have to work things out or make hard decisions like an adult should. I guess only time will tell what that means.

Moving swiftly on...

Friendship

Firstly I would like to express in a completely serious and non-sarcastic way how  lucky I feel to have stumbled across the amazing people that I met at Greenwich. They have made my experience so incredible so far and I truly believe that they will stay with me forever. (Or at least until I graduate and become a famous, rich barrister and then I'll be too rich and powerful to associate with those peasants - KIDDING, kidding...). Honestly though they're the best thing that could have happened to me at that place and I am honoured to call them my friends. 

Secondly, just want to say that I haven't forgotten about my best friends that may feel as though they have sometimes been left behind. Thats you two, Lauren Best and Katie McDermott (you better be reading this you slags). Again, I am so lucky to have two of the most special people on this planet that care so much for me and actually put up with my bullshit on a regular occurrence. I love you both, whole heartedly.

On a slightly sadder note, as I neared ever closer to home that night I couldn't help but to think about my friends from school. It got me ever so slightly teary thinking about how when I was at school I couldn't picture my life without some of those people and now I couldn't even tell you what they're doing with their lives. Life can be cruel like that, it pushes you away from the friends you love and it changes people so much that you forget the person you were when you met them. I miss you guys.

And lastly...

Everything In Between

So where is my life going now?

Well that is a great question and I wish I knew the damn answer. But I suppose if we had all the answers nothing would be interesting or exciting.

For now I'm just going to concentrate on 'finding myself' and figuring out who I want to be and what I want to do and where I want to go. 

If there is anything that university life has taught me its that there will always be somebody who has it worse then you do. Some people are ill, some have terrible family lives, some have money problems, relationship problems,weight problems... the list goes on.

We all feel as though our lives are ten times worse than everybody else's sometimes, but its important that we try to focus on what do have instead and being thankful for that.

God it feels better already to get that off of my chest!

Ciao Bellas 

xo

Only me... again.

So I'm thinking that I should just stop promising that I'll be here on a regular basis and instead you shall just have to persevere with my erratic writing habits.  

Hi!

Considering it's nearly the end of January I feel kind of inappropriate saying that I hope you all had a good christmas, but I do all the same.

It's unlikely that any of you aren't completely up-to-date with my life because I post every detail of it onto my twitter. Buuuuut in case you stumbled upon this blog without the constant pestering from me for you to read it, I shall let you know whats been going down anyway.

There really has only been one dramatic change in my life over the last two months and that was the little one, who so fiercely stole my heart, went home. The up-side to that is that I am no longer legally obliged to keep her identity a secret. Her name was Summer and I'll stick some photos on the bottom of this so you can see for yourselves that I wasn't joking when I said that she was an angel. So anyway, yeah she went home but she still comes for the occasional sleepover so that all turned out pretty well in the end.

I also haven't failed or dropped out of uni yet so that's a pretty monumental triumph as well, along with the fact that all of the friends I made at the start of the year don't hate me yet, hurrah!

Everything else is depressingly same old, same old. But now I'm back into the swing of the university routine I will try my absolute hardest to make our dates a more regular thing.

So until next time (Which, awkwardly, will probably be later today);

Ciao!

My hair finally grew. Can I get a hallelujah?!

P.S I included a recent photo of myself. Not because I am completely in love with myself but because its just nice to see how people change over time... isn't it? Maybe not, I don't know - whatever.

Here she is, what an angel.

Happy Princess xo

]

Just on our travels and that!

I'm so glad that these people adopted me. 

Having brand new friends is amazing, but I will forever appreciate how blessed I am to have a best friend like her.