Gen Y

I did not write this and do not know where it came from, I thought it was well written and had a good message that I'd like to share with you.

"Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologised and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days."

The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."

The older woman was right - her generation didn't have the green thing in her day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilised and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were truly recycled.

But  we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags, was the use of brown paper bags as books covers for our schoolbooks. This was to ensure that public property, (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribbling. Then we were able to personalise our books on the brown paper bags.

But too bad we didn't do the green thing back then.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.

But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's nappies because we didn't have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts --wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

But that young lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we have on TV, or radio, in the house --not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Tasmania. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower than ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerised gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then? There is a lot to be grateful for no matter what your age or experience."

I am a gen-y, I was born in the year 1990, I am still considered very young, I have a great stereotype with being born in this time frame.

Just like the stereotype projected onto this older lady, the stereotype of lazy gen-y is on me. Stereotypes are hurtful but so ever present in our society, they aren't considered stereotypes anymore. They've become our first thoughts when we look at someone young, or see someone old driving a car or someone smoking. 

You never know the circumstances around that person and who they are. It's sad to think that as a nation we are always trying to shift the blame on to another generations or on to a different sociological group, yes we working class folk do hate against those you have more money then we. Though we do not know what they did to get there and how much effort they put in or what they do with all their extra money.

We need to stop pointing the finger or trying to shift the blame, if we did, we'd probably be a lot closer to finding some answers to our questions.

"Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above yourselves. Never lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people in a low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his heart." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

-Romans 12:9-21


Linking this post of up Jess for her weekly   

Vaccinations

The start of last year I wrote a post about assignments. You can pop over and read it here

Image Source

"I lost respect for you when you took over my life, monopolised my thoughts and stole my time."

These are the words I began with when writing my first post about assignments.

This time around it's a little different. I'm a year older and feel like bit wiser, or maybe just more sane.

I have 17 assignments due this semester, which goes for 14 weeks. One of which includes 2 weeks of clinical placement in a hospital somewhere in NSW.

This may sound exciting, being able to get some hands on experience, see what the workplace is really like etc. 

But just to get to this point is a huge obstacle.

I have to order and pay for my own national police check, child safe check, first aid(which I already had thankfully) and also all my immunisations.

Immunisations they protect us and hurt us all at the same time. And I'm fine with immunisations because I'd believed that I was up to date. 

But apparently not.

My whooping (pertussis), diphtheria, and tetanus shots are all up to date, as well as my measles, mumps and rubella. Though my hep b and chicken pox shots may not be.

Hep B alone is three injections whilst chicken pox is two.

Image Source

I also need a serology (blood test), NSW Health need to be able to see how well my immunity is to all these diseases. 

But the funny thing is, a serology is not enough for Hep B, if your serology says you are immune to it, you still need documented proof you've had Hep B shots via vaccine batch no. etc. 

If you don't have those, but your serology says you have immunity to Hep B, you still need to go out and get the three course injections of a few months. 

So I'll be paying a visit to my childhood GP when I go home for Easter and hopefully he'll have proof that I had chicken pox and Hep B injections. 

If not I'll be coming home for a long, and maybe painful visit to the doctors.

So you could say I'm a tad stressed, or at least just freaking out, big time.

It's hard being away from home and feeling like you have everything to do and you don't know how to do it. 

I'm learning though, feeling more grown up everyday unfortunately.

You can guarantee that there will be a few more posts about the tumultuous journey to be able to get to my placement this semester. Which is a key component of the subject and I fail the subject if I don't go on placement.

So I'm off to continue my study of microbiology and the fundamentals of nursing, ah the joys of university! 

Honeymoon

S and I at Port Macquarie

My cool new shoes I bought!

Port Macquarie

Lunch by the beach on Surfers Paradise:: Our second week of honeymoon

Put on a bit of a show for us Surfers did while we were there

Sunrise on our last day in Surfers Paradise

Road trip home

And all the way to our new home

And the awesome heatwave we did. Took this photo at 11:20am!

It just wouldn't stop!

Awesome hair day

Then I chopped it all off. 

Enjoy your Wednesday!!!

100 Redemption In Progress 2012

ONE HUNDRED!

Well what a year it has been. So many things have happened. 

• Seven couples I know have been married this year 
• I became a godmother for the first time 
• My gorgeous niece turned one
• I ran 9km and lost 5kg 
• I bought a wedding dress
• Planned a wedding (with some help, thanks mum!)
• Grew up a tiny bit
• Finished one year of uni
• Started my nursing degree
• Moved away from home

So much has happened this year and I can't quite comprehend or put it clearly into words how crazy fast, and annoyingly slow it's been all that the same time.

This is post 100, I've been building up to this post, wanting it to be this awesome post about, well I had no idea what it was going to be about, just that it would be good. 

I'm celebrating. 

I'm celebrating this blog of mine that turned 100 today.

These have been my milestones in my life so far:

• I travelled to USA for school and even attended an American high school for two days
• I have travelled too New Zealand 3 times
• Got my license (and if you know me than you know it took a while!)
• Moved out of home for one year and survived it
• Made some amazing life long friends along the way
• Completed a Certificate 3 in Children's Services
• Completed one year of university

These milestones I have made on my blog to date

• 100 blog posts
• 2225 page view
• 170 published comments (half are probably my own)
• 14 Followers with Blogger
• 51 likes on Facebook

It's always nice to stop and reflect on all the things you've accomplished, if you ever feel like you aren't going any where, stop and reflect on how far you've come already!!

As I've gotten internet again and started my uni course, I'm lost for things too write about... If you have any ideas please go ahead! I need the help!

Anyway, I hope your Tuesday went well and the week ahead is all excitement and fun for you. 

Linking up with Jess for I Blog On Tuesday

1/12/12

 

These ones are my favourite!

A big thank you to Anna Blackman Images for taking these gorgeous photos!

 Linking up for Wordless Wednesday with these awesome guys for the weekly link-up.

             

I'm also linking this up for the first time with Living for His Glory and Imperfectly Perfect Grace and This Little Life of Mine for their Marriage Link up. 
Since I am only recently married my blog posts about married life are somewhat limited so I thought I'd start of with this! Hope you enjoy!



a href="http://livingforhisglory2.blogspot.com">

TwentyThirteen

INTERNET!!! Oh how I've missed you! 

This year has been so hectic! I feel like I've barely had much time (since we got internet) to be able to sit down and write a post.

I feel like I summed it up a bit with my previous post about the wedding, I will show more photos though. I haven't actually had a chance to go back to Wollongong (where the photographer is) and have a preview of the photo album, but upon this meeting I will get my own copy of all the photos taken. But so far I will show the photos that I do have copies off. 

So tune in tomorrow for some really amazing photos from the great photographers over at anna blackman images.

So what's so special about today. Well I'll tell you, it has been raining since 12 today (4pm now) and for a full January and February thus far there has been a cumulative 1 minute of rain, so to say that I'm enjoying the rain is an understatement.

This week is O week, those who haven't ever been to uni, O week is the week before uni starts. So week 1 starts off semester, O week also, Orientation week. So you learn a lot about your classes, your teaches, you receive your timetable, find out about any help that's available to you etc.

Well thats all good and dandy, if I could find the correct information for O week, the timetable of O week they had on their website isn't the one that actually happens, and since I wasn't able to attend yesterday because of work, and I thought, because of the timetable that I didn't need to be there monday.

So I turned up an hr late to my first info session but caught up quickly.

Had lots of info chucked at us.

Most of all was our clinical placement.

So if I haven't mentioned already I'm about to undertake a Bachelor of Nursing, which is really excited to start, but am a bit over-whelmed with everything thats expected of us, and most of all the expenses.

It'll cost about 500 dollars for textbooks for this semester alone, thats if I can't find them cheaper anywhere else. I also have to pay for a my own uniform for clinical placements. Also on placement, because I am attending a rural university I may have to go on a placement that is a few hours away from here, which then I need to fund my travel there and back as well as find a place to stay, and not being from around here or having any family around here. I may end up having to stay at a hotel or pub for 2 weeks while I'm away on placement. Which doesn't sound appealing.

This ^^^ does not include the money that is covered by my hecs agreement with the government, so I will be paying about 2grand or more for each semester. Isn't uni fun!?!

My one dilemma is learning all the chemistry components. I took a science workshop last week that was run by the university. Which was amazing, I enjoyed it and received a lot of good information as well as a lot of scary information. Including this like we are moving in to the age of bacteria resistance. And you know why?! Because no one finishes there full course of anti-biotics that the doctor gives them, so essentially by not finishing it you kill of the weak bacteria, leave the stronger ones which have now been exposed to a small amount of the anti biotic and are able to evolve to the become resistant to that anti biotic.

Also that E.coli can be very dangerous, but is also found naturally inside your gut, it's only when the E.coli moves from inside you intestines to somewhere else does it become dangerous. E.coli is essentially for making Vitamin K which is the blood clotting agent in your blood. 

So I learnt lots of things in this two day workshop so I am excited for starting this course!

I wont bore you any more with all these things I've learnt, even though I think its pretty amazing!!! 

I hope you have all been well and I look forward to continuing this blog, and will be updating it a lot with interesting things I learn at uni. 

Oh and marriage is going pretty well, it sucks having to cook dinner all the time, I'm not a cook, I do not enjoy it and will be looking for fast, easy, somewhat healthy recipes in the near future.

Tune in tomorrow for some more wedding pics. I post all the pro ones I have to make sure you check that out. 

Until then, good morning, good evening and good night.

Linking up with Jess for I Blog On Tuesday.

The Day That Was...

So as you all may have noticed I haven't been around the blogosphere much lately.

This has too do in part to the fact I have no internet, so I'm using a friends at this moment.

The other part is due to the fact I've just had a great upheavel in my life.

About a month and a half ago I survived, what felt like the scariest day of my life.

My wedding day.

Scary you say? Shouldn't it be super fun?

Well it was, after the ceremony.

So I'll start from the beginning.

My fiancee S proposed to me on my 21st birthday in September 2011, almost 14 months later, on the 1st of December 2012 we became husband and wife.

It was a long journey, and throughout the engagement period we witnessed 6 of our friends and family get married also. So it really was the year of weddings. During each wedding I kept thinking that mine was going to be horrible, I was going to forget something or I would fall flat on my face, and kept wishing my day would hurry up so I could get it over and done with.

So the morning of December 1st I woke up, not really understanding what was happening. I was up at about 8 or 9 (I can't really remember the morning is all such a blur). Had my shower and my sis E (also maid-of-honour) bought my maccas for breakky. I told her I wouldn't eat much but she insisted, the good sis she is. But to everyones dismay I did not eat breakfast... Or lunch, I nibbled on some bread but that was it.

After showers and sitting around for what felt like the longest hours of my life the hairdresser arrived at 10:30. She started with the girls, and then half way through that the make-up artist arrived and promptly did the girls make-up while I got my hair done.



Photo by Anna Blackman Images.
More photos to come.

 Nothing fancy, just lots of curls, pinned up a little at the front. Make-up, very plain and simple but effective.

Things were running along smoothly. But during this whole period of time I just sat in stunned silence. I barely uttered more that a few sentences that whole morning.

Later in everyones speeches they would reveal to all my basically catatonic state that I was in that morning. Got lots of laughs and I laugh as well, that morning I was not laughing though.

You may be wondering why I was in such a weird state, but many of you would already know. I hate being centre of attention and I was about to do something that was very me focused, I mean the wedding is really all about the girl.

My biggest fear was that I would barf or be sick at the altar, all over the pastor and my husband to be.

This was my nightmare, it made me mute, it made me stunned, it made me afraid of what I was about to do.

Once 1:30 rolled around things started happening quicker. The photographer showed up, I got dressed lots of photos were taken to take my mind of the big moment.

It was rolling around great.

And it went great. I got through my speaking bits without being sick, I spoke clearly, at least I think I did, like I said the whole ceremony is a blur from the nerves.

Another pro pic

I must state though that I was not nervous about being married, just the getting married part! I had to remind myself that I was marrying my best friend and had to remind myself that there was two of us apart of this and I wasn't going through this alone.

I walked down the aisle silently swearing to myself because I'd forgotten to put my veil on before walking down. The music was 'Space They Cannot Touch' by Kate Miller-Heidke, got too the altar and began the service.

Stood as close as possible to S as we sang our first song, Amazing Love, we continued into the bible reading from Ephesian and Romans (can't remember the exact verses but will find them and post them along with our vows as I enjoyed them so much), the Ps Fred went into his sermon and gave us a special present.

Then began the official part of the day, the important part, my speaking part :s

I got through my vows, I looked S in the eyes as much as I could because I was so nervous, we exchanged rings (photos to come) and then came the kiss. I wasn't as nervous about this part as everyone expected me to be. People kept asking, have you practiced the kiss and we hadn't, but it didn't worry me one iota like the speaking parts did.

The registry was signed, we sang "In Christ Alone" my favourite song, and then all was done.

It felt odd knowing I was officially married but not feeling any different.

So that's a run down of the ceremony, I will update (once I have internet) on the reception and any other things I can think of.

I will post photos, maybe next week on wednesday for wordless wednesday. Might have internet by then!

But today I will link this up with Thankful Thursday. I'm thankful for making it through my wedding without being sick from nerves and thankful to be married to such an amazing man!!






Mr & Mrs Lieschke