People Pleaser | Mollie'sThoughts

Hello everyone.

It's been a while. I'm glad to be returning after lots of university application organising - applied to all my unis now, hooray! Today I thought I'd do a Mollies Thoughts post as it has been a very long time since I last wrote one. Today's post is about people pleasing.

Since being little, I have always enjoyed helping to make other people happy. Everyone does; there's no feeling like putting a smile on someone else's face. Being a people-pleaser is a noble profession and in a world of many "how will this benefit me"s, it is an occupation which could do with more takers. It is not, however, an easy job.
People pleasing is, just as the name implies, pleasing other people even sometimes at the cost of your own happiness. This is really what I want to talk about today. Sometimes in the process of trying to please others we can forget that we also need to be happy ourselves. It's not selfish, it's life. No one is responsible for other people's happiness. We are responsible for not negatively affecting someone's happiness, but it is not our job to create it. That is far too much pressure for one person to take on. Nobody can make everyone happy; nobody can please everyone. There are going to be times in life when what you want isn't what someone else wants and there is nothing you can do about that.  This is something we all have to cope with because in life we change and we grow and in order to do this you can't question every move you make because somebody else might not like it. Life is yours to make and life is yours to live. So long as you're a kind and compassionate person, there is nothing more anyone can ask of you. A way of making others happy is by being your fun and happy self and you cannot be that if you spend your life shaping yourself to other people's expectations.
Live for you.

Just something I've been pondering recently. I will see you soon now that I'm a little more organised again. Until then,

Kindness | Mollie'sThoughts

Hello everyone.

As promised, I’m here with a bonus post which will be a more regular occurrence! For this bonus post (which also happens to be my 20^th post), I thought I’d do another ‘Mollie’s Thoughts’ edition focusing on kindness.

The word “kind” is one that we say many many times in our sentences and it is one of those go-to words that just springs to mind and is recognised by everyone. It’s a word that is one of the first we use when listing a friend’s personality traits – kind, thoughtful, funny etc or to round up a letter/ e-mail ("kind regards,"). We use this same word so many times that sometimes we can just use it like any other, without much thought or attention; we forget it’s real importance and meaning.

The online dictionary’s definition of kindness is:   “The act of being friendly, generous and considerate.”

In today’s world, everyone seems to always be in a hurry without even enough time to say a passing “hello” to a neighbour. But I think it’s so important to always make time to show people a little kindess.

For all we know, the other person could be having a terrible day and your kind smile and cheerful “hello there” could be just what they need to pick themselves back up! We all know that scenario very well don’t we? We’ve all been there and felt how much of an impact a strangers’ kindness can have. We also know the impact of when someone simply avoids an act of kindness because they’re being too self-focused to notice/help you. For example, if you’re carrying heavy books through a corridor behind someone and they simply let the door swing shut behind them rather than holding it for you. Or when you’re in a rush somewhere and you’ve dropped something and though people around you have noticed, they keep quiet - leaving you to realise what you’ve done yourself about 50 steps later.

It’s these simple acts of kindness that can make or break someone’s day so why don’t we make the effort to be more "friendly, generous and considerate" to others and make a difference?

We all know a smile is infectious, but so is kindness! When we demonstrate an act of kindness, it will touch and inspire those around us to go on to do something kind for someone else; the potential for a whole train of kind actions and happier people is held in the hands of someone who offers a tissue to a stranger who is sneezing or says “thankyou” to someone who serves us at a checkout.

Adults spend most of their time teaching their little ones to “say please and thankyou” and “don’t be rude” but we ourselves let our actions slip sometimes. So next time the occasion arises, let’s give a stranger a smile, help someone who looks lost, say our pleases and thank yous and hold the door open for someone whether they’re holding heavy items or not. Let’s bring back the old-fashioned manners and courtesy that Britain is famous for and let's show everyone around us some kindness.

20 Acts of Kindness

Now, as this is my 20th post on my blog I thought, why not incorporate it into this theme? So this week (by next Monday), I challenge you to carry out 20 significant acts of kindness and either blog them and link it back to this post (if you're a blogger), leave them in the comments or even write them down somewhere such as a notebook if you'd rather keep them personal and let's see how many people's lives you're able to touch in a positive way in one week! You can also write down their reaction as well if you'd like.

Everyone wants to change the world, so let's begin with baby steps and help make some people smile this week!

Mollie

♥

P.S. I'm so grateful to have this blog and have reached even a small milestone of 20 posts! I'm even more grateful to have every one of you who reads my blog and I want you to know that you're all very special to me.
Don't forget to follow me on Blog Lovin' or add my blog to your 'reading list' if you have an account on blogger! See you soon. xx

Breathe Slow

Hello everyone.

I’ve realised that week by week I have to go back and look at my previous post to remember what it contained. That’s the great thing about having a blog I guess, it reminds me (and gives you an insight into) what is happening in my life at a particular time and my likes, dislikes, attitudes and memories of that time.

Speaking of likes and dislikes, I have always really enjoyed Alesha Dixon’s song Breathe Slow. It has been my go-to song whenever I’ve felt stressed out, weighed down or just generally needed a reminder to just relax -I especially enjoy listening to it during exams.

This has been one of those weeks where I’ve took a quiet moment to listen to it (or sing… if nobody’s listening). It’s been a little stressful and as an already self-confessed stresser it’s been tiring. As you know I’ve had my Advanced Higher art to finish this week (it's all I seem to blog about) and with only two days available to go into school and sort it I wasn’t sure if I’d get it done. To my surprise though I managed to dash into school, package and label everything and get the next bus two hours later as I had completed it. Art coursework? Check.

But the most stressful event this week has been quite a personal one. There was a bit of a family situation which took place involving a loved one going to hospital to receive some potentially devastating news. It’s quite difficult to even write about so I won’t go into detail. I’d also prefer to keep it private. But thankfully, after many, many prayers the news we received was not as bad as expected and normality I beginning to resume in the family.

One thing this has taught me though is that life is too short. I spend the majority of time stressing about one thing or another- worrying about what other people think of me to what I’ll have on my toast in the morning-and to be honest, I’m being pretty ridiculous. So what if I make mistakes? What does it matter what others think about me? Why should I sweat the small stuff? Life is too short and too amazing to worry about the silly little things. The bigger picture is what’s important. I have my health, I have amazing friends and family, a job, opportunities, hobbies, an education; all the things that make me happy. It doesn’t matter what the next person thinks of my life because they’re not living it. Everyone is unique and different and beautiful in their own way.

I’ve realised this is now turning a little preachy but it is only because this is something that really touches my heart. It’s your life, live it how YOU want to and do things that make YOU happy and that will make YOU smile when you sit in your rocking chair one day and reminisce.

Another thing that has happening this week is that because of all my stressing I have rushed my days away before I even knew it therefore leaving hardly any time to appreciate what’s going on. This happens sometimes for me because of my worrying which is why I occasionally have a reflective day where I chill out at home and just process my life a little –this is where I get inspired for a lot of things. I read my Bible, write in a diary or my “What I’m grateful for today” book and just think. Because part of life being so short is that we need to treasure and remember every happy moment of it.

This leads me back to the beginning of my blog, –a circle of writing, my old English teacher would be proud- where I talked about how grateful I am to have a blog where I can put my thoughts and ideas down so I won’t ever forget them.

So, this week I’m going to make a conscious effort to Breathe Slow and take everything in so that when I’m sitting in my stockings, false teeth and cardigan I can look back and remember each precious moment of my life and remember how blessed I am to live it.

I’d also like to add that something else I am grateful to have also come out of our horrible ordeal this week is that I feel I have reconnected with my Christian faith and more importantly, with Jesus. He gave me peace on the day of the news that I can’t describe and led me to passages that gave me hope and for that I’m so blessed.

Mollie

♥

So You’ve Had a Bad Day?

Hello everyone.

Today’s post is as the title suggests, about having a bad day. “But Mollie, nobody wants to think about that, it’s such a depressing subject!”. Ahh well my observant well-spoken reader, the truth is, I know.  Having a bad day isn’t fun at all but it is something that just happens sometimes and besides, this post ends positively. Promise.

I feel I should justify why I have chosen such a melancholy subject to talk about today so here we go. For me today began as just ‘one of those days’. You know what I mean, you wake up with a sigh and an “Oh, here we go again” attitude and nothing seems to go right. The jump in the shower to find there’s no hot water left or style your hair nicely just to find that the wind and rain have other ideas or maybe like me you’re just a little bored of the prospect of yet another day at school/work sort of business. From the moment you walk out of your front door you’ve already got your ‘Well, let’s just get through the day’ head on. This now is where I see I’ve gone wrong.

One reason being that because you’ve got the idea of having a bad day already into your head, you’re stuck thinking you’re going to have a bad day and so all the little things that go wrong which would usually go unnoticed suddenly become your impending doom. You begin to think negatively about everything and before you know it, you dropping that pen for the second time was God’s way of telling you to quit everything. But see, this is where I began to stop and think.

Was me having a double free first thing at school with hardly anything to do with myself really such a bad thing after all seeing as I ended up learning lines for a play and having a giggle with my friends?

Was the dread of going to my admin class and working through a past paper really going to ruin my day when I ended up learning some important skills and identifying a problem with my computer now which if me and my teacher hadn’t spotted could have affected me in my exam?

And was the prospect of me having to stay after-school for two more hours for the school’s play rehearsal going to get me down when I ended up practicing some new scenes and laughing hysterically with one of my friends?

Even after returning home from school, I still thought about my day in a negative way because I failed to notice these positive outcomes to what I felt were frustrating circumstances to be in. That was until just an hour or so ago. You see, following ‘one of those days’ from a few weeks ago I came home and reflected on the day to see what it was that made it a ‘bad day’ and the truth was, I found it wasn’t such a bad day after all; in finding these negative situations I began to remember many of the positive ones that happened either on their own or because of a negative situation.

It was on that ‘bad day’ that I decided I was going to stop remembering the negatives in my day and focus on the positives. It was also that day that I began my “What I’m grateful for today” diary. Starting that day, whenever I’ve had a bad day-or a good day- I’ve sat down in the evening before bed and thought about the things that made me smile. To my surprise, even when I thought everything had gone wrong that day, there was a list of at least 10 things that really made me smile; whether it had been talking to an old friend I hadn’t seen in a while to simply someone holding the door open for me or paying me a compliment. It all adds up and it all leaves me feeling my day might not have been so bad after all.

I hope this post hasn’t been too sad. It’s just something I felt I wanted to share and that I know a lot of people can relate to. (It’s also another item to add to my list of “What I’m grateful for today”!)  I hope that after reading this you will want to begin a diary like this or even just take 10 minutes of your evening to focus on what positive things happened in your day; you will be surprised at how many you can list if you really think about it!

Remember: everyday may not be a good day, but there is something good in everyday. And besides, I think you're awesome.

Mollie

♥

Butterflies and Growing Up

Hello everyone.

I’m very sorry this post is a day late. It’s been a little bit hectic this week with studying for a NAB and then a Prelim but things are pretty much back in order now (well, as ‘in order’ as they can be with ditsy me). Now I can begin to properly focus on this Saturday…

Scottish Island Mum (Fiona Doubleday) has given me a wonderful opportunity to be part of her Butterfly Tree Project this Saturday. The Butterfly Tree is a charity that supports rural communities in Zambia - they provide the necessities such as safe water, feeding programs and health and education for the people in Zambia.

To raise money for this charity (namely for malaria nets) Fiona has planned a variety of sub-projects including her workshop opening tea party this Saturday. Here people will hopefully donate to the charity and begin buying her delicate and beautiful hand-made butterflies which have mesh-like wings to signify the malaria nets they are raising money for.

As I am very interested in film and hope to go into film production in my future Fiona has kindly asked me to film the event. It will be wonderful experience for me and will hopefully compliment the hard-work put into this event. We have decided the most important point to get across is that just £5 can save a child’s life in buying a malaria net. The film will also feature some natural scenes from Arran and of course the cutting of the workshop’s ribbon and the tea party itself. All very exciting!

(These pictures are from The Butterfly Tree facebook page and belong to them.)

In other news, it is now beginning to hit me that I only have a few weeks left at school. Ahh. I don’t really know what to make of it. Part of me is really excited to have some freedom in my life and see where my gap year takes me but the other part of me is going to miss high school so much. The fact that I live on an island, everyone pretty much knows everyone in our school including the teachers so I will literally miss everyone. I’ve found myself beginning to appreciate the little funny moments that happen in our 6^th year common room and the friendships I’ve made a lot more knowing that we’ll all go our separate ways soon. I think my 6^th year at high school has really helped steer me towards what I want to do and who I want to be (cheese anyone?). I think I might talk about this in a separate blog post altogether because there is a lot to talk about and I feel this may turn into a very, very long blog post.

I hope you’ve had a lovely week so far and if you can please check out The Butterfly Tree’s website!

Mollie

♥

Finding Home

Hello again!

Firstly, thank you all for your support and lovely comments on my last post. It was so encouraging! And a big thank you to Fiona from Scottish Island Mum who encouraged me to start a blog in the first place.

I mentioned on my last update that I live on the lovely Isle of Arran and thought I’d share the story of how me and my family came to live here as I like to think it’s quite amazing.

I’ve lived on Arran since I was 7 years old; we were destined to live here as my parents have always loved Scotland and even eloped to get married here. They said that when they had a family, Scotland would be the place they’d like to live.

Fast-forward a few years and there are my two younger sisters (aged about 3 and 5) and me (about 6). Now that my parents had a family they began to think seriously about moving to Scotland.

Now around this time they decided to buy a new car for my mum (this is relevant I promise) and amazingly after buying the car they realised that the license plate included “ARR4N”. No. Really! They had been thinking about Arran as a place to live around that time so this was truly amazing.

A few months later and my parents, sisters and me all embarked on the long drive to Arran and loved it from the moment we stepped off the ferry-even my little 3 year old sister. I remember on this visit that we found a go-cart track and went cycling through Brodick-me and my dad on a tandem (with me just sitting on the back, my legs dangling above the pedals) and my mum cycling with my two sisters attached to her bike on a little cart. I was sold. I would have moved right there and then!

(From left: Me, Emily, Megan and Mum behind us)

(Us with dad)

On returning from our first visit we had already grown attached to this beautiful little island and going back to England didn’t feel like we were going “home”; it felt as though we were driving away from it.

A few more visits by my parents and they grew more and more in love with the island and more determined to move here and overcome any obstacles that might arise.

After visiting one of the island’s attractions my mum thought long and hard about our potential move and prayed about it asking "Is it the right thing to do?" as they pulled out of the car park. To her amazement when they began down the road a car drove past with the license plate including the word “YES”. Once again, not kidding! We seem to have a thing with taking advice from license plates.

After this miraculous happening things just fell into place. My dad who works as an IT Consultant managed to get permission to home-work from the island (after going through almost all the levels of management), my parents found our first house and despite the housing market at that time forcing properties to be sold up to 40% over the asking price, they managed to buy the one we wanted for less than the asking price. Another cool coincidence (or as we like to think, a nudge from God) was that as me and my sisters were only just beginning school we’d need to find a suitable one on the island and even though my parents visited one during the Easter holidays, the moment they arrived the Head Teacher walked out and so she could answer their questions there and then. This is the primary me and my sisters ended up attending and led us to find some really amazing friends who we’re still close to.

We like to think that us moving to Arran wasn’t just a coincidence or good timing, but that God intended for us to live here. And I’m so glad He did! 10 years on and I love the Island just as much as when I first saw that go-kart track. It’s strange to think that I’m now in my last year of high school and will soon be leaving here. I couldn’t have asked for a better place to live. One thing is for sure though, when birthdays and Christmas’ arrive I will have no hesitations in returning to this humble little beautiful island.

Mollie

♥

Nice To Meet You.

Hello all.

My name is Mollie and I am definitely new here.

Blogging is foreign territory to me but has always been something I've been desperate to try. I always feel that I’ll never have enough to say. Anyway, I have decided enough is enough and I must give it a go, after all that is going to be the motto for my gap year which I am about to begin.

 As a newbie to the blogging world I feel I should properly introduce myself so I shall do my best to fill you in with the essentials.

I am 17 years old, I have very red hair, a positive outlook on life and am in my last year of highschool (only two weeks left-eek). I live on the beautiful Isle of Arran on the west coast of Scotland and have done since I was 7 years old. As a teenager on an often quiet island it can be challenging finding things to fill your weekend with. Starved of Primark and MacDonald’s it can leave me thinking it would be great to live on the mainland sometimes, but really there is nowhere else I would rather be. As a budding film-maker it’s the perfect place to live. With its breath-taking views and changing landscape around every corner Arran certainly lives up to its name of “Scotland in miniature”.

I’m sure many of you will have heard of the Isle of Arran on the news recently due to our terrible power cuts. It has been quite a unique experience to put it one way and has inspired me to make a video about my experience of it for my YouTube channel to allow people to see the situation from and Arran-er’s point of view.

Film-production being a keen interest of mine and something I hope to pursue as a career I jumped at the chance to start my own YouTube channel and after a few first-video attempts Normollieee was born. I have loved filming since I was little and used to make sketches with my family and friends on the family camera and would pretend I was a professional by the age of 6. I've loved it ever since.

In the nine videos I have uploaded so far on my channel I have tried to experiment with different techniques and concepts including stopmotion, video in time with music, fast-cut reversed footage and a basic sit-down vlog. I’ve become very fond of my humble little channel and I hope it will grow and blossom as I learn more about editing and film. I have so many ideas and hopes for it’s future and cannot wait to make these ideas a reality in my coming gap year. I appreciate every single view and “thumbs up” I receive and can’t help but give a little squeak of joy when I see I have a new subscriber. It’s really exciting for me to know that I can dedicate my time and effort towards it this year and I would love if you joined me along the way!

I think this will do for a short introduction so far as I hope you will learn the rest through my future blogs. See you soon.

Mollie♥

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