How to Be Happy

Contrary to popular belief, there is no 'recipe' for happiness.
Losing that extra pound, making your first million, being hopelessly loved. No exact combination of things will make two people happy in the same way. Sure, they'd be great, but it won't satiate your lust for true happiness forever.
And it's taken me days to realise, letting my mind chew over it whilst I tread through a rain soaked city, where the wet, black pavement invites me to my destination. I've rolled the thoughts between my fingertips like cool, iridescent pearls, and nursed them like children.
And that's it.
Happiness isn't textbook. Never has been and never will be.
To put it into a food metaphor (because we all luuurve those)- imagine it like you're creating an array of dishes for a new restaurant. Headlining the menu is "True Happiness", an elusive and rare dining experience. You trial everything you can think of- relationships, shopping, music- but searching solace in those comes up nil. Relationships become empty, the thrill of purchase only extends to as long as you truly consider something new and music becomes repetitive. You find individual ingredients that are divine- but just not for your dish of happiness. The relationship that looks incredible from the outside, and from social media, is no more than a feeling of complete lostness and aimless, and an emptiness as you realise your words lose meaning.
I'm still trying to find my happiness, and you may still be to.
One day, all of our versions of happy will be complete...but, as with life, it's all a journey.
The best I can recommend is to enjoy it.

Each moment is precious. x

Vegan stint

Just like with everything, the first day back at something is hard.
Yesterday was my first day back at intentional Veganism (that is, to say, that intentionally eating only produce that doesn't contain eggs, dairy or meat). I went to sleep hungry, after demolishing a sweet potato with home-made organic tomato sauce and sweetcorn, and woke up absolutely ravished. I even tweeted Dominoes at around 2am, putting my troubles into words. Clearly, the folks at Dominoes weren't going to discourage me, but I made it!
Today was better. I went grocery shopping and bought a helluva lot of healthy foods. On the walk home, heaving under the weight of bags that were far too heavy, I had an idea.
The interwebs is full of vegan recipes- but none of them seem to be that accessible for students (i.e. perpetually poor and occasionally too lazy to even consider picking up a saucepan). So my intention is to occasionally put up cheap, easy and tasty Vegan recipes for all of you out there wanting to get into it, but are somewhat daunted by the big, scary world of alternative eating habits.
I was vegan for about 6 months earlier this year, and have been on and off before that. I can't honestly say I go vegan for moral reason- that's an added bonus. I go V because I enjoy the feeling of putting good, responsibly resourced foods into my body. And that, in turn, does my body the world of good.
I don't find cutting out meat and dairy too difficult (apart from the occasional NEED for pizza), and neither should anyone else. If you're interested in Veganism, I'd be more than happy to write about it for you- my experience with it, recipes and advantages vs disadvantages of short-term conversion. My feeling is that 4 months at a time is a good way of going about the eating habits, if you can manage it. Then phasing back in dairy and meat, should you so please. But it's down to you- any time upwards of a few weeks is going to be so beneficial to your body.
Again, the first few days are rough if you haven't done it before. You'll be hungry, tempted to shout at your vegetables and go, sit and eat cereal. Or order the biggest takeaway known to man. But stick at it- it's worth it!
Now excuse me whilst I go finish my vegan, raw apple crumble. Recipe to follow, but images are above!

Take me to church

This could sound preachy.
I think that, almost unconditionally, the internet is a bad place to start a discussion about religion. But this needs to be said, for myself.
I had a long day on Sunday, and after getting home from a long shift at work, I was looking forward to sleeping and chowing down on whatever salad I had in the fridge. But as I sat, post shower, at my laptop, I began to think. It's 5pm on a Sunday...what if...what if I went to church?
I got the most insane butterflies, and this bewildered me. Why would I get nervous about something like that? Does that even make any sense? So instead of shrugging it off, and I followed the butterflies and clobbered a search into google. The reaping of said search introduced me to a next generation church that was 1.6 miles away. So with 40 minutes until the 6:30pm service, I followed my feet and found my way.
I've been to church before. I was in a church choir for 10 years, but there wasn't a religious connection to it. It was more of just a thing that I did a few times a week. I went to a few concerts with a dear friend of mine, Israel, and felt something but not enough to get me to go back.
But church on Sunday was different. I felt so at home, so at peace and so full of light. I went to prayer and talked through a girl who also attends the church and we prayed together. Clearly it's a very personal thing, but I've been  having some dark days recently, and I felt so whole after praying.
The sermon was about patience. Even the bible (1 Corinthians 13:4-7) outright states "Love is patient."
That's it! Right there. On the subject of love, an infinite, confusing, beautiful and wonderful thing- the first thing that is written in those letters on the subject of love is that it. is. patient.
That we should be patient with the weak, the discouraged and the cruel- just with everyone. How cool is that?
And since then, when I've felt myself losing patience, I remember. And I am patient. It's still a work in progress, but I feel as though, for the first time in a very long time, I'm getting somewhere.
My days, like my feet and heart, feel so much lighter. 

Life in November

So I've been busy.
In the last few weeks, my social engagements per week have sky rocketed, which mystifies me because I'm hugely uninteresting most of the time. Yesterday (Sunday 30th November), I played my first proper lacrosse match; an away match at Durham. GULC played well, but as most us playing were freshaaaz playing our first matches, we didn't quite win. I had so much fun though, and can't wait for the club Christmas dinner on Thursday...Christmas jumpers and wine are mandatory apparently.
I also joined the team of writers on the network of University news called the Tab. So I present myself to you as the newest addition to the Tab, Glasgow. I'm working on a few articles for it, but my personal stuff etc remains here!
I've been loving my job at Build-a-Bear- it's truly the happiest place on earth, and the best job I've ever had. I was so unhappy a month ago when I was waitressing and felt so lost- so much so that the idea of another shift would reduce me to tears. I'll write about my experience in another post, but trust me when I say that I didn't have the best time of it. The team at BAB are BABes (geddit?) and I can't emphasise how much I love it enough.
My apologies for not writing for so long- I've been quite disenchanted and uninspired recently. I think it's exam stresses starting to gnaw at me a little- but I'm going to try and be better. Stick with me?