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wordsnstuff · 5 years

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Guide To Writing Will-They-Won’t-They

This is also available on wordsnstuffblog.com!

– This subject has been highly requested and I get a lot of questions around it. Most romance writers have experience toying with this dynamic in character relationships, so I figured I’d create a guide for those who love the delicious tension of a will-they-won’t-they relationship, because they’re difficult to do correctly, and when they’re not done right, it can throw a whole story down the drain.

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When They Do End Up Together

Make sure it’s not too... convenient. It’s bad technique to build and build onto tension just to provide an easy, clean-wrapped resolution that makes the conflict seem insignificant. If people are hesitant to get together or stay together, there is a good reason, and that shouldn’t be glossed over by the ending.

When They Don’t End Up Together

Make your reader see that this isn’t a tragedy. If two people don’t end up together, there’s a reason, and it’s a valid one, and just because two couples really like each other or even love each other, doesn’t mean they’re right for each other, and at some point both of them will know that and let that stand. The message shouldn’t be “salvage every potential relationship because if you don’t your life is over”, it should be “some relationships just aren’t right, and love is a choice, not a feeling”.

When The Issue Is Constant Conflict

Constant conflict is a bad sign. Occasional disagreements and arguments are okay, and healthy in most cases, but they should always be resolved peacefully. If a couple can never seem to do that, and that’s the purpose for repetitive breaking up/getting back together, then they probably aren’t right for each other. Please don’t send a message to your readers that couples that constantly fight to the point of deciding they would rather be with someone else than work through it ever ends in a healthy and satisfying way for either party.

When The Issue Is Lack of Communication

Lack of communication is applicable to most will-they-won’t-they relationships, and most relationship tension in general, but I want to specifically mention this because it’s not only lack of communication about initial feelings, but the lack of communication about how the relationship is going, what each partner wants out of the relationship, and what each partner does and does not enjoy in a relationship. These can all cause repetitive breakups because they seem more ambiguous a problem in the moment, and usually cause the “I just don’t think this relationship feels right”, which a character can forget easily once the relationship is over, making them return to their old partner immediately.

When The Issue Is An Existing Dynamic

(The specific request I’m addressing mentioned friends-with-benefits, but this is an SFW blog so I’ll be answering this generally; but yes that is what this section is.) If two characters have an unusual relationship, such as being best friends, which prevents them from trying to level up the relationship out of fear, this provides so many opportunities to build tension from the very beginning. Use this to your advantage, but be original with it. This is an extremely popular trope, and can put off an audience immediately if it shows signs of being completely cliche.

Pacing The Tension To Be Endearing Rather Than Stupid

The tension needs to be built up steadily, but it needs to be reasonable and each instance where the tension is demonstrated needs to be reasonable and fit into the context of each scene. If you avoid thinking about how your tension will come across, more likely than not, it will feel dumb and unnecessary rather than endearing.

Common Struggles

~ effectively writing moments of interrupted tension... Do it at the near-boiling point. This should be the climax of the tension, where they’re right near getting to the point of understanding each other, and they’re finally about to get together and someone or something, even themselves, gets in the way and brings them back to square one.

~ Balancing tension between characters... Moments of tension should be balanced with moments of genuine enjoyment of each other’s company. A lot of tension will be somewhat uncomfortable for the characters, and therefore uncomfortable for the reader, and you need to break that up with fluffy, romantic moments or it will be.. awkward.

~ At what point does tension become irritating rather than entertaining?... When the reasons for the tension become illogical or repetitive. If you’v written the same “we’re two loners at a party” scene three times with no variance in events, that’s irritating to the reader. New and unusual sources of tension through exciting instances of action and reaction between the characters that builds to a near boiling point where the reader and the characters share a longing for some resolution (due to genuine investment in the relationship growing) is entertaining.

~ Avoiding predictability while keeping the trajectory... You can keep your story exciting and on the same track by using subplots to introduce conflicts that draw the reader’s attention away from the way the relationship is growing before delivering a major twist that affects, but doesn’t halt or change the way in which the relationship is growing.

~ Not making the characters’ reluctance unreasonable... Each character should have personal and logical reasons for avoiding addressing their feelings that the reader can empathize with and understand. It’s as simple as that.

~ Will-they-won’t they that spans large periods of time... If the will-they-won’t-they surrounds a relationship that spans huge amounts of time (such as one that is spanned over 50+ years) can be depicted very well as long as you choose the moments and events that you include in the actual storytelling very wisely, and sparingly. There should be a balance of events told from the present moment where the tension is at a near boiling point, and events that establish how the relationship has grown and continues to, and why it took so long to do so.

Resources

Resources For Describing Emotions

Resources For Plot Development

Resources For Romance Writers

Kiss Scenes 101: How to Write The Perfect Kiss

Novel Planning 101

How To Write A Good Plot Twist

How To Foreshadow

Commentary On Social Issues In Writing

How To Make A Scene More Heartfelt

20 Mistakes To Avoid When Writing Young Adult Fiction/Romance

Tips On Writing Skinny Love

How To Perfect The Tone In A Piece Of Writing

A Guide To Tension & Suspense In Your Writing

Writing Arguments Between Characters

Planning A Scene In A Story

Tips On Writing Intense Scenes

DISCLAIMER

I know that the primary audience of these articles write stories for young adults or a little bit older, and I don’t want to be preachy and tell you what you should and should not convey in your story. However, I want to remind all writers that no matter who your audience is, the manner in which you convey things does impact each individual readers’ mindset and views in some way.

Please be aware of the way your story frames things like potential abuse, unhealthy behavior, and toxic relationships, because it’s not the presence of these things that is harmful; it’s the way you frame them, glorify them, or romanticize them.

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thatslayer · 6 years

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RPC Positivity Week - Day One

Well, it's day numero one of the RPC Positivity Week and day one's challenge is to name off my favorite portrayals of characters from my own fandom of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and it's spin-off, Angel the Series.

It's going to be hard to narrow down favorites, because the BtVS community has a lot of talent. Even if I don't mention you, know that it's only because I'm really narrowing each character down to one or two blogs. <3

Buffy Summers There are a fair amount of good Buffy's on tumblr, but @iwannadogirlystuff gets a gold star, here, for her great Buffy voice and constant battle to keep her muse canon and interesting. Sometimes that means being wrong, sometimes that means being single, sometimes that means being hurt and she doesn't take the easy way out and let all that work happen off-screen. She knows how to let Buffy take her own side while the greater plot stays neutral. Big on plot, zero drama. Happy to give real, helpful critique and ask for it in return because the story and portrayal are what matters, not the ego. She's also the kindest, most sweetest chickie you're likely to meet. I love you to bits and am absolutely biased. Gracious, girl, you're a gift from the RP gods, lol.

@buffyisms is such a dang cutie, so sweet. So much fun to talk to, especially when it comes to Duffy (Dean/Buffy) or the actual horrors of waitressing. I don't know her well, yet, but hope to remedy that!

Willow Rosenberg I've been writing with @optimisticyellowcrayon for a hundred-million years and a closer to canon Willow, I don't think I could find. She's got the voice down, and I can't imagine Willow's voice is all that easy to master. She gets this girl, eyeballs to entrails, and writing with her is like writing with a magical manifestation of the real Willow Rosenberg. And, on top of that, mun is crazy sweet and nice and awesome. Even when she's having a bad day, she goes out of her way to help make the OOC Bunkerverse a positive, supportive and friendly place to be and I loves the crud out of her.

I really like having @willowiiisms on my dash. We haven't done much writing together (my fauuuult), but he's fudging adorable and a lovely Miss Rosenberg, to boot.

Xander Harris There aren't really a lot of Xanders around, at least there aren't many active ones, but @strangeandoffputting goes the extra mile to make his Xander sound and act right -- even if that means Xander comes off badly to the reader. Before Jan took on Xander, I thought he couldn't do any better than his super on the mark Sam Winchester ( @samattheend ), but I think he's actually better at Xander than he is at Sam. He's also my actual tumblr husband, one of my bestest friends, and a silly dope who can long-distance cuddle with the best of them.

Rupert Giles @youhavemyrespect - Mo, my darling. If you love Giles and you aren't following this sweetheart, you're doing all the things wrong. They deeply, deeply understand Giles. His motivations always seem fully on the mark, he sounds like Giles (JUST like Giles, in point of fact). With the same measure to his words, the same tone and turn of phrase, the same personality down to a T. Mun is also such a kind, silly, wonderful person and rounds out our uber-canon Bunkerverse scooby gang.

@whowatches I haven't written with this Giles yet, but I have seen some stuff on my dash that I thought was pretty dang awesome. Mun is such a sweetheart. <3

Spike @spiketheforsakensoul, the love of my unlife and one of the best Spike blogs you're likely to stumble upon. On an unfortunate hiatus while Wil plays over at Lucifer ( @punishmentismyjob ), but he's had something like 19-20 years experience with Spike (most of which he's wasted playing opposite yours truly <3) and knows the way his weird little mind works. Killer Spike voice + great writer + sexy mun = happy Faye.

Cordelia Chase @hervisions has the Cordy voice down pat, quips and all, and she's a welcome sight when she graces my dash. Everyone needs more Cordelia in their lives.

Faith Lehane Can I just point out how much I miss @beautypowerdeath? I hate it when people run off and leave me to fend for myself, lol. Probably my favorite Faith on the tumblee, and we've had our share of awesome Faith blogs.

Oh, I've known Char for too damn long. @faithiiisms is funny and silly and all sorts of awesome. One of my favorite Faiths. <3

Lilah Morgan @lilahemorgan, who's a little ball of sunshine, always ready to write and has nothing but positive vibes for everyone. Lovely and welcome addition to the Bunkerverse, has no problem going toe-to-toe with the white hats while remaining ambiguous about Lilah's hero or villain status. Love to love ya, girlfriend. ;)

@hellscounsel - I still can't believe there are two Lilah's now, she's such an undersung character. This lovely miss can carry Lilah's moods and character voice, haven't done much writing with her, though! Mun is a cutie.

Wesley Wyndam-Pryce Aaron's a hoot, carries half of the BtVS minor character blogs all by himself. Very good Wes voice, haven't had a chance to write with him, yet. Go follow @exwatcher, because I said so.

Ethan Rayne Well, it seems like all we've got is @liminalchaos, but that's just fine by me. Every now and then I'll see some hilarious meme go by on my dash, or some of their fantastic writing and it makes my day. Ethan is a treasure, and they're doing a damn fine job with him.

I know I missed a ton of folks, this is more a list of people I rp with or who I see on my dash often and enjoy their portrayals. Feel free to send me blogs if you think I should check them out/rp with them/update this list.

Remember, darlings! Be excellent to each other and part on, dudes!

#RPC POSITIVITY WEEK.#day one: favorite btvs portrayals #outofatonement #long post

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porthavenhq · 4 years

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Welcome to Porthaven, Ellie! We can’t wait to meet Tristan Morello!

Please look over the acceptance checklist and submit your blog within the next 24 hours. If there is a problem or a prior obligation and you need more time than provided, just message the main and we will gladly extend!

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　OUT OF CHARACTER　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Name: Ellie Pronouns: She/Her Age: 21+ Timezone: EDT Activity Level: I have work from 9am-5pm - I lurk during that time, maybe post if work is really slow. My evenings are usually free though. I’ll be on and post at least once a day. Taking into account (sometimes sudden) muse drops, I’d probably give myself a 5/10. Triggers: N/A Anything Else: I’m so psyched for this RP! If you need any help with lists or anything like that, feel free to ask (I enjoy cultivating and updating lists for some reason) *shrug face*

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　CHARACTER INFORMATION　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Name: Tristan Morello Age: 07/21/1997 Gender: Male FC: Marlon Teixeira

Character Biography

The story of Tristan’s birth and subsequent abandonment was unremarkable. His father was a businessman, in the States for only a few days at a conference. There, he met Tristan’s mother: a charismatic, enigmatic beauty. Allured and intrigued by each other, the fling was over as soon as it had started: dinner, drinks, and a night neither of them have much of a memory of. With no father in the picture and her own career in mind, Tristan’s mother made a decision: she would carry the child, but that was all. Within hours being discharged from the hospital and not wanting to go through the time-consuming wait and process of an adoption agency, Tristan’s mother drove out of state, left the infant outside of a police department, and then promptly left. It wasn’t half an hour before the baby’s cries attracted the officers inside. They searched the area for an hour or so before contacting Child Protective Services. With nothing except the infant’s clothes and blanket, CPS named the child and had a physician look him over to officially give an estimated DOB. Unsurprisingly, the doctor told them that the baby was only a few days old. After some investigations which turned up nothing, Tristan started making his rounds in foster homes.

As with any system, Tristan was placed in good homes and bad homes. Homes that obviously were in it for the stipend; homes that truly wanted him to feel safe and wanted. However, all of them were merely temporary solutions. As a child, he was told that each home was a “new start”. Despite social workers telling him this wasn’t his fault, as a child, Tristan felt as though he was always doing something wrong and that’s why none of the fosters would adopt him. He felt as though he had to keep reinventing himself to be a more loveable, ideal child, even though he didn’t have quite a grasp on what either meant. By the time he was ten, he was starting to experience a flimsy sense of self from all the changing personas of what he thought a good, adoptable child would be.

There was one beacon of hope for him. When he was eleven, he was placed into a home of a couple who seemingly couldn’t have children of their own. For two years, it seemed as though his dedication to cultivating an ideal child had paid off. They seemed to love and adore him. He felt safe and well cared for. As his third year with them approached, Tristan started to seriously think (and hope) that they would end up adopting him. However, he let his hopes get the better of him: the couple ended up conceiving. As the pregnancy went on, the prospect and preparations for their biological child slowly started to push Tristan out of the picture. Of course, Tristan did his best to keep face and keep up his performance, but there was little he could do to win back their full attention or affection. He didn’t know what he had done wrong. It just got worse when the child arrived. With their attention on a newborn, teenage Tristan started to get lost in the shuffle, which stung, especially from them.

Tristan realized that all his careful cultivation had been in vain. He had tried his best and had still failed. He found himself unable (or perhaps a combination of unable and unwilling) to articulate why he was feeling so hurt. So, angry, jealous, and no longer held back by wanting to present as an ideal, adoptable child Tristan tried “being himself” and doing what he could to focus his foster parents’ attention back on himself. He started hanging out with the wrong crowd at school, started playing hooky, and hanging out on the streets. His grades dropped, he got into a few fights, stayed out late, and was even found with a cigarette on him. Of course, his attempts at getting the couple focused on him again worked the opposite way he wanted it to, and the couple ended up returning him to the system. He didn’t realize until later that he did more harm than good to both himself, the family, and their relationship.

Back in the system, Tristan kept getting shuffled from home to home, now more frequently as he had given up trying to be good. Sinking into bitterness and cynicism, he became hard to handle and started to reject any idea that he would ever get adopted out of the system. Being “unadoptable” weighed on his mind, but he was unwilling to go back to being good only for his efforts to backfire on him again. He had learned his lesson and wouldn’t be taken in as the hopeful fool ever again. His destructive habits continued, slowly getting more severe until he finally became of age and got thrown out of the foster care system itself.

Ill-equipped to deal with life outside the system, Tristan promptly found himself homeless. Not that he cared, his time on the streets with “friends” had prepared him (to an extent) for this. His times roaming the tougher side of town had given him street smarts and resources that polite society usually rejected. Through connections and his own charm, he built up his own network that spanned a few towns and began couch surfing in exchange for labor. Other times, he was able to get small, part-time, or odd jobs. In some ways, he’s still a foster child being shuffled from house to house. Sometimes it’s a place on the street, but he puts himself there through his own resources and cunning. He doesn’t stay anywhere for long, just long enough to finish a job, satisfy his own desires, get enough money for food, and find his next connection. He doesn’t commit to anywhere or anyone. He knows what a mistake that is.

He’s known about Porthaven since being a child and has always been intrigued by the area’s acceptance of Mystiques. Finally, his network and his wanderings have brought him into town. Only time will tell if the people and places, like all others, will be temporary. Tristan’s not optimistic. More than likely, it will be yet another blip on the map. An X and a cross-off on a list. Another town for a few hookups, maybe a scam or two, a buffet, a small job…

Yes, Porthaven will be just another town to leech off of. Right?

Headcanons

One of Tristan’s favorite meals is spaghetti and meatballs. He also favors Olive Garden breadsticks.

Tristan likes hanging around places with trains (yard, tracks, stations) and the roofs of buildings.

Skills Tristan has picked up from drifting and just living his life have been: street smarts, juggling, lock picking, skateboarding, climbing, parkour, and flipping objects into their hands using their feet.

Tristan gives himself a new, street name for every home he’s lived in or town he’s drifted in and out of. Some of his nicknames include Milo, Mike, Fritz, Boris, Butch, Homer, Dan, Rags, and Bozo. This has not helped with his vague sense of roots, self, or identity.

While trying to be a productive member of society and not starve, Tristan has worked many odd, part-time jobs including landscaping, handy work, cleaning, cashier, pet sitter, and waiter.

Tristan tries to find college towns if he can. Why? There’s usually some event with free food. All he has to do is act like a new commuter or transfer looking to get involved in campus activities.

Most of Tristan’s trists are well calculated. He uses hookups mainly for his ego, a fleeting sense of “love” and being wanted, and food. He knows his goals going in and doesn’t see it as much as manipulation as survival. Still, he does derive some amusement from watching the upper class or others desperate for affection play into his games. Besides, the older he gets, the more he thinks his foster parents saw his foster home shuffle as a game. No one was committed to him. Why should he be committal to anyone?

Tristan relishes in his freedom. No more foster parents telling him what to do as if they had any hold on him. No more system moving him around. He can go anywhere and do anything. His constant moving means limited consequences. The more he drifts and sees the world freely, despite his limited means, the more settling down becomes something to dread.

As someone with a sometimes limited supply of food, one of Tristan’s biggest pet peeves is food waste. While he doesn’t outright beg, he uses food banks to his advantage and is not above dumpster diving near restaurants or watching people throw out food and then taking it for himself after cutting off parts that look bitten off of.

Despite his inner turmoil and (self)destructive tendencies, Tristan doesn’t act all that bitter outwardly. Sure, one could get “bad boy” vibes off of him, but he still acts pleasant and care-free. In that way, he is still playing a role. Only, this time around, he acts less like an ideal person and more authentically (whatever that means for him for the time being). This is for survival now, not adoption.

Tristan’s greatest fear and greatest hope are intertwined: he hopes to find a family and people who love him unconditionally with no pretenses. However, he gets in his own way and uses relationships selfishly since he is terrified of being and becoming attached, loved, and vulnerable and fears that rejection, abandonment, and being used will follow soon after he’s lulled into a false sense of security.

#phqacceptance

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lxchtkasteel-blog · 7 years

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;update » indefinite hiatus

banter » So... this time it’s for negative reasons, I guess. Rather, it always has, but I didn’t want to say anything until now. This is mostly just a heads up, but I’ll explain myself a bit below the cut.

For those who don’t wanna read my sob story, well... tl;dr: I dunno when I’ll be back. Unfollow if you want.

I guess, first of all, I should apologize. I have to admit I lost the musing for most of my muses months ago, but I kept going because people liked them. You all probably don’t even realize how happy it makes me for other people to take a serious interest in the characters I create, but I feel like I’ve let you all down.

I’m a terrible partner these days, I know. I haven’t replied to over 30 threads and still continue to start more, but the truth is that I really haven’t been interested in a lot of the things I have going. I can’t use more than half of my muses because no one requests them, and most of the time, I feel like people don’t even read through because there are so many. I rarely speak with anyone about a starter who knows who they want to interact with. It’s always “oh they all look good” or “I’m not sure” and even if that’s true, it kind of... hurts?

I put a lot of time into shortening my profiles because I knew most people didn’t want to read them ( trust me, my usual profiles are twice as long before even adding any background ), but I get this constant, dreadful feeling that people rarely take the time to look. At all. And this may not be true of everyone, but I get really tired of having to list off the muses of mine that miiiiight fit when I don’t have much to go on about the other muse other than hair ad eye color and a backstory that my muse has no fucking means of knowing because that’s god-modding. Even worse when the other person asks me to summarize the muse, as if it’s that hard to read their profile. I’m probably starting to sound like a jerk at this point, but I really don’t know what to do.

From the beginning of my return to Tumblr RP, my new mindset was that I’d appeal to my followers more. I made a lot of new friends while my old ones went off to do other things, but it was fine... for a little while. Growing closer to my followers was great, but it also made it incredibly difficult to let things go. Unfollowing became a huge deal and my inability to please everyone and reply to all of my threads became extremely overwhelming. I started blog hopping, making characters who were drastically different from the ones before them to try and escape the pressure, but the same followers kept coming back for some reason. It was nice to know how loyal some of my followers were, but it also sort of defeated the purpose of ‘escape’ too.

I dunno. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m gonna try and make a fresh start at some point. I’ve tried too hard to make people like me and I think that’s only ended in pushing more people away. I don’t know how exactly or how long it’ll take me to fully come back, but it wasn’t like I was very active on here to begin with. I don’t really have a problem with people unfollowing me, since I know how it is with keeping things clean and such. Its not like I have many to start with, lmao;;

Just a heads up that I still have my musings queue going at about a post a day for a month, in case that helps you make your decision.

#.// negative #;lxchtkasteel » puppeteer #;important #;updates #sorry for being shitty but I've felt shitty for a long time now #peace y'all

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sheporbust · 7 years

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A Special Thanks

When I started looking at studying abroad, I saw several opportunities. The experience, the unique perspective, the knowledge obtained, building new friendships, and the a thrill of the unknown. What I didn’t expect was the amount of support and help that I’ve received, not just for studying in France but just my schooling in general. It’s been a year now since I left the comfort of gainful employment to better myself and be able to develop the tools to be better at my job, as a person, and in helping others. The following people and organisations are just a few who have helped me realize this, and they’re in no specific order and I will probably change this several times as new names and faces come to mind.

Camosun College - As a mature student who was absolutely rubbish in high school, who was told that post secondary education was an unlikely event, you allowed me to prove myself right and others wrong. I hope that my academic grades will prove your bet good several times over.

Matt Agbay and Larry Chung - Thank you for your continuous help and writing me glowing recommendations. Not only have you been amazing teachers, like all the others I have had the pleasure of studying under, but you have been patient enough with my constant harping in writing said recommendations.

Vivian Trinth - If you were paid $5.00 for every e-mail you have received from me and answered, you would probably be sleeping on a fair sum of money. Thank you for helping me through the process of studying abroad, answering my many, many questions, and alleviating my thousand and one different possibilities in making this possible.

Laura Collins, Clarissa Landry, and Haley Parkhill - It’s been a crazy year, and even though we have only known each other now for less than 6 months, you guys have opened your homes, your vehicles, your impressive moving skills, all to help me get through an unfortunate difficult time. Without any one of you, I shudder to think where I may be, only sure that wouldn’t be drinking tea and typing this in such comfort.

Darlene and Collins - Thank you for the tea (see above), and more importantly, for letting me into your home and family for the holiday season. You have been more kind to me, virtually a stranger, than I could ever imagine would be possible. I would be remiss, no matter how embarrassing it may be, to not mention how many times I’ve cried due to your random and very generous acts of kindness. More than I can count, which is troubling for an accounting student.

Leah Vininsky-Oakes and Oleg Mamontov - Juggling school and the naval reserves, you have been so kind in opening your homes and couches for me to sleep on. Without these, I have no idea how I would be able to stay as awake in class as I was. Although we have gone our separate ways, my gratitude still remains and I am still extremely grateful. Thank you.

Zodiac - The best dog ever. There for me when I was feeling sad and alone, although probably against her will. But she never seemed to complain.

INSEEC - Thank you for your partnership with Camosun to make this happen! I look forward to learning at your school, in your country, and from everyone I encounter along the way.

Elodie Anderson - Thank you for helping me with various European paperwork, especially the form I totally forgot about until you sent me a reminder. Although we have not formally met, I look forward to meeting you.

DECA and Camosun Business Study Group - Thanks to everyone who I have met in these two great clubs. It’s been a blast and I look forward to getting back and involved when I return.

The Leonard Foundation - Thank you so much for the scholarship! It was absolutely mind blowing the amount I received, and it helped me so much. I also want to take a moment to extend a special thanks to Sally Tuckey, who has not only taken an interest in my schooling on behalf of The Leonard Foundation, but also personally, always showering me with more praise than I think is due, but is humbling none the less.

Irving K. Barber One World International Scholarship - Thank you for your financial support on this endeavor! It’s amazing that groups such as this exist to help support and encourage students to study abroad, to step outside their comfort zone, and most importantly to let them know that there are people who are behind them to help if they choose this path.

Harrison Nguyen - Thank you for providing me with a glowing character reference. I read it any time I want to know my strengths, as it is a detailed and in depth account of all I have achieved thus far. Most appreciative of all, it was written by someone else. Thank you.

The Canadian Armed Forces - Thank you for providing me with a career that allowed me to escape the one I was in. Without this opportunity, school would not have been a possibility, and I would most likely still be buried in debt. You provided me the means to escape all that, and gave me the tools and abilities to tackle any challenge that I set my mind to.

HMCS Victoria, Submariner’s Association of Canada, and all Canadian Submariners - Thank you for everything you have done for me. It is far to much for me to list, but you have shaped me more than I possibly thought possible. My time in the Navy, I am so thankful that I spent it on submarines.

Ben Scott - Thank you for helping me move my things into storage, not once, but twice! A person with a truck is a rare thing in Victoria, and you even fed me once. A starving college student never forgets food!

Jessica Friesen - Thank you for donating to my cause! There’s no better feeling than having someone believe in you when you can’t produce any real proof. I hope that my time here will pay off your blind investment 100 times over.

Brynn Jones - My best and oldest friend... I guess both in time we’ve been friends and your age hahaha. Thank you so much for helping me grow as a human, letting me crash at your place when I needed to get away, and for talking a drunken me out of calling the ambulance because I thought I was puking up blood that one time but it turned out to just be Pink. May this adventure lead to many more down the road!

There’s probably so many people I have forgotten, I really should have kept a list on hand and updated it. If I missed you or forgot a valuable contribution, please please please let me know so that I may add it here. I appreciate everything everyone has done to help get me here, and hopefully this blog can at least give you a bit of a laugh.

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whatevernevermind · 5 years

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Five Things Your Competitors Know About SEO 2019

Magento is usually an outstanding e-Commerce platform along with inbuilt SEO. Given that lookup engines have complex algorithms that will power their technology and our marketing needs are unique, we are going to unable to provide specific SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION advice to our customers. We all think SEO in 2019 might find a shift to focusing much more on user intent, problem resolving, and hyper locality in purchase to capitalize on the ongoing rise of voice search. Private demographic information would come in a great deal handier in 2019 as much as the ranking of key phrases is concerned. Links are one of the particular most important SEO ranking elements. However, more advanced that will readers will recognize the reduce quality of sites employing dark hat SEO at the cost from the reader experience, which usually will reduce the site's visitors and page rank over period. So - THERE IS SIMPLY NO BEST PRACTICE AMOUNT OF CHARACTER TYPES any SEO could lay down because exact best practice to GUARANTEE a title may display, in full in Search engines, at least, since the search little title, on every device. While getting as many pages listed in Google was historically the priority for an SEO, Search engines is now rating the high quality of pages on the site plus the type of pages this really is indexing. Jerrika Scott, Digital Marketing Specialist from Archway Cards Ltd, also feels in voice being the tendency of 2019 rather than 2018. Today, in spite of all the hype about regardless of whether SEO is dead, we discover that organic search is nevertheless one of the highest RETURN ON INVESTMENT digital marketing channels.

SEO is really the shortened phrase for search motor optimization. I believe SEO within 2019 will largely be such as SEO in 2018, with the particular exception of some big” Search engines update that wipes out sufficient websites to make people think the algorithms have grown significantly smarter. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION works by optimizing a cyberspace pages, conducting keyword research, plus earning inbound links. The business offers excellent SEO packages that will help rank the clients' site within top three pages associated with search engine pages. That can make SEO an ideal lead era tool, because when searchers adhere to links back to your web site, you have the chance in order to convert them to leads, plus later make sales. Whenever asked to point out principles that are unique towards the particular web, most people will arrive up with two main types: SEO and social media. How many links do a person need for good off-page SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION? If you are carrying out a professional SEO audit to get a actual business, you are going in order to have to think like the Google Search Quality Rater And also a Google search engineer to supply real long-term value to the client. 44. Give your own social media profiles an SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION boost. 10% of our experts believe that will there's likely to be the lot of focus on cellular in 2019, as older SEOs realize optimizing for desktop is usually pointless. White hat SEO is not really just about following guidelines, yet is about ensuring that the particular content the search engines indexes and eventually ranks may be the same content the user will see.

There is usually no magic wand in your own hands to regulate or manage your competitors' strategies or administration, Google analytics update, or client's behavior communicate business but a person can manage your SEO. In this particular new environment, the digital online marketer who views SEO in the broader context will surely come out there ahead of the competition within 2018 and beyond. Good SEO textbooks explain in detail how greatest to use keywords and just how to structure your entire web site to attract the attention associated with search engine spiders and associated with human visitors, and a posting such as this cannot perform the topic justice. While businesses start on an SEO advertising strategy, they should realize that a good entire marketing campaign can drop flat on its face in the event that a business is unable in order to reach the masses, that is definitely, their target audience. If your own pages were designed to obtain the most out of Search engines, with commonly known and today outdated SEO techniques chances are usually Google has identified this plus is throttling your rankings within some way. Numerous business people find keeping upward with the "moving target" associated with SEO distracts them from everyday priorities more than they actually imagined, so it's good in order to appear closely at what can make sense for every business. The program process for the SocialSEO Electronic Marketing and SEO Scholarship is definitely done 100% electronically and demands the next list of materials. Still, even for the particular best websites, maintaining a best organic SEO ranking requires constant keyword monitoring and content re-doing. Writer and consultant Peter Kent provides helped businesses including Amazon plus Zillow with SEO and on-line marketing. Very first, understand that schema markup is definitely one of the most effective, least used parts of SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION today Schema are basically short snippets of data that may give extra information to find customers and search engines. SEO will be a marketing discipline focused upon growing visibility in organic (non-paid) search engine results. Simply no matter how many times Search engines tweaks or evolves The Criteria, from Panda to Penguin in order to Polar Bear, these logical plus intuitive core SEO tips ought to remain timeless. Certainly, all those searching for SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION agencies will have to create their selection by passing SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION companies through careful and careful scrutiny, to ensure that all of them to get the best within search engine optimization for their own business website. The article provides you 12 tricks for E-commerce plus establishing an SEO optimized web site which will help you improve your business exposure and visibility upon search engines. Making use of keywords in your article name, article body and resource is usually a great SEO article composing strategy that may make your own articles more effective in appealing to attention from search engines. Use SEO strategies like as transcripts and tags in order to help your videos appear increased in search results and entice more viewers over time.

If a person's business does not have SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Internet marketing strategies, she or even he will need help through SEO experts. One of the particular most commonly asked questions, White colored hat SEO in layman's vocabulary is applying the right strategies along with a legal strategy to boost your ranking plus increase your popularity. To help our own client's future-proof their businesses plus maximize online Return on Investment decision (ROI), we have individuals our own global partners to develop a good SEO methodology that aligns along with Google's recommended best practices. Off-page SEO will assist make your website most well-known and visible on the internet, so you can get even more traffic and users for your own website and product. You might be the proprietor of a growing and flourishing business, the webmaster of the dozen sites, the SEO professional How SEO 2019 Can Help You Improve Your Health within a Web agency or the DIY SEO ninja passionate regarding the mechanics of Search: this particular guide is meant for a person. On their organization blog, Demand Wave also provides a great article about 2016's tops trends in B2B electronic marketing and SEO. A few explore some roles that cultural media plays in SEO. You will craft your own SEO strategy around the key phrases that will lead customers for you to your most profitable products. Google for example, states that will the no follow link become taken literally as well because the link will not end up being followed at all however within reports done for SEO reasons it shows some conflict in order to this.

You discuss core SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION strategies and tactics used in order to drive more organic search qualified prospects to a specific website or even set of websites, as nicely as tactics to avoid in order to prevent penalization from search motors. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Smart links allows you in order to specify a word, like 'SEO' and then link it in order to a post on your web site. It's great for SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION to feed the search motors a good amount of keyword-rich links. Sites making use of organic SEO in the strict sense is going to end up being much like organisms, meaning they will will grow, expand and adjust over time according to readers' desires. No matter the business, the age of business, or even status of competitors, every company should at least implement fundamental SEO strategies to help their own offerings get found on Yahoo. So your SEO if your own thinking mobile, needs to become either responsive or app-store technique with the right dimensions, style, user-friendly, UX experience. Dark hat SEO methods, such because the use of keyword filling and link farming, can furthermore boost organic SEO. SEO will be important in every area associated with advertising, marketing, design, optimization, movie, content, mobile and e-commerce, intended for without SEO all is untuned in need of synchronization, as an orchestra of musicians without a good experienced conductor. Unfortunately, 95% of links through SEO link building never provide a single new visitor in order to your website. It looks frequently used in SEO as the general definition for the method that the mathematical detection associated with synonyms, and how certain terms are related to others within a piece of text, is used to the indexing of websites by search engines like search engines. So if you would become to write 5% for every keyword then your word SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION and Article will be within the content 75 times every. Like any good SEO company before concentrating on the info will do a proper hyperlink edit and fix all the particular error pages. Taking the energy to comprehend even the essentials of SEO can help your own site gain higher click-through prices, engagement, and of course, ratings. Kent Lewis, President and Founder of the particular Portland based performance firm, Anvil, predicts that both Amazon lookup and voice search will end up being trends in 2019. MarketingVox warns towards getting tied to a "link farm" whose bad SEO behavior could bring you down. Your web web pages must earn that high rank with high-quality content and best-practice SEO. Content is the 2nd major SEO ranking factor, plus is just as important because links. Previously known because WordPress SEO by Yoast, Yoast SEO is one of the particular most quintessential WordPress plugins whenever it comes to search motor optimization. While SEOs need in order to understand it is not just about rankings, UX specialists require to admit that user knowledge kicks in even before making use of the website. You will find on-site and off site SEO techniques that you may use to higher your research engine ranking. SEO specialists started in order to abuse PageRank in order in order to raise the rankings. Now could be a great time to take a nearer take a look at SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION marketing information because search is getting even worse for many types of B2B plus B2C businesses. SEO marketers plus writers typically come up along with different kinds of content in order to place the necessary keywords within. These are some of the particular most used types, and every one helps to give rise to the level of variety in conditions of website content. Certain black hat SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION techniques, such as keyword filling, are believed to be the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION equivalent of spamming, and research engines will penalize them. Internet marketing is exclusively driven by SEO or research Blog9T engine optimization. Others are usually simply traditional PR firms which have learned SEO as properly as the value of hyperlinks. Here's a cliche among electronic marketers: Search engine optimization (SEO) isn't what used to end up being. Google announced that will they released several minor enhancements over the period of the particular time of about a 7 days and after analysis, experts inside the SEO industry concluded that will the updates were the outcome of keyword permutations and web site using doorway pages. SEO, or Search Motor Optimization, means setting up your own website and content to show up through online search results. People who else want to take their company to some new height plus generally and mostly believe within the way of SEO marketing and advertising. UnGagged London, uk is really a 2-day SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING & Digital Marketing conference that will takes place June 11-12th, along with one-day intensive masterclasses on August 13th. These ‘quality updates' are very reminiscent of Search engines Panda updates and often influence many websites at the exact same time - and often these types of concentrate on demoting similar ‘low-quality' SEO techniques we have already been told Panda focuses on. I think savvy SEOs are going to utilize AI content generation (text and pictures especially) in 2019 to produce a whole new kind associated with search algorithm gaming, that might almost be viewed as dark hat. This course covers how in order to build strong links for much better SEO. SEO companies ensure that will your site has all associated with the SEO Internet marketing like as business improvement, localized item sales, high quality online era and the rest. 2018 brought many modifications to the world of SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, including a few new protocol evolutions through Google. An expert Seo agency may help any dimensions of company take full advantage of web marketing and raise the likelihood associated with actual sales while simultaneously enhance brand awareness one of the particular customers segment. Recently we were speaking about the subject with the friendly agency in Valencia plus we directed to this admittance of Search Engine Journal along with the 20 questions that need to be done to any SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION or SEO agency that desires to hire.

Also companies considering about getting Search engine marketing services should go through these types of magazines to familiarize themselves making use of the latest trends within the particular SEO and web-based marketing market to allow them to measure the assistance offered for all of them from the selected SEO companies. Mobile SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION in 2018 will probably be all regarding Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). The term SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION also describes the making internet pages easier for internet lookup engine indexing software, known since "crawlers, " to find, check out, and index your internet site. I feel that technical SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION mistakes that affect crawl spending budget - and also pollute Search engines with non-SEO-friendly content such since social landing pages, WordPress press archives, offer pages and cloned e-commerce product pages - can have a far more detrimental effect upon sites moving forward. Effective SEO lets you enhance your website to demonstrate up within search engines. We all will get into how in order to pick the best keywords intended for your business later in this specific SEO guide, but it perfect you to know how in order to use them, as they are usually referenced throughout this section. Despite the fact that meta descriptions are not a new ranking factor for search search engines, they do hold value intended for your website and are portion of your SEO presence. Let us speak a bit as to exactly what SEO is before we enter the SEO article writing suggestions for people who may become new or do not very understand it. SEO stands regarding Seo. It helps your SEO work to ensure that your keyword phrases are added to the destinazione description and it will supply you a ranking boost in the event that your specific terms are obvious in this area. Moreover, a Google Penguin update drastically changed the part of backlinks on SEO, producing it more difficult to find link juice to a internet site. Gone are the times of traditional SEO techniques, on the web content is changing. The cognitiveSEO Rank System offers accurate country, language plus city precision for all your own tracked keywords. Even if your URLs normally are not pretty, ” if you no longer feel as though they're adversely impacting users and your company in general, don't change all of them to be more keyword concentrated for better SEO. ” In case you do need to modify your URL structure, make certain to make use of the proper (301 permanent) type of redirect. In this particular post, we've broken down the particular very best SEO techniques to assist you skyrocket your rankings plus boost your number of regular visitors. An accessible URL will be an important SEO ranking element. Heidi Cohen: To increase 2018 SEO results, marketers will carry on moving away from disposable, after and done content. They concentrate on SEO Internet marketing targets and provide top search motor rank like Google and Askjeeve. Collectively, these developments are plus can continue to have the dramatic impact on the method in which we search optimize our websites in 2019 plus form the core of the newest SEO 2019 update briefing. This guide is definitely made to describe all locations of SEO—from locating the terms plus phrases (keywords) that generate visitors to your website, to producing your blog friendly to search motors, to building links and marketing and advertising the unique associated with your own site. With out SEO, a website can become invisible to search engines. On-page SEO refers for you to every strategy, technique, and device you utilize within your internet site to optimize your web web pages and content for search machines like google. Today, the quality of arriving links is evaluated higher as compared to their quantity and may lead your SEO efforts. Lookup engine optimization (SEO) tools assist companies position themselves to obtain a favorable ranking in internet search engine results. The particular second biggest SEO trend within 2019 will be voice research. Wish long past mobile search plus voice-search being a ‘trend' : they are the full upon normal now, outdoing desktop research in both volume and SEO-favorability. Rather compared to marketing at people, you require to make it possible intended for them to find you whenever they want you, and which where SEO is available within. Prior To going BlowFish SEO full Time, Robert Headed very successful internet incoming marketing campaigns for Bella Sante Day Spa's of Boston plus Red Door Spas increasing their own yearly Gift Card Sales simply by over 400% and increasing consumer appointments over 300%. In 2019 and past, the majority of the on-line searches will be in the particular form of conversation, and because a result, the online entrepreneurs will give more importance in order to artificial intelligence keywords for optimisation of the web content. Dave Gregory, Content Marketing Supervisor from the UK based overall performance marketing agency, SiteVisibility, predicts that will 2019, and not 2018, is usually going to be the actual year of voice. If we consider Google's Guide then there are almost 200+ factors that lead a internet site in ranking, which we possess researched and clustered in twenty one On Page SEO Factors, that will needs your attention in 2019. SEO Wise Links can automatically link crucial terms in your posts plus comments with corresponding posts, webpages, categories and tags on your own blog. 41. An effective sociable media strategy needs a strong SEO plan. Google does make a few of this data obtainable in their particular free Webmaster Tools interface (if you haven't set up a free account, this is a very important SEO tool both for unearthing search query data and intended for diagnosing various technical SEO issues). AI and Tone of voice Search Impact SEO, Lets observe how voice search analytics Impact's SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION and can impact in the particular coming time. A great many businesses determine to hire external help in order to get the full benefits regarding SEO, so a large component of our audience is studying how to convince their consumers that search is a superb investment (and then prove it! ). Nevertheless, SEOs tend in order to prefer links higher on the page. Because your site, because of to the nature of the business is going to end up being more image orientated than textual content heavy, you may be at a moderate disadvantage when it comes to be able to employing SEO techniques such while keywords, backlinking and so on. Here's the truly great news: You don't have in order to have to be a SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION wizard to make sure your own website is well positioned with regard to organic search engine traffic. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is the acronym for lookup engine optimisation. The particular search engines have refined their own algorithms along with this advancement, numerous tactics that worked within 2004 can hurt your SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION today. Therefore, we also produce content on conducting keyword analysis, optimizing images for search motors, creating an SEO strategy (which you're reading right now), plus other subtopics within SEO. In 2018 there will be an also bigger focus on machine studying and SEO from data. ” Of course, the amplification part of things will continue in order to incorporate increasingly with genuine public relationships exercises rather than shallow-relationship hyperlink building, which will become significantly easy to detect by lookup engines like google. Seo (SEO) is often regarding making small modifications to components of your website. In my SEO content writing guidelines I suggest a person take your main keyword plus 3 or 4 other associated keywords and write at 3-4%. Some SEO specialists claim that will building links for SEO reasons is pointless; others believe the particular role of backlinks for any internet site has continually risen through the particular years. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a huge part associated with any marketing strategy. This fresh paradigm of users relying upon voice search for many associated with their search needs will become a game changer for SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. Deciding on the best key phrases is critical for successful SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION and it is easy in order to choose the wrong ones through falling into the trap associated with optimization. Research engine search engine optimization, or SEO, is the procedure of enhancing your site's rating in search results. Web Marketing SEO, and in specific, Google SEO is the essential. Get into your competitor's URL into the particular SEMRush search bar and you will become provided with a list associated with SEO keywords, with their ratings and traffic. About: Brighton SEO is made up of courses and a one-day search marketing conference. Before this change, the greatest practice was to avoid concealed content at any cost since it wasn't as effective intended for SEO (it was either as well much to crawl for the particular bot in some instances or even given less important by Search engines in others). This is due to the particular fact that you will require contents to be submitted in order to the websites for whom a person are working as an SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, when you build the hyperlinks, you will need to supply the profile information, and a person will also have to supply articles for submissions as properly as numerous other types associated with written work. If you've actually searched for something online (and most of us have), a person already know read more regarding SEO than you think a person do. We all already see this trend within several places, like extremely accurate targeting of social ads -- some brands still approach SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION and content creation with the one-size-fits all attitude.

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foursprout-blog · 6 years

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20 Things 20-Somethings Should Do Right Now To Build A Life That Feels Good

New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/happiness/20-things-20-somethings-should-do-right-now-to-build-a-life-that-feels-good/

20 Things 20-Somethings Should Do Right Now To Build A Life That Feels Good

Twenty20/ @meganmeza

1. Make a budget. Calculate all your expenses. Subtract the total from your net income. Use the remainder to cushion your emergency fund, retirement savings, and your short-term goals (vacation, new car, wedding, etc.).

2. Pay down your debt. I don’t care how low the interest rate is or what kind of debt it is — debt is debt. Stop justifying why you’re only putting down the minimum payment. This is stopping you from taking risks in your career, exploring your interests/hobbies, and essentially everything else that you want to do with your life. Your future self deserves a life free of financial anxiety. Please, for the love of god, create a swift debt-repayment plan and implement it now.

3. Unplug. The Internet is a wonderful place (you’re reading this right now!), but it’s important to know its role in your life. Establish boundaries. Read a physical book. Take a walk in nature. Host a night of board games with your friends. Write in a physical journal. Set aside some time every day to shut down the laptop, put away your phone and tuck away your tablet.

4. Slow down. A consequence of being part of a digital era, we feel the pressure to do something all the time. We have to be the all-star at work. We have to update our social media. We have to have an immaculate home. We have to look our best 24/7. Just say no. Sooner rather than later you’ll burn out and crash. Let some things fall to the wayside — intentionally.

5. Develop habits, not goals. Happiness is a byproduct of progress, not achievement. The problem with goals is that it’s a constant treadmill — you accomplish one, you set your sights on another. It’s much more fulfilling to concentrate on developing daily habits & routines. For example, waking up early, exercising each day, or bringing your lunch to work 4 out of the 5 days of the week. Sooner than later, these habits will become ingrained and you’ll be living a happier and healthier lifestyle.

6. Learn to live with people you dislike. I don’t mean live in a literal sense — I mean not losing your shit when you encounter sexist, racist, homophobic or just, in general, rude, ungrateful or ignorant people. This has been the most difficult things that I have had to work on. I’m a minority at about three intersections (a woman of colour who is queer), so quite understandably I get a little sensitive when someone says something ignorant about one of the communities of which I, in some part, belong to. But… these people will populate society until I die. I learned that it’s okay to not get along with everyone. I don’t need to waste my time trying to change their mind.

7. Experiment, take risks, and make plenty of mistakes. Now, more than ever, is the perfect time to experiment. We are the sum of our experiences — so experience as much as possible. Make mistakes, learn from them, and then go on and make different ones. I don’t mean this to insinuate that you should get all the mistakes out of your system while you’re young, because you’ll certainly make mistakes when you’re older. I mean take bold actions now so you can learn more about yourself in the process.

8. Pursue your hobbies. How many times have you told someone, “I would love to take a class on [x],” or, “This sports league looks great,” but never actually followed-through on signing up? Or decided that it’s not worth your money? Or even worse, determine that you have no one to go with and don’t want to do it alone? We don’t take our interests seriously — to our detriment. It’s as if we would rather sit at home instead mind-numbingly scrolling through social media or going out drinking with our friends, as if we don’t do that enough. Don’t get bogged down by the details of the thing. Just explore what you like, make new friends, and see where it leads. You’ll be a happier and more fulfilled person because of it.

9. Read books, not just blogs and articles. I’ve mentioned before that I consider reading a duty. No, it’s not because it’ll help you succeed in school or in your career, although it greatly increases your odds, but because you’ll be a better person for it. There is a literally a book out there to help you understand and process every single emotion you have ever felt and will ever feel in your life. Books help you become a more nuanced and thoughtful person. Books humble you. Books validate you. Books challenge you. Books grow you. Books save you from making perilous mistakes. Books accompany you when you’re feeling alienated and misunderstood.

10. Accept that progress is not linear, especially in your career. We have this unhealthy misconception that our career trajectory goes something like this: attend school → secure entry-level job → put in work for 1 – 3 years → receive steady promotions → end up in upper management. In reality, it looks more like this: school → take a break → work a low-wage job → return to school → work another low-wage job → quit to work at another low-wage job → question all your life choices → pick up a few side-hustles → get promoted at work → catch a lucky break → start earning a decent income doing what you love.

11. Learn how to be present. Seriously. In the words of Brianna Wiest, “The past is obsolete and the future is pending. You may attach yourself to these concepts, they are just figments of your imagination. It is a false comfort you get from them. Learn to be comforted and even astounded at what you have right now, and how beautiful it is.” Appreciate what it means to be alive now, not what it will mean to be alive in five years from now. Social media throws out all these qualifiers for happiness: You just need to be debt free and then you will be happy. You just have to buy this shirt and you will effortlessly cool and then you will be happy. You just need to wake up at 5:00 a.m. every morning and be productive as f*ck and you will be happy. You don’t need to do any of these things in order to appreciate all the wonderful things in your life that you have already. That’s not being unambitious. That’s pragmatic gratitude.

12. Take things slow. Life is (usually) much longer than you think. Not everything requires your immediate attention. You don’t need to cross things off your To Do List as fast as possible. You don’t need to overwork yourself to chase a promotion that you want to receive by some arbitrary deadline you set for yourself. Relax. Take a deep breath. Take time to meander, laze around, and, most importantly, think! Decide to take the long way home. Explore a new neighbourhood in your city. Spend an entire evening watching terrible reality tv (yes, you can watch tv). Enjoy yourself. Enjoy the journey of your becoming. As Seneca famously said, “Life, if well lived, is long enough.”

13. Stop talking about what you’re going to do and just do it. With the rise of social media, we run into the problem of putting the cart before the horse; talking the talk before walking the walk. We need to stop doing that. As I start new projects, whether it’s practicing law or pursuing my writing, I have to constantly remind myself that it’s much better to just work on things privately and release it when it’s done. Have the results speak for itself.

14. Evaluate where your sources of information comes from. We think we understand a particular issue or topic because we read a few articles about it from a newspaper, online publication or, perhaps more accurately, a blogger or writer we enjoy. But instead of just taking their word for it, we need to take a step back and see what biases, perspectives or political leanings that the source has. I’m not saying that it’s terrible to receive information from sources that align with your opinions or perspectives, I’m simply stating that we need to recognize that.

15. Construct the environment you need in order to facilitate “deep work.” Do you work best at home? Or do you enjoy working alongside other creatives in a co-working space? Do you listen to music while you work? Or can you only think when it’s absolutely silent? Determine what’s the most optimal setting for you to do your best work.

16. Don’t live for today. Live for tomorrow. And the week after that. And the month after that. For some reason, we experience dissonance from our future selves; we can’t connect with who we will be in 10 years. That’s why we have no problem eating tons of junk food, going for long periods of time without exercising, and impulsively buying ephemeral pleasures instead of contributing to our retirement savings. If we stay on this path, our future self is going to hate us. Start creating habits that will help ourselves out in a year, 5 years, 10 years from now. It’s not self-restraint. It’s self-discipline.

17. Ensure your actions sync up with your words. The people whose opinions you value don’t care about how much you make, what you wear, or what car is parked in your garage. People care about your character, the respect you give to others, and the commitments you make and keep. Build a reputation on being someone of integrity and principles.

18. Stop saying what people want to hear. If you’re honest, and you have some evidence to back up your position, people will respect you much more than simply being a mouthpiece for their pre-existing beliefs. Sucking up to people, whether it’s a boss or an influencer, does no one a favour. Be willing to be critical, when the situation calls for it, and hold firm on your beliefs. Good decisions, or the journey towards making decisions, are never based on “yes men (or women).” Have the courage to stand out, if you really do have a valid and unique contribution to make. People might disagree on the merits of the opinion, but they will respect you.

19. Be unabashedly ambitious about the real things. If your definition of a good life is to live out of a camper and drive across the country for the rest of your life, then be stubbornly unwavering about it. Do what it takes to get there. Hey, it may not be my idea of a good time, but at least it’s a more purposeful goal than just earning a certain level of income to buy status symbols.

20. Ask yourself the hard questions. Underneath the expensive clothes, accessories, and home — who are you really? What do you stand for? What will you defend? What matters to you? What makes up your ideal day? Who do you want to surround yourself with? What do you want to achieve? What gifts can you contribute to the world? Answer the tough questions, before someone else answers them for you.

#Happiness

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foursprouthappiness-blog · 6 years

Text

20 Things 20-Somethings Should Do Right Now To Build A Life That Feels Good

New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/happiness/20-things-20-somethings-should-do-right-now-to-build-a-life-that-feels-good-2/

20 Things 20-Somethings Should Do Right Now To Build A Life That Feels Good

Twenty20/ @meganmeza

#Happiness

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steelmistsrp · 7 years

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Congratulations && welcome, Coco !! You have been accepted for the role of The Weapon: Claude Aime. Please be sure to make a separate blog for your character&& send it into the main within 48 hours !! Once that is submitted we will invite you to join the OOC blog && an option to join our skype chat if you should so choose !! Any triggers you (and other applicants) have submitted have been added to our trigger list. Please be sure to read our Welcome Checklist as you begin to get started. The Follow List && OOC page will also be updated for you once your blog has been submitted. Thanks again for you application && we look forward to writing with you !!

Coco, the journey you’ve laid out for Claude is precisely what we hoped for when building the skeleton. You really grasped the core struggle && ultimate resolution that The Weapons was designed to endure-- and I’m so very excited to see where she progresses. I have every faith that she will be the best muscle a gang could hope for !! Thanks && Welcome !!

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

Name: Coco Age: An age (21+) Pronouns: He/him Timezone: EST Activity Level: I’m not good with number rankings, but I tend to be on most evenings, bar Wednesdays. Keep in mind, I’m also a full-time student and have two part-time jobs, so my schedule fluctuates.

IN CHARACTER INFORMATION

Skeleton Name: The Weapon Character’s Full Name: Claude Louison Aime Faceclaim: Robyn Rihanna Fenty Gender and Pronouns: Agender; she/her Sexuality: ??? Age and DOB: 28; 17 Spokial, 524 Education Level: Officially, she finished secondary; however, she did pass her training to be an assassin with flying colours

Biography (Trigger warning for child abuse, child negligence, abandonment, and murder):

To start with her biography, it should be said that Claude inherits most of her outlook on life—that is to say, her personality—on her parents, Jack and Vinnie Aime. While the Aime family name had been built on the corpses of others, Jack was known to have the family under draconian rules, with traditional values. Cruel, acerbic, and ruthless, Jack was a man who most of the underworld would see as inhumane, and he molded his family values around his beliefs. Her mother, Vincentia (though she preferred Vinnie), was a distant woman, albeit strong. She was rather cold to her children, and Claude bore the brunt of her neglect as the youngest child. While both Jack and Vinnie were infamous within the underground (and the tabloids, but never by name) for their careers, once the two had children, they made sure to groom each child to become the perfect killer to keep the family business alive, as well as the quality of their services high.

From the get-go, both Jack and Vinnie knew that their children were undoubtedly allomantics. They never bothered with genetic blood tests, seeing as they were a waste of not only time, but money; instead, they opted to trigger their children’s powers the way of the World of Ash, putting their children thorough traumatic, stressful events, not only on their emotional capabilities, but their physical as well, as they believed that it was the best way to induce a snap in the children—not to mention force the children to adapt to any situation). Claude was no stranger to the depravities that children had to go to during the World of Ash, as she has gone through the procedures herself. She’s always taken it as being the norm, as even after snapping, her father had no qualms when it came to disciplining his children physically. In his mind, if his children can withstand a snapping, then disciplining them in such a manner would build character, as well as preparing them for the worst.

After snapping, when her parents learned that she was a Pewterarm, the amount of time that she was given to focus on mandatory education lessened greatly, while the her allotted training increased. She barely managed to scrape by in school, only attending classes before coming home to train under her mother’s wing. Apart from training to master her powers, Claude was also instructed on how to act when on the job; how to get close to a target, but never attached; how to float between clients, never settling down and working steadily for any one person, or organisation. She had to constantly keep moving, lest she be detected and exposed. The jobs they took—the jobs she took—needed to be kept underground, after all.

Her parents took every precaution to keep their jobs hidden, and if there was one lesson that Claude learned from them, it was the fact that hiding in plain sight was the best way to evade persecution. It was perhaps s why the Aime family resides in Octant Six, overridden with fresh-faced, excitable officers constantly on patrol. It could also be why Claude was never afraid of law enforcement, nor the officers who were part of the force; she had been surrounded by them since her childhood that she knew her capabilities, and how to evade them when necessary—and she had to evade them more often than she’d like to admit.

Everything her parents did, everything her parents taught her, she revered. Claude took their word as law, and she never questioned them about anything—whether it was out of fear, or if she truly believed that their word was unquestionable law remains a mystery.

Claude had a good career going for her when she finished secondary school, going forth and taking jobs full time. She was the best assassin out of the trio of kids that Jack and Vinnie had, always making clean kills, not alerting anyone that the murders she committed were assassinations. She always made sure to keep her tracks clean, after all, as she didn’t want to deal with the notoriety that her parents had. When she completed a job, all she left was a natural signature—one where law enforcement could never detect, but those in the underground knew that the mark belonged to her.

She’s always tried to keep away from partaking in jobs that involved religious organisations, as she never felt right in such places—until she was contacted repeatedly by The Burning Word. Persistence was one thing that wore her down, and they were persistent in contracting her. She never paid too much attention to the teachings of the church, until she spoke to one of its members. The more she spoke to the member, the more Claude strayed from her parents’ teachings of never committing to one client. The more she started to believe in the church’s ideologies, the less she started to charge them, until eventually, the contracts that she took on for the church were free of charge. She found a new gospel to put her faith in, and her parents weren’t too pleased with that.

They gave her a choice: to severe all contacts with The Burning Word, or severe her contact with them—she chose the latter. There was something about the church that appealed to her, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was. She’s been working with the church since she had been cast out by her family, being committed to their cause. She still works free of charge for them, using the skills she learned from her parents to her advantage. All she asks in return is for a place to stay, otherwise, Claude knows that she could easily find her own way.

There are some nights where Claude wonders if being part of The Burning Word is worth throwing her potential away, as well as losing the people he had been closest to; but she tells herself not to dwell on the past. It was best to look onward to the future as it burns bright—brighter than her past had ever been.

Personality:

Claude had always been a product of her environment. While her brothers came out to be hostile and aggressive due to the treatment their parents gave them, Claude grew to be quiet and docile, learning to blend in with her surroundings and make herself appear almost invisible. It was a trait that she learned when she was young to go unnoticed by Jack and Vinnie, so she could escape their constant berating and abuse—not that it helped her much, as she felt the brunt of their lessons. Still, she has to admit that learning to be dead silent has helped her on more jobs than she can count, and she can’t completely blame her parents for helping her polish such a skill.

Labelled as the perfect killer, there are many aspects to Claude where she can be seen as being emotionally stunted. She cannot deal with her feelings too well, being often overwhelmed when she is in a situation that she feels cornered. Even with a decade away from her parents and surrounding herself in a (supposedly) more opening environment, Claude still has trouble accepting her emotions can be valid. She doesn’t dwell on it too much when she’s not overwhelmed, however, since she knows that if she isn’t as in tune with her emotions as most, then she can do her job more efficiently. Despite what she tells herself, she often uses those she believe are her friends at The Burning Word as an emotional crutch, depending on their opinions more often than she’d like to admit. Perhaps it was the remnants of her dependency on her parents’ approval all those years ago still clinging on, constantly seeking validation wherever she goes. Claude doesn’t know, and she doesn’t want to find out. She’s found a place that accepted her for her—or at least that’s what she believes.

#steelaccept

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