In The Hotseat – With MadelinAdenaSmith

‘My fellow bloggers, meet Adrian Charles Horan, the cool and utterly talented prodigy who’s taking England, and not to mention, the blogosphere, by storm. He’s Fred Weasley (or is it George?) come to life— with the twin brother, wit, and humor to match. I’ve been following him for quite a while now and decided it was high time to reach out and see just who Adrian is and what he’s all about. I hope you enjoy it. I surely did!

Madelin: Hey Adrian! I’m freaking STOKED about this interview. Thanks for agreeing to it!

Adrian: It’s my pleasure, Madelin. Usually, I begin to stutter and panic in a Professor Quirrell-like manner at the thought of an interview; but this is a blogging interview – and anything with the word ‘blogging’ in front of it gets me pretty stoked, too!

Madelin: I’m such a fan of your work! Your words are brimming with life, charm, and some serious style, my friend, and I always feel uplifted when I read your writing. How did you come to be a writer?

Adrian: I’d love to be in the position to tell you that it’s always been my life-long dream? However, that would be a cheeky lie, as I either wanted to grow up to be Doctor Who or the owner of my own, miniature-scale ‘JurassicPark’! Cool, huh? Well, the academic reason is to strengthen my portfolio as a wanna-be Journalist; yet, I guess it was to combine my three passions – humour, philosophy and waffle. I’m still young, so as I begin to grow, so too does the world. I felt blogging was the best way was to help me capture it and expand my own imagination, as well as that of others. Oh, and for the ‘lol’s. Always for the ‘lol’s.

Madelin: Between you wanting to own your own miniature-scale Jurassic Park and I wanting to be Peter Pan, I’d say we’re pretty practical thinkers, wouldn’t you?! So tell me a little bit about yourself: Where you’re from, what’s important to you, what you’re doing in life, how you define yourself.

Adrian: *Sigh*, Doncaster, England. I know you’re supposed to be proud about the place where you come from? Yet, as a city, we boast the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Yorkshire and… Jeremy Clarkson. We receive a lot of stigma! I don’t think that all matters, I’m just being silly. To me, it’s not about where you come from or how much you dislike Jeremy Clarkson; it’s about recognizing what makes you unique, what you enjoy and just making the most of that combination. Although, I wouldn’t recommend doing so if your talent and hobby is to lick your elbow. That may not get you many places apart from a circus show!

Madelin: Truth. Although the circus has admittedly always fascinated me…Now tell me your wildest professional dream for the future. GO!

Adrian: To have my name printed on at least some kind of produce. I can see it now, ‘And Always – It Has To Be Horan’s’… does that have a ring to it?

Madelin: Ah yes… to have a head of lettuce named after me, that really would just be the end-all for me. I could die happy. Now, I can tell from your writing that you read a lot. What’s on your bookshelf?

Adrian: Oh boy, do I! I’ll admit, it strikes the perfect balance between childhood nostalgia and boring books that are ‘good for the mind and my education’ *tsk*. Just for a tease, I will share five selections with you: J. R. R. Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’, Plato’s ‘The Republic’ (Madelin, I told you I’d get it for Christmas!), Khaled Hosseini’s ‘The Kite Runner’, the majority of the ‘Horrible Histories’ collection and finally, all of the ‘Harry Potter’ books – because that wasn’t going to pop up!

Madelin: Glad to hear you got The Republic. It really is one of my favorites in terms of more academic literature. And who could live without HP? I read them in three languages. I think I win the dork award here. Just call me Luna Lovegood…though if I were actually a character in Harry Potter I would probably be Professor Trelawney reading tea leaves and coffee grinds in a dimly-lit room smelling of frankincense. What do you think about those bug-eye glasses? Do you think I could rock them?

Joking. Let’s pretend for a moment that you’re the spokesman for your generation. What message comes to mind?

Adrian: I’m tempted to throw in One Direction’s ‘Live While We’re Young’ as, let’s face it, that’s what will inspire a large majority of my generation. Instead, I’ll go all patriotic and just provide you with the quote on my blog – “An idea is never given to you without you being given the power to make it.”.

Madelin: You know full well that I support that concept 5000%. What about your personal message for the world? What’s your philosophy?

Adrian: Don’t stop believing – and hold on to that feeling! Please don’t sue me for copyright?

Madelin: I won’t tell a soul.

So without stating the blatantly obvious, I’m American. You’re British. What’s your take on diversity, and, by extension, international affairs?

Adrian: Well I think us just having this interview is a brilliant example of how diversity, in a way, brings people together. Naww, I just read how soppy that sounds *wipes tear*. Personally, I think diversity is the reason we have the world in which we live in today. Different cultures, different tastes, different perspectives on what is essentially an identical planet to us all. International affairs in particular are essential for bringing this diversity to the span of the globe – Nick Griffin, I hope you’re reading this!

Madelin: OK. Last question, I promise. I’m making your mind work over here! Who or what inspires you?

Adrian: You, Madelin, of course! Aww shucks, I’ve gone red I tells ya. What I meant to say was the likes of bloggers such as yourself, Chris Martin and my Mum and Dad – never failing to plant wise words into my little noggin’.

Madelin: I just got ranked next to Chris Martin? Don’t make me blush over here! Any last words? (without sounding morbid…)

Adrian: Th-th-th- that’s all, folks!

Madelin: You would say that. Well it’s been such a pleasure. Thank you again! Mille fois merci, as they say en francais.

Adrian: *Giggles*, I actually understood what you said – it seems my GCSE French came in handy! A thousand times thank you also, I’ve really enjoyed having an interview that doesn’t have a job post at the end… unless there’s one going? Am I coming across as desperate?

Madelin: Hahaha, not in the least. You always manage to make me laugh (out loud). Thanks for chatting with me. I know my readers are going to fall in love with you! Perhaps you should send me your address so everyone knows where to send the chocolates, roses, and love ballads.’

Make sure you check out more dysfunctional brilliance like this at Madelin’s website, right here.

5 Things "Loving Yourself" Actually Means

Reblogged from Thought Catalog:

It’s the age-old supposed cure-all for all of life’s woes (especially involving matters of the heart): “loving yourself first.” I don’t know how many times I’ve had to hear this, but I imagine the number is up there because what I do know is how many times I’ve thought to myself: what does that even mean. Because it used to sound to me like some weird form of narcissism or delusional way of not acknowledging anything wrong you’ve done.

Read more… 479 more words

Prepare to be inspired:

Dear Diary/Nostaliga

At the wonderfully creative world that is my school’s ‘English Club’, I was given a writing assignment by my teacher. which consisted of the writing instructions ‘ Right guys, I’m tired, write what you want!’. The enormous freedom I felt encouraged me to fill the diary-shaped void in my life with a little something like this:

Dear Diary,

I’m hit with a fresh burst of nostalgia as I place pen to paper (fingers to keyboard?) on what has to be the beginning of the first extract in a diary since I was 6. Has… has it really been that long? I recall writing within your ’SpiderMan’-themed covers (identical to that of my twin brother’s of course) questioning what the purpose of this mundane, aimless task was. After a few weeks, my determination to acquire a new, creative hobby dwindled. Your fate? The dusty enclave which lay beneath my bed. I lacked creativity, as well as patience.

Yet, as time passed and my perspectives on life changed, I find that I have been the subject of a ‘role reversal’. Now? I sometimes feel as if I’m too creative for my own good! Creativity can often be a double-sided coin; it can be the start of something incredible, or it can be the end of a life which was once comfortable. Although I wouldn’t change this character trait for *insert cliché here* anything in the world. A lack of creativity provides such a narrow outlook on life. I wouldn’t say creativity was absent in my life as a child – after all, pretending to be a kung-fu master with my best friend in my back garden couldn’t have been achieved without a broad, open mind (and sugar. Lots and lots of sugar). More so, I think I’ve managed to fine-tune this creativity into something I’m proud to show the world – a talent.

Diary, I know that I neglected you across the many years of my life; just remember that it was nothing personal. As much as I wanted to write my passions and aspirations onto the pages of your matter, there was nothing to write. However, as I began to expand upon the limits of my own mind, I’ve found that I want to write, pen to paper, for the rest of my dwindling days as a Journalist. I hope that you can be proud of me – the child I once was may not have had any stories to tell you, or the regrets that I’ve had; but you’ve always been at the forefront of my mind. To inspire me in sharing my thoughts, my feelings and my outlook on life with not just you, but with the rest of the world.

For that, I will always remain grateful

Here Comes The Sun (Shine Award)

Pint of Guinness? Check. Attempting to blot out Dad’s ‘classic’ St. Paddy jokes whilst watching ‘Waking Ned Devine’? Check. ’FECK’ reg-plate placed conveniently above the kitchen door? Checkiddy check-check. May the most joyful day in the son-of-an-Irish-man’s calendar commence! Sadly, being underage, I can’t celebrate in the same way that a stereotypical Irishman might do; but I’ll happily swing along with the festivities. In fact, St. Paddy’s Day rubs off on just about everyone – a time of celebration and an appreciation of why the Irish are, well, the best people on the planet. Yet, not everyone turns up to celebrate. I’ll give you a clue – the culprit is round, orange and wears shades. Well… it was actually ‘The Sun’; but yes, I’ll accept ‘Kerry Katona Abroad’ as a suitable answer!

Unfortunately, St Paddy’s Day takes place towards the end of winter but near the beginning of spring. That means, to quote ‘Father Ted’, the weather is always feckin. shite. Today has mustered just about every kind of weather. Wild winds, persistent rain and a period of snow… but where’s that lovely sunshine? Sun - you’ve let Earth down; you’ve let the Irish down; but most importantly? You’ve let yourself down. Whilst I may not be able to drag the son from behind the clouds in a Bruce Almighty-like fashion, I can certainly use the power of my blogging enthusiasm and the likes of chalkdustfairy to bring a bit of sunshine into the world!

*Plays Harmonica* – My musical ear is still slightly deaf from my Grade 8 violin exam last week, so I won’t sing this for you. However, I’ll leave that to you to hum the following to the tune of The Beatles’ ‘Here Comes The Sun’:

Here Comes The Sun (Shine Award), Here Comes The Sun (Shine Award), It’s Brilliant (Do do do do do do do do dodododo)

Thanks to chalkdustfairy (if you haven’t read her blog yet, I recommend you do so before, you know, my respect is lost for you), I’m ‘bringing out the sunshine’ through the form of a new blogging award, ‘The Sunshine Award’. *Pfft*, who needs the real Sun anyway? After all, I don’t need sun-cream to embrace this form of sunshine, nor sunglasses at risk of blinding myself from staring at it! If this award is new to you, here’s a little description:

“The Sunshine Award is an award given by bloggers to other bloggers. The recipients of the Sunshine Award are: “Bloggers who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogsphere”. The way the award works is this: Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them. Answer questions about yourself. Select 10 of your favourite bloggers, link their blogs to your post and let them know they have been awarded the Sunshine Award!”

Just to throw this out there… I’m one of the few people in existence who has never played a 20q ball. However, I will compensate that disgrace of a claim by answering these 10 intriguing questions:

1. What inspired you to start blogging?

I’m not going to hide the fact that the real reason was the look of shame I received from a Leeds Trinity lecturer who visited our school, when I informed her that I wanted to be a journalist and had no experience to my name! However, the ‘ignorance is bliss’ reason has to be that it’s the way I tame both my philosophical mind and my eager sense of humour. As a growing kid in a growing world, I want to capture every bit of it; whilst making people laugh and smile along the way, of course!

2. How did you come up with the name for your blog?

My lacking sense of ‘titular imagination’! I guess I like the simplicity of AdrianCharlieHoran – it has a ring to it, it’s easy to remember and hey, what better way to get myself noticed than to stick my name in the title of it? Oh… , my middle name’s actually ‘Charles’ – that doesn’t count as treason that I dislike that as a name, does it?

3. What is your favourite blog that you like to read?

Just to avoid scenario where angry bloggers march to my house in the form of a ‘angry mob’ as I haven’t chosen them as my favourite, I’m just going to provide a generic answer – All of them.

4. Tell about your dream job.

I admit, I used to have two dream jobs – to be the next ‘Doctor’ or be the manager of my own ‘Jurassic Park’ (what can I say? I love dinosaurs!). However, thanks to mainstream education and a few ‘life lessons’, I settled for Journalism. Though I don’t regret it – someday I hope to write for a large publication, possibly a satirical magazine. If I end up writing ‘The Big Issue’? Well, it’d not quite be ’living the dream’, but at… at least my words are being published?

5. Is your glass half-full or half-empty?

*Geeky squeal*, after writing a full-blown post on the matter, I can safely confirm my glass is half-full. No wait, three quarters full. I’d have to say it’s full. Could somebody get more a larger, optimistic glass here?! QUICK!

6. If you could go anywhere for a week’s vacation, where would you go?

Hmm… I think I’ll go with ‘Narnia’ on this one. After a week of talking lions, fighting ice queens and hospitable fauns, I’d come back out of that wardrobe and a week wouldn’t have even gone by in real-world time! Plus, I could maybe learn ‘cat’ language whilst I was there and finally translate what my cat is saying… Muahahah, it’ll no longer be a mystery!

7. What food can you absolutely not eat?

Plain. Yoghurt. Even saying its name is just so boring and tasteless! I like the idea of picking a yoghurt out of the fridge, not looking at the label, tasting it and guessing what sumptuous flavour my taste buds are currently being subject to. Yet plain yoghurt fails that test as it’s just the same every time. Plus, it just tastes like thick milk, which is a no-no.

8. Dark chocolate or White Chocolate?

White chocolate, for one reason and one reason only – Milky Bars. They’re strong, they’re tough and let’s face it – this song is enough to persuade you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGcIUitNlGQ

9. How much time do you spend blogging?

At first, I thought I’d tackle the ‘Blogosphere’ head on and post two times a week, which is about four hours of blogging. Yet, as much as I thought I was Clark Kent, I had to reduce the time to one post a week, if that, thanks to the demands of the big wide world! Time management, not Kryptonite, being my greatest weakness :/

10. Do you watch a lot of T.V.? If so, what are your favourite shows?

I don’t get to watch the tele-box that often; but when I do, I’d have to say ‘Waterloo Road’, ‘Simpsons’, ‘Arrow’, ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Miranda’, ‘Mrs Brown’s Boys’, ‘Friends’, ‘Sherlock’ and ‘You’ve Been Framed’. If that isn’t a mixed bag? Well – I don’t know what is!

And just to spread the sunshine just a lil’ bit more, here are my ten nominees:

Fog’s Movie Reviews , The Return of the Modern Philosopher , Lorna’s Voice , Dear Kitty. Some blog , Bella Grove Plantation Bed And Breakfast , Broken Light: A Photography Collective , The Hand-Written Life , Essa On Everything and Stuphblog

*Cue cringey compliment* – you make this world a brighter place, pun intended!

Got Any (Room For) Spare Change?

Pre-warning – ‘change’, to make something different, not to be mixed up with the thing we throw in fountains and find down the backs of our sofas.

‘Keane’ – pardon this inexcusable pun, but I’m pretty *ahem*, ‘keen’ on them. Just like any sentimental teenager my age, I’m just a sucker for a thought-provoking set of lyrics (unlike Madonna, whose lyrics are about as useful to me as the free gift in a Christmas cracker). With nothing meaningful to watch on the t.v., I plug-in my headphones and let the tunes/inspiration flood into my head. Today, that came to me in the form of Keane’s ‘Everybody’s Changing’. Not because it inspired me to sing it out loud and look like an idiot in front of my Mum; nor to inspire me to tap my foot rapidly on the ground to the rhythm of the beat; but instead to think about my life and how, well, everybody’s changing and I don’t know why.

For anyone my age, I”m sure you can relate when I say that I’m stuck between *insert cliche here*, a rock and a hard place. That rock being my A-Levels, being able to not panic, pass them well and, if necessary, hyperventilate into a brown paper bag; and university, where I’m expected to become a young adult and have a bitter taste of the wide, open world (sadly, I still have no clue how to cook, I suck my thumb from time to time and I love Spongebob Squarepants. What can I say?). No matter what I do, I have to begin to accept that everything’s change, as well as everybody I knew. ‘Everybody’s changing and I don’t know whyyyy’, I’d sing to myself – but some changes you just can’t change!

Yet, there are changes that have happened in our lives, because we’ve gone with the flow and not noticed they’ve gone (I blame YOLO. Always blame YOLO). Half term was a good kick of nostalgia up the backside to remember what I once had. With a week on our hands and nadda to do but watch replays of ‘Friends’, me and my brother decided to rack out the board games from the cupboard, blow off the mounds of dust and have a friendly game/highly competetive battle of death of Simpson’s Chess! After about an hour of determination, perspiration, more determination, aggrivation and a bit more perspiration, we brought back something that had long become a distant memory. I’d forgot how good the simple times were. Change has made being a pro at ‘Guess Who’ and winning ‘Operation’ without a single buzz suckish, but instead getting a 25 Kill Streak on COD and 2 million points on Temple Run impressive! Seriously, if you escape from the changing, modern world for just a little while? It does a hell of a lot of good… mainly because I remembered how much better I was at chess than Anthony, BOOYAKASHA!

Despite my initial warning, this is what I like to call ‘sparing a little change’ – sparing this ‘change’ in our lives, and putting it to one lonely corner of our minds (quite like giving up the PS3 - we’ve parted ways. I’m re-reading Harry Potter and it’s doing a brilliant job of making me feel 12 years old again). In a world of Chinese Robot Restaurants and bracelets that light up every time you get a notification on your phone, it’s hard not to notice we’re subject to large changes. However, I’m forgetting that our parents are the key to ‘sparing a little change’. Like my Dad, I’m becoming quite like him (except with more hair, BURN) in that I’m still oldskool. As my friends make the most of i-Tunes and Spotify, I still treck to That’s Entertainment and buy 3 for £5 CDS. My best friend has a Kindle… I’m still that weirdo who sits in the corner at Waterstones taking in ‘the new book smell’! I know why everybody’s changing – but I know that I don’t have to.

Take this pixelated beef-cake, ‘Wreck-It-Ralph’. After many belly laughs, 3 for £1 ASDA sweets and ‘awwww’s later, I could not have been inspired more by this film as it taught me a valuable lesson. Okay, three:

• The world would be a much tastier place if everything was made out of sweets and chocolate.
• ‘Glitches’ have feelings too, ya know.
• You don’t have to change who you are to change your life – only the way you see the world.

Living a monotonous life of wrecking a building, only to then be fixed by squeaky clean ‘Fix-It-Felix Jr.’, he wanted something different. He wanted to *gasps*, become the good guy and… no longer be the good guy? Sadly, despite his efforts, he couldn’t change himself from being the big-fisted, smash-em-up he is; however, after casually saving an arcade game from destruction, he began to change the way in which he saw the world (I might have casually inserted a quote from Mahatma Gandhi there?). Change isn’t a bad thing; but completely changing our lives because it goes at such a fast pace is never great either. Everybody might be changing; but for now? I’m just going to spare room for some spare change like uni, whilst still being a master at Top Trumps and playing Pokemon every now and again. One thing I won’t change is my diet – just for your amusement, I thought I would show you what that would do to me in the future. Here goes my pride:

Yikes… you can’t say I don’t like to poke fun at myself now and again!

Recession – A Beginner’s Guide

Recession - the bane in any economist’s jargon-filled handbook. The flip side of economic growth, the beginning of the end, the rocky-est bottom imaginable. For an economy to stick their hands in the air and admit, ‘Okay, we have to face the facts – right now? Our economy SUCKS’, it is often both a difficult and degrading thing to do. Yet, as we’ve seen with the likes of Greece and Ireland, it has to be done if ever a country is to bring itself back to full strength. HA, I feel sorry for them, I’d hate for Britain to be in… wait, what? Britain has always been one of the powerhouses of the global economy – with a world-class university system, as well as being one of the first ever countries to industrialize, you’d think we’d hold our own and be king of the hill, right?

Sadly, just like our star-studded friend in tights at the beginning of the article – even the most powerful of people are not immune.

Standard economic theory, a la A-Level Macroeconomics, states that a recession is ‘six months when real GDP (growth) is negative and can also be characterised by a negative output gap within a domestic economy’. Yikes. Despite the Olympic Games providing a large boost to our economy’s growth, it was only ever going to be a pipe-dream that this would grant us sustained, economic growth. We have to take off our rose-tinted spectacles and realise that the economy is in need of a face lift. Despite good news that the unemployment rate declined last January, there are fears that as Britain takes off its gold-plated AAA rating and settles for a not-as-impressive AA1 rating, we will have to embrace the word we hate so much, as economists speculate Britain will delve into triple-dip recession *cue high-pitched girly scream*.

So what impacts will that bring for Our Majesty’s pride and joy? Let’s just say we shouldn’t welcome it with open arms as, well, the symptoms aren’t something to look forward to. Often you hear people just blame any old thing on the recession. ‘Seriously, how long is this bus taking? Buses are so late these days!’ ‘It’s the recession, the recession I tells ya! *shakes fist in air*’. Not everything can, but certainly we will see a reduction in capital investment, as a squeeze in company profit means Mr Boss Man might have to save up his coppers until the ‘calm of the storm; as well as a reduction in our disposable income as a consumer – which may mean that you Subway lovers might have to reduce your foot-longs to a six-inch. It certainly won’t prove beneficial to any active member in the domestic economy.

The Chancellor, after his annihilation by a Mr Ed. Balls, is being pressured to boost spending on infrastructure projects and housing if we don’t want to have a taste of this unappealing triple-dip – I for one, don’t want to remain at this rocky bottom. No Power Ranger, not even 007, can save us from recession. If we want to escape, then, we need to consider if our current economic plan is going to bring us out on top. If we do? Well, to mimic a favourite ‘Wallace and Gromit’ special of mine – it’ll only be by ‘a close shave’.

*Draws Picture* Oo I Know This One! It’s… All A Matter Of Perspective?

1. Half full… awesome!

2. *Ugh*, it’s half empty. Well that’s just great…

3. Seriously, it’s a glass of water, who gives a shit monkey’s?

Who would have thought filling a cup mid-way could provoke so many responses! It seems like a simple enough concept, right? Right? Sadly, I used to think it was – but it turns out, everyone has a little something to say about this half-filled glass of H20. Philosophers have questioned the logic of it; Scientists have attempted to provide an explanation for it, and Optimists and Pessimists have long fought to claim this idiom as their own. The Glass of Water debate – let me (being a pro at Pictionary, of course) sum up all of this aquatic nonsense in one word – Perspective. ‘Is… is that Jesus’ face in my coffee?’ ‘Dude, you crazy?’; ‘That cloud looks like a rabbit!’ ‘Really? Looks like a cloud to me.’; ‘M-m-mum, that cup just accidentally smashed onto the floor – it’s a ghost!’ ‘S-s-son, I just saw you trip and drop it. You’re paying for that.’ To look at something, like an object or a situation, and see it in a completely different way to someone else? As someone who I can’t remember probably might have once said – It’s All A Matter of Perspective.

Certainly, as Lent begins to kicks into its full ’40 Days and 40 Nights’ swing, I’m really beginning to see how important perspective is within our lives. What are you giving up for Lent? is the perfect question to ask if you really want to get perspective out in the open! At this time of year, 9/10 times we feel we owe it to J-man to give up something we take for granted, something we could do without for just a little while. On our own personal level, it feels as if it’s the hardest thing we’ve ever had to do… but tell someone else? And they just might ‘LOL’ in your face at how pathetic you’re sounding. I’ll take myself on this one – in my perspective, I saw through my own square-eyes that I needed to part ways with my mechanical best friend, the Playstation 3. As I got my last kill streak on C.O.D., I put the controller away, said my goodbyes and shed a solemn tear as we parted for fourty long days and fourty sleepless nights. So, what did you give up for lent, Ady? I… * croak*, I had to give up the Playstation… *sniff*’ Oh… poor you, I guess? In someone else’s perspective, my heart-breaking decision was to them, a piece of cake. Or rather, a lack of cake, as they had given that up instead! Perspective always brings out something different in us, possibly even in the same situation.

Sadly, perspective has brought one bad thing into this world - your hormone-filled majesty, her royal ‘cry’ness, ‘The Drama Queen’. *Shudder*, sadly, these Queens do not create a good and prosperous society for their populace; they just create large mountains from molehills instead! It is in their perspective that things just really are worse than they may seem. Remember Veruca Salt from ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ (I WANT IT NOOOOOOW) ? In her perspective, Daddy’s wallet and a trip to a secret chocolate factory with colourful midgets singing show tunes just wasn’t enough for her! Thankfully, she was labelled as a ‘bad nut’ and herself, her perspective and her pride were all sent down a garbage shoot. So what good has perspective brought then?

Thankfully, perspective has brought a hell of a lot of good in our lives! We all live in the same world, surrounded by similar influences – but that doesn’t mean we all have to react in the same way. Piccasso, Da Vinci and MickyAngelo would have all started out with coloured paint; yet, they all saw the world they lived in a completely different way and chose to put brush to canvas and smere something completely different. Or even playing Pictionary – seriously, just draw a basic shape and you’ll be surprised what you get back. Perspective really does make the world an interesting, strange, dysfunctional, fun, entertaining place to be – just like a glass being both half full and empty, it can be all of them at once!

At first I thought it was because it was due to genetic differences; yet what amazes me is the fact that I share a completely different perspective on the world with my identical twin brother, Ant. We have the same hobbies, the same friends, the same diet… basically everything is the same. Though, we have grown up to want to do different things later in life and to achieve different things! Yeah, we do finish each others sentences and make a cracking ‘Fred and George’ impersonation act; but our perspectives just can’t be identical. It’s all a matter of perspective – the way you see the world is unique. You might see your cup half empty, or half full. Heck, you might even think ‘Ew, water’s gross, it doesn’t even taste of anything!’. But, whatever the measurement, your perspective might someday change the world. Though… if you do someday become inspired from this and get rich? Don’t forget whose perspective it was who inspired you! *nudge nudge*