I think I say this every year, but how is it already the end of the year?? 2015 has been an amazing year for me and as cliche as it sounds, it has truly changed my life. 2016 has a lot to live up to but I am quite excited for what the new year has in store. My plan for New Years Day is to lay on the beach all day so I mean the year is already going to start out strong. Anyways, back to 2015. The year that truly changed my life.

I started 2015 quite miserable. My vacation in Australia was coming to an end, and I was getting ready to head back to my home, Toronto. The forecast was -22 degrees celsius and I was not looking forward to it at all. Before I left Australia, my Aunt had told me that I could apply to University in Australia and move in with her. I kind of laughed it off, not really taking her too seriously, and continued reluctantly packing my bags to go home. As I was leaving Australia, I made a decision with myself that 2015 would be my year to make things happen. 

Part of a journal entry I wrote in February, 2015. 

On my way back to Toronto my connecting flight between New York and Toronto was cancelled. I was travelling alone, had been awake for about 36 hours, and all I wanted was to be in my own bed. Let's just say at that point in time 2015 was looking like the absolute worst year of my life. 24 hours, a $200 hotel room, and a few tears later, I finally ended up on a flight back to Toronto. Once I got to Toronto I wasn't even happy to be home because it was freezing cold and I slowly sunk into a deep sadness. I was absolutely miserable. I woke up every morning with zero motivation to do anything, but had to find my way to work or school. That's when I remembered what my Aunt had said as I was leaving Australia. So, within a week of being back in Toronto I had applied for a transfer to the University of Wollongong. I didn't really think anything would come of it, but I applied and then continued on with my miserable, freezing life. 

About a month later I received an email from the University of Wollongong telling me that I had been accepted as a transfer student, and that they were willing to give me enough credits that I would only have to do 2 years of the program. Again, I kind of laughed it off thinking that there was absolutely no way I could just move to Australia. I began to tell a few of my friends that I might move to Australia, and they also laughed. There was no way I was actually serious. But, as the Canadian winter took its toll on me, I really began to take it seriously. By March, I had officially made my decision to move to Australia. 

The rest of the year, between March and July at least, revolved around my preparation to move to Australia. The first step was telling everyone. It was amazing to see the reactions of my friends and family. My favourite though was the reaction from people I barely knew. Even they knew moving to Australia was my biggest dream and were sharing their excitement with me. I had never really done anything "big" in my life, so this was crazy to see the reaction from those around me. 

Once I had made it official that I was moving, two of my best friends, Maddie and Tori, and I planned a trip to New York. In May we flew to New York for 3 days. You can see my posts about that here and here. I made an internal plan with myself in 2012 that I would go on an airplane at least once every year, and I was definitely living up to that in 2015. 

I did a lot of sight seeing around Toronto, visiting friends and family, and pretty much doing everything there is to do before you move to a different country. On top of that I was working A LOT so that I could save as much as possible for the move. The month before moving I was crazy busy, but I was the happiest I have ever been. 

Finally the time came. July 8th, 2015. The day I moved to Australia. 

I don't want to go into depth of every single thing I've done since that day because I have written blog posts about it all, and by the time I type it all out 2015 would be long gone. So, I'll just keep it really simple. Ever since I moved things have been falling into place. The program that I transferred to at Uni is exactly what I want to be doing. I got a marketing internship which I absolutely love. I have moments where I just sit back and think about how happy I am to be here. I spent the beginning of 2015 in absolute misery, and I have not even felt the slightest bit of that since stepping foot on Australian soil.

2015 really has been the best year of my life... so far. I moved to Australia, got an internship, it was my first full year of being vegan, I got to cross Mumford & Sons off of my concert bucket list, and I even stopped biting my nails! Most importantly I have gained a lot of self confidence this year and have become comfortable with myself. I have spent a lot of my life fighting off insecurities and I never really loved myself, but 2015 has been huge for my own personal growth. Hopefully it will all pour into 2016, making it an even better year.

I think I'm ready... bring on 2016.

This year I had a very small Christmas. My only immediate family in Australia is my Aunt and Nanna, so it was just the three of us spending Christmas together. My Nanna is usually the one cooking for the family and she often gets quite stressed and flustered when she is under pressure like that. So, my Aunt and I offered to cook this year. And since I'm vegan, we decided to steer away from the traditional roast dinner because I would just be eating a plate of potatoes (which I am honestly fine with, but it is a lot more fun when there are options). We all decided that Thai food would be something that we would all enjoy, so with the help of Pinterest I came up with a menu. For all of you fellow vegans out there, or just anyone who is okay with skipping meat once in a while, here are a few options you can try for your next family gathering, or just for yourself. All of these recipes were really easy. Honestly if I can cook them, anyone can.

First we wanted to do some rice paper rolls. We were going to make them all ahead of time but then realised it would be easier to just chop up the veggies and let everyone fill their own so they could put what they like into each roll. The recipe we used was from The Rawsome Vegan Life. They were SO delicious, fun to make, and the tahini chilli dipping sauce was absolutely to die for.

Next on the menu was a Thai Cashew Coconut Rice with Ginger Peanut Sauce. I am a huge fan of coconut rice so was really excited for this recipe. I pretty much just made the rice and then layered all of the veggies on top, then put the dressing on the side so everyone could add as much as they wanted. This recipe was from Host the Toast. The sauce was quite sweet and added a really great flavour to the rice.

Our final main dish was a Thai Peanut Noodle Bowl from She Knows. At first we were a bit hesitant because we thought the dishes might taste the same since they were both peanut based. But, they ended up tasting extremely different, and were both equally delicious. This one was a more savoury peanut sauce than the one used on the coconut rice. Also, we used a thicker rice noodle instead of thin noodle like the recipe calls for.

And last, but certainly not least, a Mango Turmeric Cheesecake for dessert. This was my job and I made it the night before so it had time to sit. This recipe was from Be Good Organics. My Aunt is subscribed to their email list and got the recipe months ago, so we had been looking forward to this for a long time coming. I have made a few different vegan cheesecakes, but this one truly takes the cake. First of all, mangoes are my favourite fruit; I could eat them all day, everyday. And second, cheesecake is my favourite dessert. So naturally, this cheesecake was absolutely amazing. I used to be terrified of recipes like this one because I thought they were super complex and time consuming. Yes, it did take a bit of time, but it was so easy. I am most definitely not a chef, so honestly anyone could make this.

This truly was an amazing Christmas. It was my first away from my parents, but my Aunt and Nanna made me feel at home. They were so open to eating vegan (although they did have a few prawns on the side of the table to add to their dishes). Usually I am left with whatever vegetables are on the table at holiday dinners, so this made me feel very special. It was also a lot of fun to cook and see these recipes come to life. I guess I will spend 2016 scouring Pinterest for new recipes to try at Christmas 2016.

If you are vegan and feel like nobody really considers your choices during holiday meals, offer to do some of the cooking so that you can make food that you can enjoy! It really is a lot of fun, and really rewarding when people actually enjoy the food you made.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

** just a quick note: most of these recipes ask for honey so i just used agave nectar instead!

Something I have learned from writing travel posts: condense them as much as possible so a month after a trip you aren't still trying to complete the posts and remember every detail. Hey, this is all a learning curve.. so here goes day 3, also the final day that I am going to write about. Day 4 was just a bit of shopping and then flying back to Sydney, and I'll briefly talk about it at the end of this post.

Day 3 was a big day. Jackie and I booked a day tour of the Great Ocean Road which took us from Melbourne to the 12 Apostles. This post is going to be mainly pictures because it is so much easier to just show you what we saw rather than talk about it all. Also I don't remember the names of everything.

We started our day at 7am where we headed to Torquay, a surfing town in Victoria. It's very different from being in Melbourne, because Melbourne is very much a city. The trip brought us through a bunch of small towns along the Great Ocean Road. I am currently living in a small town on the South Coast of NSW, so it was interesting to see all these small towns that were a lot like where I live. Beach towns are great to visit and you will find the best beaches in these areas. City beaches are cool, but beaches down the coast are the best beaches.

As we made our way out of Torquay, we ended up at the entrance of the Great Ocean Road. The famous arch way where people risk their lives standing in the middle of the road to get the perfect tourist photo.

Our next stop was at a caravan park which had a large koala population. We were told that we would get to spot a bunch of koalas. We ended up only seeing one, and it really just looked like a blob in a tree. Once I got back on the bus I realised I didn't even take any pictures of the blob. There were also tons of birds flying on people's heads and shoulders. I am absolutely terrified of birds so I was scared for my life. I just wanted to see a koala I didn't sign up for my worst nightmare!!! (Disclaimer: it actually wasn't that bad - no birds landed on me as I ran away every time one came near me).

Here is Jackie being extremely brave and becoming one with nature. Namaste. 

Next was a rainforest walk which was actually really cool. I felt like I was on the set of survivor.
There were ferns everywhere - it was truly a botanists dream. So much vegetation!

I can basically hear Jeff Probst telling me that my tribe has spoken. 

Finally, we ended up at the 12 Apostles - which actually turns out to be only 8 or 9 apostles? False advertising much, Victoria tourism? In all seriousness though the apostles are sooooooo beautiful and I definitely think everyone should make the trip out to see them. It is a huge tourist attraction so be prepared for the selfie sticks and having to push your way through to get the perfect Instagram photos.

Okay so the apostles are actually like a pale beige but the sun made them look black. I now understand the whole white/gold, black/blue dress debate. Thank you rock formations. 

After the apostles we got to explore the different cliffs and gorges and other rock formations (?) Unsure if I'm describing this correctly so here are pictures! Yay for erosion!

This beach was so cool it was a little cove - refer to next picture for birds eye view of this same cove. I am all about the different camera angles. 

Hey - here is the cove from a different view.

Just loving the erosion. 

Eventually we made it back to Melbourne and decided that it wasn't time to end the day yet. It was our last night in Melbourne so we went to a rooftop bar called Madam Brussels. It was pink and garden-y and basically everything I could ask for in a rooftop bar. We ordered this really yummy drink with vanilla and watermelon? I think? It was a month ago, okay, I don't remember all the details. This is truly blogging at it's finest. Anyways, they also had these cute umbrellas so of course I had to take a million selfies.

Here I am. 

Then came day 4, our final day in Melbourne. We had a few hours to kill before we had to head to the airport so we went to Chapel Street in South Yarra to do some shopping. It's just outside of the CBD and took about 10 minutes to get to by train. They have all of the classic Australian stores that you would find in any shopping centre, as well as a few independent boutiques. Then finally, it was time to say goodbye to Melbourne. Overall it was a great trip. We saw a lot of the city, and surrounding areas, but still have a lot more ground to cover on another trip. Melbourne really is a great city - I just don't think I like experiencing all 4 seasons in one day.

The tour we went on was by Go West Tours. It was an awesome tour, and our guide was so funny and lovely. She taught us a lot about the history of Great Ocean Road and made the long drive super enjoyable.

I figured I should probably get onto my Melbourne posts because it just took me 10 minutes to remember what I did on day two. Clearly I need to start vlogging or something so I don't have to remember things on my own. *Insert zoella's vlogmas intro here but pretend it says Melbourne Day 2 and has a cardboard cut out of me*

Day two began with a search for a cafe for breakfast and a stroll up Brunswick street. Brunswick street is like the Newtown of Melbourne and pretty much every vegan cafe on my list was located there. We already had plans to meet up with our friend, Bella, at Vegie bar so we just wanted to find somewhere to grab a quick breakfast. Unfortunately, Smith and Daughters, the place on my list that I really wanted to try was closed on Mondays. Struck again by the Australian business model of needing to be closed all the time. We ended up at a cafe called The Black Cat on Brunswick Street. It was extremely aesthetically pleasing which is the first thing I look for in a cafe. Aesthetics first, food second. They were just putting up the menu and had a vegan option so I was sold. I totally forget what was inside of it, but it was a wrap of some description. Here's a really boring photo of it. Anyways, it was really good!! They seemed to change the menu everyday though so if you are looking to try it, it might not be on the menu, but I'm sure they have lots of other delicious options as well.  

Ok so I guess there was like cucumber... lettuce.... some red sauce? I should've written this down. 

This was our bench at the cafe.. felt like we were in a rainforest. Amazing aesthetics.

After breakfast we continued to make our way up Brunswick street, checking out a bunch of cute boutiques. We came across a book store called The Book Grocer that had all books for $10. Books in Australia are way more expensive than in Canada, so this was like a gift from heaven. Unfortunately I couldn't find the two books that I wanted - Why Not Me by Mindy Kaling and #GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso - but I couldn't just leave empty handed. I ended up buying The Taxidermist's Daughter by Kate Mosse. It's a gothic fiction and looked really intriguing so I thought I would give it a go. I really want to get back into reading a lot so if you do have any book recommendations please let me know. The Book Grocer has an online store which I am definitely going to try out soon. They also have a few locations throughout Melbourne so if you are in the area and keen for a cheap book i definitely recommend checking them out. I promise this isn't sponsored or anything I just love book stores - especially cheap ones.

Heaven is a place on earth. 

After going into just about every shop on Brunswick street we finally reached Vegie Bar and met up with our friend, Bella. This was our first time meeting her outside of Twitter so it was super exciting. Internet friends are so fun because when you meet them it's really just like old friends catching up. Unfortunately, I was still full from my meal at The Black Cat but I couldn't possibly be in a vegan restaurant without ordering a single thing. So, I just ordered a Matcha Milkshake which was really yummy and refreshing. It was a toss up between that and a Coconut Choc Milkshake - but I knew I would probably regret the chocolate one because a lot of the time my eyes are bigger than my appetite. I actually made a poll on Twitter to try and decide. Most people went for Coconut Choc so naturally I chose the opposite. Next time I'm in Melbourne I will definitely go back to Vegie Bar and I will make sure I don't eat a thing before I go.

Sooooooo yum.

We tried so hard to take a pic without sun spots we were truly standing behind a bus shelter and still failed.

Melbourne is known for it's alleyways and graffiti. As I mentioned in my last post there are tons of hidden bars and cafes, and a lot of these are in the alleyways. We decided to go on a hunt for the graffiti alleys, hoping to enhance our Instagram photos, of course. The most famous alleyway is Hosier Lane so we went to that one first. We then just continued to make our way through Flinders Lane checking out any graffiti we came across. This is definitely something I recommend checking out if you're ever in Melbourne. It's pretty cool because people are constantly creating new artwork so you'll likely never see the same graffiti twice if you visit more than once.

Waiting for Senpai. 

Just your everyday George Costanza-inspired graffiti. 

And finally, we ended our day by going down to the harbour and checking out Crown Casino. This is well, a casino, and also the hotel where pretty much every celebrity who visits Melbourne stays at. Remember a few weeks ago when Kylie and Kendall were in Australia and were staying in a massive penthouse? Yeah, thats where they were staying. We just decided to walk through the casino, and once I saw Nobu Sushi I knew it was where Kylie and Kendall had stayed. Don't worry - one day when I'm rich and famous I'll stay in that same penthouse. We then headed back to our Airbnb as we had a super early morning the next day - but more about that later.

My amazing, totally not blurry, photography. 

Hi... remember me? I'm that girl who moved to Australia and started a blog about it... but hasn't blogged in almost 2 months. I could write an essay apologizing and telling you how busy I've been but let's face it, we're all busy we all have a lot on our plates and nobody wants to read about anyone else's busy life. So I'm just going to say hi, please forgive me, and let's get started on this new post.

In all of the vacations I've taken to Australia throughout my life I've done a little bit of travelling to see family, but somewhere that I had never been before was Melbourne. Everyone has told me how much I would love Melbourne so naturally, my friend Jackie and I booked a trip. I finished exams on the 13th of November and on the 22nd I was off to Melbourne for 3 and a half days. Hopefully these next few posts about Melbourne can give you some ideas about what to do or see if you ever visit, or if you don't plan on it, you can just sit back, relax and enjoy.

I can tell you this: everyone was right. I fell in love with Melbourne in a matter of minutes. The 14 degree temperature (in celsius btw) that met us upon arrival wasn't exactly ideal, but the culture of the city was enough to let that pass. Melbourne isn't just a city, it has its own personality. I didn't feel like I was in a big city where people were rushing to get where they had to go. It was a lot more laid back, like everyone was taking their time to enjoy the city surrounding them. When we first got there we were starving so we thought it would be easy to find a cafe to have brunch at. Unfortunately, Melbourne falls under the classic Australian ideal of nothing being open on Sundays. After walking through the CBD for a while we finally came across The Grain Store, a busy cafe on Flinders Lane. I guess when you're one of the only cafe's open on a Sunday you're bound to be busy. I got the toasted carrot falafel with quinoa tabouleh - it was the only vegan option on the menu, but I was not disappointed. It was a bit on the pricier side but it was a delicious meal and I would definitely recommend.

The carrots were dehydrated which was so cool it was like chips on a salad. Amazing.

We then headed off to the Queen Victoria Market. I think we would have enjoyed it more if we didn't have to carry our luggage around with us. Unfortunately we couldn't check into our Airbnb until 3pm, so we were wandering around with luggage, and we were not in the best mind set. The QVM reminded me a lot of the St Lawrence Market in Toronto. It was a great place to get local produce, old books and records, or some souvenirs to bring back home with you. I would definitely want to go back to check it out again, but without my luggage this time. Finally we gave up and just headed to our Airbnb in hopes that we would be able to get in a few minutes early. Fortunately on our way there we got a message from the host telling us we could check in.


Our Airbnb was probably one of the best parts of the trip. It was located in Fitzroy which can be compared to Newtown in Sydney or West Queen West in Toronto. If you have never been to either of those places then let's just say it's the alternate part of the city with different types of cafes and boutiques. If I still used the word hipster I would say it was the "hipster" part of town. Also if you're looking for somewhere with tons of vegan options - Brunswick street in Fitzroy is the place for you. But, more about that in the next post. The apartment itself was super cute, had GREAT lighting (perfect for selfies), and was in a perfect location for our trip. If you read my NYC post a few months ago you would know how much I loved my experience with Airbnb then, and I still love it now. If you want to sign up for Airbnb and get a discount off of your first trip, use this link! It's honestly much cooler experience than staying in a hotel, and can be a lot cheaper too.

Excuse the mess I made within seconds of checking in but how cute is this place?!

After dropping off our luggage, charging our phones and refreshing ourselves after a day of travelling and walking, we headed back into the city to check out Bourke St Mall. The road is closed off to traffic, only the trams can get through, so it's easy to walk through and go to all of the different shops. We went to stores like Zara, Glue, and the biggest H&M I have ever seen. H&M has just recently ventured over to Australia so it is a big deal here. The second one literally just opened a few weeks ago in Sydney. I grew up living 5 minutes from an H&M so it was funny for me to see how hectic people were over the store.

Everyone was shopping madly while I was taking pictures of the entire store

After shopping for a couple of hours we met up with one of my old family friends, Blake, who lives in Melbourne. His girlfriend suggested we go to the Night Noodle Markets as they had come to Melbourne for a few days. Unfortunately she wasn't feeling well and couldn't make it but we still met up with him. The Noodle Markets were in Birrarung Marr Park, just a few minutes walk from Flinders St Station. There were tons of people, and tons of noodles. I found a vegan friendly stall and got a noodle dosa which is basically noodles in a crepe. It was super delicious. If you live in Australia and the noodle markets come to your city I definitely recommend going. There are also tons of lanterns and dangly lights which are one of my top 10 favourite things in the world.

Finally, Blake took us to one of the many rooftop bars in Melbourne, Goldilocks, which he heard about from a friend. Something cool about Melbourne is that a lot of the bars and cafes are hidden and you have to be told about them ahead of time to know that they exist. To get to this bar we had to walk through a Chinese restaurant, get on an elevator and go to the top floor. The rooftop had some good views of the city, and was the perfect place to be as the sun set on our first day in Melbourne.

Stay tuned for day 2 coming at you soon! And for more pictures you can check out my Instagram: @tessbald 

Hi... sorry to anyone who actually reads this blog that I have been MIA for the last month. I could make an excuse that I've been super busy for the last few weeks but I did manage to watch 4 seasons of Scandal within that time so clearly I have had the time. Anyways, here I am... done my big assignments for the semester and ready to fill you all in on my life. Hopefully you still care. I promise it's kind of exciting.

I have officially lived in Australia for 3 months (technically 3 months and a week but just pretend I wrote this week ago). How weird is that?! It has been 6 months since I actually decided to move and it truly feels like just yesterday I was crying over the -40 forecast trying to figure out a way to move to Australia ASAP. But yes, here I am, living my dream and loving every minute - for the most part. As many of my friends and family know I haven't really been homesick since being here, but that came to a shocking end the day before my 21st birthday. I was doing so well, almost made it 3 months without a single tear. I make my life seem so good and happy and perfect through my Instagram but I have had my moments of weakness. In my last post I mentioned a bit of hesitation and regret about moving because things weren't falling into place, but that all changed pretty quickly once everything started to happen. But this was a different type of homesick. It wasn't regret or questioning whether I made the right choice, I know I made the right choice. It was just genuine yearning for my friends and family to be by my side. A birthday is a time that you want to spend with your closest friends and the people that truly know you. I did have my one friend Jackie who spent my birthday with me which I was so grateful for. I guess I just assumed that when I moved here I would make tons of friends and everything would fall into place so quickly, but that's not what has happened. Friends take time. I know it will continue to take time but as I start work (next week!!!) and continue to do my internship and uni I will make friends. The reality of moving to a whole new place isn't 100% happiness and sunshine, as much as I make it seem like it is. Don't get me wrong, I am making the most of it and doing as much as I can to make it as good as it can be but there are times where I just wish I could fly home for the weekend to see everyone that I love. I recently discovered Spotify though and the sad playlist I made is truly getting me through the tough times. (Time for some shameless self promotion: listen to it. Wish I could add All Too Well by Taylor Swift to it but we all know she isn't a fan of Spotify so just like pause it in the middle or something and listen to All Too Well and then continue the playlist).

Blurry photo of the Harbour Bridge from my birthday. Contact me for all photography needs.

ANYWAYS onto the sunshine and happiness. I started my internship 3 weeks ago and I am loving it. Within that time I have already attended my first launch party which was like one of my goals of this internship. So far it's going pretty well. It's so cool to be in an actual workplace that has to do with the career that I want to pursue. I definitely know that I am on the right track and I am sooooooo ecstatic about it. It's so awesome that I get to work in Sydney which is one of my favourite cities. I live 2 hours south of Sydney and I swear I spend more time there than I do at home. Definitely need to move there eventually but obviously money is not something I have lots of at the moment so that dream will have to wait. I waited 20 years for my dream of moving to Australia to come true, so I know how to be patient when it comes to dreams. (If it takes me 20 years to move to Sydney though that may be a bit of an issue). But yes so far internship is all good and I am very happy about it. I start work next week and I am so excited to have an actual INCOME. I haven't worked in 3 months which is so strange for me. I have been working since the age of 15 and I truly feel so weird without it.

This launch party was 100% my aesthetic.

I have been exploring a lot of Sydney and going to beaches on the south coast. If you follow me on Instagram you have definitely seen my adventures. If you haven't, get on that (more self promotion. This is truly sad but it's fine: follow). One of my best friends from home came to visit this week which was SOOOO good. So nice to have someone around who truly knows me and has known me since the age of 6. She is in Australia for a year so it will be great to be able to see her over the next year as she travels and comes back to this area. I didn't get a chance to show her around because I was super busy with interning and uni but since I am a seasoned pro at Sydney now I will definitely give her a tour eventually. She's also vegan so a vegan tour of Sydney is a must. We did try one new place while she was here though. Earth to Table in Bondi. It was really good!! Quite pricy but good. I was definitely more excited for the desserts than for the main meal but who wouldn't be?! Will definitely go back (once I start working and have a steady income).

Salted Caramel + Chocolate Cheesecake and Apple Crumble Cheesecake. All vegan all amazing.

That's really all I can think of that has been happening in the last few weeks. Uni is almost done for the summer so more adventures are definitely to come and more frequent posting (I hope). As much as I say this all the time, I am truly so happy that I made this decision to move. I was looking at this sunset the other day and all I could think was "this is the literal reason that I moved here." Yes, I could probably get similar opportunities in Canada but none of them would have this view.

Hello to whoever is reading this, hope you're good. I have a story to tell that will hopefully encourage you if you are having doubts or troubles finding your way at the moment. As my life is starting to come together in this little (very large actually) country that I've moved to, I feel like I should share some recent happenings with you. 

A bit over a week ago I was starting to feel homesick, which has not happened once since I got off the plane in Sydney two months ago. I was beginning to regret my decision to move because I was having trouble finding a part time job and an internship. I had been applying to quite a few online but wasn't having any success. I was extremely discouraged and had a little cry to myself, and of course sent my mom an "I miss you mommy :(" message on Facebook. There was a voice in my head telling me that this was all a horrible idea and that I made a huge mistake by moving to the other side of the world. I skipped church that night because my aunt had sprained her ankle and I thought it would be best to stay home to help her out if she needed anything. So, I decided to watch a Hillsong sermon to refresh my brain from these discouraging thoughts that I was having. The sermon was about faith and the power of spoken word. Once I heard the pastor say "power of spoken word" my brain clicked into gear. Those were the exact words my aunt said to me in December when she was encouraging me to follow my dream of moving to Australia. She said that my dreams could come true if I really truly believed in them and that it would all come together if I put it out there, she reassured me that there is power in spoken word. And well, as you can see, here I am today living in Australia after telling myself that it would happen. Anyways, as I was watching the sermon and hearing those words I realised there was no point in sulking over not having a job or an internship. If I was going to get what I wanted I had to put it into action myself. Crying wasn't going to solve my problems. So I wrote down "I will get a job" "I will get an internship," said it out loud, and then prayed about it. 

Fast forward to the next day where I decided to go into town to apply for jobs in person. I hadn't done that yet because walking into a store and handing in my resume is my absolute worst nightmare. But after the message I heard the night before I knew that I had to put in a little effort if I wanted things to happen. After going to a few stores and being told that they weren't hiring or I had to apply online, I came across a shop that was having a job fair the next night. The shop, a surf shop, totally screamed my personality. I am 100% in love with summer and the beach, if you can't already tell by the title of my blog alone. I knew that I would fit right in there, so I attended the job fair and the next day got a call confirming that I had gotten a job. I was ecstatic. After weeks of trying to find some wort of part time work, it finally paid off. 

A few hours later, after getting out of an exam, I had a missed call and voicemail from a random number. I didn't really listen properly the first time but all I heard was, "would love to have you come in for an interview for the marketing internship." EXCUSE ME..... what did I just hear? Did I just get a job AND an interview for an internship in the same day???? The smile on my face could've honestly cured every disease known to man I was over the moon. It wasn't even for sure that I would get the internship but just getting that call made me want to dance down the street. I went for the interview a few days later, fell in love with the office space, the company, the environment. Just everything about it felt so perfect, but I still wasn't 100% sure that I would get it. And then today my phone began to ring in the middle of the lecture I was in. I literally bolted out of my seat so fast (well actually I tried but that desk thingy was in the way and I couldn't get out which caused me to miss the call but ANYWAYS) and went out into the hall to answer. It was the girl who had interviewed me telling me that I had indeed been chosen for the internship!!!!!!!!!! GUYS. My heart was racing so fast I literally went back to my lecture shaking like a mad woman. An internship???? A job???? What the heck was my brain even doing 2 weeks ago telling me I made the wrong decision?

So, I am here to say that if you are discouraged and feel like things aren't working out.. put it out there!! Write it down, say it out loud, if you believe in God pray about it!! Honestly it is so incredible what can happen when you say things out loud. I am living proof that the power of spoken word is a real life thing. I am so thankful and so incredibly blown away by what has happened in the last 2 weeks. I really hope that you'll get some encouragement from this. Your dreams are possible!!! No matter how big or small they may be. You just have to put a little effort in to get where you want to be, and you will get there. Here's part of journal entry that I wrote in February this year. I had no idea that it would actually happen. I just put it out there, prayed a lot, did what I had to do to make it happen, and it all worked out. 

Sorry for this narrative and the mess of it all but I'm just really excited and really wanted to share it with whoever may stumble across this post. Go write down and speak your dreams!!! Remember, you can breathe life into things with your words. You got this. 

If you want to check out the Hillsong sermon that I watched you can watch it here.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. - Phillipians 4:6