Wer aufhört zu lernen, hört auf zu leben

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196 sovereign nations. I know because I'm such a nerd whose hobbies include memorizing all country names, their capitals, and their flags for fun. :)

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This is very apt, as I'm planning to work on it after I check LJ! I want to finish my novel by the end of the year, not in its completed version, but at least to finish. I don't want to say "first draft" as I don't edit much at all, but there are a few bits here and there that I want to tidy up a bit. I have one whole chapter and a little bit of the current one to go, then the epilogue, and I'm all done! I just better get cracking as there is not long of the year to go and I also have to work on my dissertation. It'll be nice to start my next novel at the start of 2012. :)

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I would say getting through high school, not only with the bullying, but in the last two years especially I was dealing with chronic fatigue and the autoimmune conditions, which meant I was sleeping 16 hours a day and missed a LOT of class. Apart from missing the material, that meant I became more alienated from any friends I did have and that combined with the illness took its toll mentally, leading to issues I still have and a suicide attempt at 16. Of course there was puberty on top of all that!

Things get hard now, but I don't think things will ever be as difficult as they were then. I look back and have no idea how I got through it, tbh! I was actually disappointed with my Advanced Higher results (final year of school) but that's my too-high standards! I did well on them and got into uni no problem. :)

O.k., I feel like I'm simply bigging myself up here, so I'll stop! Sometimes I feel like a different person fought through all that, really. :)

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I find it improves most men, yes. :D Some people I like anyway, but when I see them with some facial hair... mmm :D Now if only I could get my own to grow in properly! :P

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For a long time, it was actually some people in my family. Dad says horrible things to piss me off and has very bigoted views, against some groups that I'm in. My little sister used to say such horrible things, but I guess these days she's not so bad. I used to hold on to some toxic friends, who I wouldn't say "bullied" me as such, but they were also pretty horrible people; luckily, I realized earlier than most of my peers that it was better to let them go and have no friends instead of false friends.

Other people at school were pretty bad, people who didn't even really know me at all. I had a guy in my chemistry class who gave me shit every single time he saw me, and if I retaliated, he thrived on it, so eventually I tried to just ignore him. One day when he was hugging everyone in the class, he came to me and I threatened him in a very quiet voice but with conviction that if he touched me at all, I would punch him to the floor, and I think that stopped him for the most part. Most others weren't so bold, but they did say horrible things to me and about me all through my school years. In my last year I even had little first years, who are about 11 or 12, shout "faggot" and "poof" at me in the corridors. To be honest, it was more the fact that such young people would do such a thing that shocked me instead of the insults actually hurting me.

People on the internet haven't actually been that bad to me, probably because I've learned when to hold my tongue. I've had some hearty debates with people, sure, but it hasn't necessarily been them throwing a lot of shit at me that upsets me.

I'm happy to say that these days, no one directly bullies me. People still talk shit behind my back, I know, but I think that happens to everyone - mine is possibly more because I'm different in many ways, and I know I am. I don't deal well with people on a social level and people realize this. I'm not for one second suggesting that victims of bullies choose to be affected by it, but I believe that I'm doing better with such things because I've grown a thick skin, and I don't let things get to me as much. I have been bullied from elementary school, even (where people spread rumors all the time about my sister and me, including that we practise witchcraft!!!), so to be honest, I've had a long time to become accustomed to the fact that I am quite different from people, and that there will always be people who are unhappy with the way I am, and that I'm HAPPY to be the way I am. Getting past the difficulties in my childhood largely involved me becoming content with who I am and realizing that I wasn't going to change that for people who didn't even care about me as a person.

So perhaps that is a little advice for people who are having a tough time from others - by all means, fight against the bullies (not in a literal physical way necessarily!), but know that you have the power within yourself to feel good about yourself, and to come to the realization that there is nothing wrong with you as a person. If you were worth nothing, there would be no level for these people to try to bring you down to. You are worth something, and someone in your life knows it. <3

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Yes. Unless a student has a valid excuse not to do PE, of course they should do it. Obesity and related disorders are obviously a huge problem these days in Western society; making PE unmandatory will not help people's laziness! I had a valid excuse to get out of PE for the last few years where I had to do it, but otherwise, I would do it. Yes, it was not a good experience most of the time, and I dreaded it, but I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed some of the sports. If kids never try sports, how will they know they like them?

We can't condemn obesity and the fact that people's lifestyles directly cause diseases like type 2 diabetes, and have made cardiovascular disease the biggest cause of death, and then say, no it's fine; you can skip PE if you want to. Plus, I think that every subject should be mandatory until later years of school. At my old school, all the bratty children objected to taking a foreign language, which was mandatory - the teachers bowed and let them have their own way... :/ Who's running the school?! (A girl I took English class with actually cried to get out science class... they let her drop the subjects.)

Finally, though I'm on a slight tangent, why do people of religions like Jehovah's Witnesses get out of Religious Education? It's not a class that forces you to become a Christian - in fact, it teaches you about all the main world religions. And the atheists still have to attend! I hate to generalize, but a lot of religionists are close-minded about other religions, and this "I refuse to learn about other religions that aren't my own" attitude helps nothing. The class doesn't force you into any religion - it's about education, so that always annoyed me. God says not to worship other gods, but he doesn't condemn learning about them and keeping an open mind of others' beliefs.

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I'd tell my family a really important thing much earlier. Apart from that, I probably should have spoken my mind about certain things, and certain people, but I actually did that pretty soon, much sooner than others. Otherwise, there have been shit things in my life, most of them beyond my control, but I don't think I'd even change some of those within my control. What's the point if I've already gone through it - I've come through it, I've survived already, and these things have shaped me into who I am. I spent too long a time trying to suppress who I am for others, and to be honest, I am past that.

So, while some things have been really shit: No, I wouldn't change much that was in my control in the first place.

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Ever since I was tiny, I had a favorite stuffed animal. I've only had two main ones really; the first was a tiny little bear called Ted (how inventive :P), and when his body got worn, my mum stitched some new clothes onto him :) Sadly, I lost him when I was really small; it was outside at a park and we never found him. I was devastated, and kind of grieved for him :( After Ted, I had a rabbit called Donald :L He has no nose, because as a young kid I used to carry him by the nose in my mouth, says Dad, and I used to rub his nose with my hand. He looks like a cocaine user! :P I still take him everywhere with me; when I move back and forward between towns for uni, he comes with me. I even took him to Tanzania with me! There was a scare in Kilimanjaro airport, where my and a girl's bags didn't come through with the others, and I was freaking out that Donald was lost! The bags came through eventually, and I was relieved to get him back; clothes are replaceable after all! I can only think of two trips I didn't have him on, and that was when I went for a few days on two occasions down to Hastings, England to see friends. At one point I didn't even have bags at all as we went to a Rammstein concert. I still sleep with him every night, and I'm not ashamed, not even for a 19 year old guy! :D My sister even brought him up to the hospital while I was in for an operation :) I love my Donald!

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Not really. It can be really annoying when people suddenly start proclaiming themselves to be huge fans, and I'll say "Oh what did you think of their album ____" and these people are like "Oh, I don't know it". Like when they only know the band's more popular stuff yet act like they are huge huge fans. I also don't like the perception that I'm only into something because it's popular. But to actually stop liking a band for being popular is silly, unless they have dramatically changed their style - even in that case, you have to understand from the band's point of view that they don't want 10 albums that sound the same, and just because their newer style is more received in the mainstream doesn't mean the band only changed to fit the mainstream.

I think to start hating a band for the sole reason that they are now successful is terrible; it's like hating your favorite actor/celebrity/musician or whatever for getting married - they are never going to marry you so why not be happy for them? Same with bands - why not be happy for their success? Surely you wouldn't want them to struggle to sell records and concert tickets and all that?! If they are really your favorite band, you wouldn't want them to be unsuccessful forever, just so you have that mystery of liking a band no one else does.

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Way way way too many to even consider writing here. I'm really picky about bands, but the ones I do go for have such intense music and lyrics, that so many of them speak to me. I'll write one chorus here, that I think is a great statement to live by, but it's in German, so excuse my translation! :D

From "Wann" by Letzte Instanz:

"Wir können das Meer nicht besiegen,
Nicht gegen die Wellen bestehen,
Doch wir können versuchen
Nicht unter zu gehen."

It means: "We can't conquer the sea,
Can't stand our ground against the waves,
But we can try
Not to go under."