I wish poverty was prioritized first and gotten rid of ASAP!!!!

Those of you who read my blog probably already picked up that I'm a student studying in Scotland at the moment. Since I'm studying social work, part of our course i social policy which involves studying different areas in society which need social policies such as immigration and asylum, and poverty (personal favorite topics!). When we studied poverty and really looked at it in depth, it really hit me - 1 in 3 children live in poverty in Scotland. That is tonnes! How ridiculous is that? To look at some statistics from 2011/2012:

Out of all individuals 14% lived in relative poverty before housing (after housing 17%), and 15% lived in absolute poverty before housing (after housing 18%). 

Out of children  15% lived in relative poverty before housing (after housing 20%), and 16% lived in absolute poverty before housing (after housing 22%). 

If you don't understand these terms, relative poverty refers to your standard of living; you don't have the income to support your material needs which leads you to be excluded from society as you cannot participate in it. Absolute poverty means you don't have the means to support your physical survival so food, shelter, clothing, etc. 

Think about it, Scotland (UK) is a developed country and considered one of the most developed countries, but still approx. one in three individuals live in poverty. And in all honesty, I wont sugar coat it - these people live in homes which are freezing and don't have hot water or heating. They live most of the time on one or no hot meals in a day. Its not pretty. The video posted at the bottom is about students speaking of poverty and is a powerful one as it shows what poverty really is through the eyes of people living it. I'll also link Lorde's song Royals as it speaks of these people who live in poverty. 

I'm a student and obviously worry about my finances, but I try as much as possible to think of these children living with pretty much nothing, and then thank God that I have a blanket and a bed and a roof on top of my head. My room is around 10 degrees warm in the mornings when I wake up and it is freezing at night as well (heating doesn't help). I also try have meat on 3 or 4 days a week and rest of the time have like vegetables or something. Its super cheap to buy a big bag of carrots for 40p and they last me like 2 weeks. I am truly happy and think I have so much. I've found it in my heart to be thankful for what I have and feel dirty to even complain about my situation anymore. I think all of us should take some time to think about our priorities and reflect upon how rich we really are! I suggest taking 3minutes out to watch the video below. :)

Lorde - Royals "And we'll never be royals, it don't run in our blood, that kind of lux just ain't for us"

I wish children had more feeling towards others and weren't so selfish!

I do not appreciate the selfishness of children at all. From what I have seen from the bunch of children I've been with, when kids do something they forget about it quite fast. And the problem is when they hurt someones feelings and after 15 minutes come ask you to play like nothing has happened. Today I had a little conflict with my au pair child and I thought to myself, how do I make her understand that she has just hurt someones feelings? Nothing major but just upsetting stuff. I acted like a child a bit and tried to make her notice that I wasn't happy with her but I don't think she got it. If it were my child I would have explained very well how I felt about 'stuff'. Children are so selfish as well and often think about only themselves. I guess maybe they are only too young to understand but still. Make them understand basic things like feelings faster. Agh so annoying. 

And I'm talking of little basic things as well such as a girl going on a play date to her 'friends'. When she arrives, her 'friends' go 'nooooo we don't want to be with her, tell her to go away'. How mean is that seriously? I've seen it all. Also when children talk rudely and disrespectfully to parents and all the rest of that. I know a family who's child ran away from home and when she later returned and saw her crying mother, she simply said I don't care and I'm not gonna tell where I've been and all that. Oh gosh. Not all children are so selfish and feeling less but I somehow believe almost every child has their moments. Definitely waiting till I'm like 30 to have kids and properly ready to put my time to bringing them up.

I wish that one day the father of my kids will be a great dad! (SOMEDAY!)

I've never thought about this till I saw a picture of a father and daughter online. I know everyone wants a good dad for their kids but I want a dad for my kids who loves spending time with them. Especially because I don't wanna be a mom who spends 24-7 with the kids. I'd love it if the father of my kids spent time doing stuff generally and enjoyed spending time with the kids. Unfortunately it is quite often that the woman spends majority of the time with the kids. But yeah, here are some cute pictures I found. :) 

Don't mean to be creepy but these photos are pretty cute, you gotta admit! :) I'm not like baby fever-y or anything. No, no, no, not even family fever-y. Just to clear on that, maybe in 10 years time! ;) 

I wish I found it easier to commit to other people

I found this volunteering organization which I got really interested about, but long term just simply commitment scares me. The organization was for a childline where I would basically be on a shift where I answer the phone if any child wants to talk to me about their worries or troubles. But what worries me is that I don't really know if I would be able to know what to say and know what to answer if a difficult topic comes up so its out of my comfort zone even tho I really wanna do it. It sounded really interesting to me but the second I started thinking about it further I just got this feeling like, do I have this kind of commitment in me?

Another organization was called 'befriend a child' where I would basically commit to hang out with a child twice a month, for 2 hours, for a year minimum. The children are mainly from not so good backgrounds and so the goal basically is to make the child smile and have a good time. When I heard about it I just thought right away YES. But now a few days later I'm like, 'For a year? What if the kid doesn't like me? What if its weird and awkward?' and all that. It's really bad to think like that tho because that few hours that I'd spent with the child could make them forget their reality for a bit and they could just have a good time and laugh. It would probably mean the world to them.

My point basically is that I really really would love to have a responsibility like this where I could feel good about what I do and feel like I'm doing something for someone else, but I feel like I don't really have it in me. Personally I think it would do me some good to step out of my comfort zone especially if its for the good of someone else, but how do I make myself do that. I keep telling myself, 'I'll do it!' and then I'm like 'Naaah' the next second. I really need someone to have a good long chat with me and persuade me to get up and go for it! I know I should go for it, but long story short 'easier said than done'. I really wish I get myself to commit to this in the next months! 

I Wish I Felt More Comfortable Smiling

I have always thought that I can't smile showing my teeth cuz i think it looks stupid when I do so. I just smile like :) When I went to model school I got forced to smile showing my teeth and it was... not nice, I felt really awkward as the guy took photos of me. Anyways, recently I have started not minding that much. I've even allowed a few people to take a few photos of me smiling like =D and I gotta admit they weren't bad at all. So I hope I get over that completely and start feeling comfortable with my smile.

Someone once told me never to say a smile is ugly or say anything negative about someones smile no matter how weird it may look, cuz a smile is beautiful. And I agree with that guy, at least now I do! A true smile is the most beautiful thing ever. Personally I have always thought that the best photos of me are the ones where I look sad, but I'm glad that I'm starting to like the happy ones too! C'moon just look at the two photos here, which one would you rather see?

I wish I'll be able to adopt a child someday!

I've never really wanted a child of my own or a child at all actually. BUT; as I've grown older, I've come to the conclusion that perhaps it would be nice to have a child someday. :) ONE THING THOUGH, Why bring a child into this world when there are millions of children in desperate need for a home? I've always thought this way and I always will. Adopting is so expensive in so many countries though which sucks. It should be cheaper so that people who want to adopt could have the chance to if they aren't exactly rich. But hopefully one day when i'm married and we decide to have a child with my future husband (if we do!!!), we will have enough money to afford adoption. 

I've talked about 'me one day in the future when i'm way older wanting to adopt', to some people and I was surprised about how many of then where like 'no way I'd ever adopt, I'd want my own child.' I thought everyone would wanna adopt if they just had the chance to. There are a lot of risks sometimes in adopting and its expensive but c'moon, its a human being just like me and you, plus he/she doesn't have a home. I at least will want to adopt some day if I actually decide to have a child. =)