I’ve been so busy these past few months that I have to apologize for sliding my blog to the back burner as of late. I’m sorry! It’s tough working full time, being an editor for The Student’s Life, maintaining a social life and a relationship, reading and keeping up with Books, Tea & Me. Needless to say, it’s tough. But it’s so worth it.

Anyways, this post is to thank three unique blogs for the award nominations they gave me because it’s most certainly overdue. Because each award will generally have me nominate blogs that I enjoy, I’ve decided to nominate a flat 15 blogs in this post (that’ll be five blog nominations per award) to make it easier on me. I hope you all check them out because they truly are fantastic!

Dear Wilhelmina Upton from Lazy Happy Bored Happy Sad gave me this 7×7 Link Award on May 7th (told you these awards are from a long time ago) and I have to thank her again for the nomination! I’ve never heard of this award before, but apparently I need to tell one unknown thing about myself, link to seven of my favourite posts and then nominate seven other bloggers. But like I said, I’m only going to nominate five blogs to make it easier.

So. One thing you don’t know about me… I have a cockatiel named Sunkist and she’s the best. She’s bright yellow with orange cheeks and is probably one of the mellowest birds you will ever meet! Love to death.

My seven favourite posts:

1. The Fault In Our Stars Book Review
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Book Review
3. Pride and Prejudice: Adaptions
4. Top Ten Books You’d Like To See Made Into A Movie
5. The Most Beautiful College/University Libraries in the World
6. RIP Jan Berenstain
7. Loved Preview

My five blog nominations:

1. Two Busy Brunettes
2. Coffee and Wizards
3. Adventures With Words
4. The Loud and Clear
5. Monica Leonelle

Thank you so much to The Streetlight Reader for nominating me for the Sunshine Award on June 7th! It means a lot that she nominated both my own personal book blog and the online magazine I write/edit for (The Student’s Life). Again, I’m not familiar with this award, but it looks like there’s a couple of things I must do for it: answer 10 questions about myself and nominate other great bloggers.

Q. 1: What is your favourite childhood memory?

That’s a really good question because I have so many of them. But I think my favourite isn’t just one single memory, but a collection of memories bundled under the same heading: camping. I pretty much grew up camping each summer with my family and our close family friends and their children. I’ve gone everywhere in BC and Alberta — Penticton, Christina Lake, Fernie, Invermere, Bow Valley, Canmore, Kananaskis… gosh, I could go on. It’s because of this tradition that we’re as close to these families as we are today, and that the kids I grew up with feel like cousins to me. I will always remember camping and plan on making it a tradition when I have children one day.

Q. 2: What is a real fear for you?

I could take the easy way out and say spiders, which would be the truth because I’m terrified of them. But I think the thing I fear the most is rejection or abandonment. I hate feeling like I’m not worthy enough and I hate being excluded from others. When I was younger, I had been bullied like most children, and I guess it always stuck with me growing up that there must have been something wrong with me to be treated that way, that I could be rejected like that again. And while I haven’t been bullied since, my hormones took over in my teens — and with that, the continual rejection from guys and abandonment from friends took its place. I seem to shut down whenever that happens and lose my way for a while until I find my place again.

Q. 3: How would you describe yourself?

Hmmm… Loyal, quiet (but I can be the outgoing one sometimes too), a bookworm, a contemplator, a dreamer, passionate, odd, friendly, unique.

Q. 4: What countries have you lived in?

Just Canada and The United States.

Q. 5: What is your style?

Honestly, my style’s changed so much over the many years. I don’t even know what I’d classify it as anymore. Casual? Comfy? Let’s just say I don’t dress to impress most of the time.

Q. 6: What is your favourite breakfast food?

That’s easy: the classic Stampede breakfast. Pancakes, eggs, hash browns and bacon/sausage. For some reason, Calgary Stampede breakfasts just taste amazing.

Q. 7: What are some of your hobbies?

Reading, writing, watching movies/TV, spending time with friends and family, baking, daydreaming.

Q. 8: If you could tell people anything, what would be the most important thing to say?

Oh that’s a good one… Umm… Don’t be afraid of death.I lost my grandma when I was very young and then my grandpa in Grade 7. I didn’t think I’d have to go through that pain again for many years, but that was not to be. I lost my Nanaji (grandpa, in other words) six days into this new year, and I can’t even begin to describe all the emotions I went through and what I’m still going through. But if there’s something I can take away from it all is the fact that one should never take life for granted, but to never fear death either. Death will come one day whether you like it or not, and the only thing you can do about it is to live your life with the upmost happiness and love. Both my Grandma Jean (from what I hear) and Grandpa Len, and my Nanaji believed this and spread their love around — and at the end, that’s what we remember most.

Q. 9: What is one of your passions?

Harry Potter. Don’t mock me, but he’s a big part of my life. I always say that when I get married, my husband needs to love Harry Potter too, so we can raise our children on the Potter culture and foster a love of reading at an early age. And if our children decide Harry Potter is stupid? Well, they’ll learn the way to their grandparents’ house pretty quick. I’m kidding. Except not.

Q. 10: What is one truth you have learned?

As cliche as this may sound, I’ve learned in my 20 years that life truly is a roller coaster. You can be high on life one moment, and then plummet to the ground — heart in mouth — the next. Change is constant, and there’s nothing we can do about it. All we can do is pick ourselves up and continue along the ride.

And now for five other awesome blogs:

1. Catherine, Caffeinated
2. A Dash of Cinema
3. Crazy for Books
4. As I Turn the Pages
5. Brilliantly Novel

And last but not least, I want to thank Read N Cook for the One Lovely Blog Award she gave me on July 3rd. The fact that she thinks my blog is lovely makes me happy, so thank you! For this award, I am to share seven facts about myself and nominate 15 blogs that I think are lovely in their own way.

Seven Facts That You Probably Don’t Care About Knowing But Will Now Know Anyways:

1. I’m short. Like 5’1.5″ short.
2. Even though I’m 20 years old, I still read Seventeen magazine.
3. I want to travel the world one day, and I will.
4. I built houses in Tijuana, Mexico over my Grade 12 spring break.
5. I love to eat. And bake.
6. If I could have a pet tiger, I would.
7. Even though my boyfriend’s only been gone six days, I already miss him. Only nine more days to go.

Six Lovely Blogs (because I had to choose one more!):

1. Pocketful of Books
2. Belle’s Bookshelf
3. It’s a Book Thing
4. Teaching Literacy
5. Just Another Nerdy Girl
6. The Whirl Cure

Well, that’s it! I want to thank you all so much for following me on my love of the written word because it really means a lot to me!