Shayla vs. The World

I've been absent for a while. This is mostly due to frustration with my broken phone. I have pictures from home in February, as well as other events I would like to post on here but I cannot manage to retrieve them from my phone which has a shattered screen. I'm trying to move forward with blog posts though so I guess I'll just start from now. First off. I finish school in 29 days. Holy cow. This is something I really can't wrap my head around. I finish school in less than a month. Meaning this month is going to be full of sleepless nights, endless hours of studying, mostly take out food, and probably a few melt downs. But it's only one more month!! I don't yet have a job lined up but I'm honestly not worried about things. If I can get through school I can do anything! To blow off a bit of steam before going in to this last incredibly difficult month of schooling we went on a trip to Melbourne. When I got there and settled in to our totally awesome hotel...

I feel like these aren't discussed enough, even though I know for sure I'm not the only one experiencing it. It happens in your late teens/twenties, right when you become an adult, and you realise you need to start acting like one. The days of no responsibilities are over. Very seriously over. In exactly a year, I am going to be expected to start paying off my student loans, meaning I need to get a job, hopefully one I don't hate completely. And where will this job be? I want to stay in Australia but the need to pay off my loans doesn't really allow me to be very picky. And what industry will this job be in? I chose mechanical engineering because of its versatility, but now that it's actually time to choose I'm finding that to be sort of a problem. I could literally do almost anything. I can't explain it any further than that because I mean that quite literally, anything. So what do I do. And will I enjoy it enough to make these 4 1/2 years of school  hell...

You get homesick, that's what. Considering I hadn't been home in over a year this homesickness hit pretty hard. Normally when I'm feeling this way I just look up plane tickets to remind me as to how I cannot afford to go home. Well, this particular Saturday night, the tickets were surprisingly low. Normally the cheapest I can find tickets is around 1750 round trip. and that's if you have good timing. Around Christmas they were 3000. This time they were 1400. I was in disbelief. I woke poor Sesh up at probably 3am to ask his advice. I mean, I am going to go home eventually, so I might as well do it while it's cheap, but it's such short notice and it would be such a short trip is it really worth it? His advice was to wait until I sleep some (probably good considering the 3/4 bottle of wine I had). Sunday morning, I woke up and less than an hour later had a ticket booked for Friday. The perfect situation to surprise my family. I just needed an accomplice. So I ...

This post will be mostly pictures. New Years Eve was pretty awesome this year. We basically had no plans since Sesh has a fantastic view from his balcony. Very last minute we decided to head in to the city to a party some friends were hosting. We watched the 9 o'clock from Sesh's balcony, and a few minutes later made our way in to the city. On New Years Eve in Sydney, getting in to the city before hand is easy... getting out later is a whole other story which you will hear about later. We made it to the party, hung out for a bit and then decided to walk to our friend's Mom's place. She lives in near Darling Harbour and the apartment building has a rooftop. We got up to the roof about 10 minutes before midnight. There were lots of people up there which ended up being awesome. All of a sudden the countdown was happening and 2015 began with this... In case those pictures aren't enough for you. This first one is short because my phone ran...

The Christmas season was incredibly strange for me this year. The weather kept getting warmer, there were no signs of snow, no houses were decked out with Christmas lights, it goes on and on. I kicked off the Christmas season with my work Christmas party which I don't seem to have any pictures from. It was pretty casual. Some food, drinks and shisha for lunch. Then I had to head home for a power nap and to change quickly, then back to work that night. Only another week and 2 days of work and then we got 10 days off from the 24th to the 3rd (that 10 days did not last long enough). I saved my Christmas shopping for the last minute, but sure had a fun time with it. People may not decorate their houses as much as back home, but the shopping centers sure have some fun. In the Queen Victoria Building they have a tree that's over 3 stories tall. You actually have to climb up to each floor to see the different sections of it. This is a view standing directly ...