10 things i can't live without

Hey guys, a while back I wrote up a whole bunch of drafts for blog posts, and I never got around to writing a lot of them. Now that I'm having a bit of writer's block, I decided to look back on some of them and write some of them up!

I thought this was an interesting idea, and I bet what I would have answered a few years back when I wrote up this draft would have been completely different if I wrote it then.

As I get older, I get closer to figuring out what is actually important in life and what isn't. So let's get right into it!

books

This should come as no surprise to anyone reading this, but books are a huge part of my life. It's an escape when I need one. A fountain of knowledge. I feel like with all the books I've read, I've lived over 1000 lives.

I actually wrote a post about finding myself and who I truly am with every book I read. I don't want to repeat myself on my love of books, again, but books are EVERYTHING to me. I don't know where I would be in life without having them by my side through everything.

traveling

I've always loved traveling and getting to know new places, but my love for traveling really started when I took this road trip all the way down to Florida! It was such an adventure, and something I had never done before, it was so much fun!

Since then I've been trying to travel as much as possible, and it's really changed my life. I have such a new perspective on the beauty of the world. Not only that, but it makes me so blessed to come back to my own life at the end of a trip. I have a few trips planned throughout this year, and I'm so excited to experience it all!

friends

I have gained friends and lost friends. I have had more than a bumpy road trying to figure who was in my life for the right reasons. While my life is nowhere close to over, but I am so blessed at the family that I have chosen. While I don't have a huge group of friends, like I did when I was in high school, I have this close knit group of people that I love so much.

Not only do I love them, but they love me. I don't know what I have done right in the world, but I am so lucky to have the best friends in the world. They are always a call, text, facetime, or drive away.

I couldn't live life without them, and I am so blessed to call them my best friends in the entire world.

**special mention to Erika, Jamie, Jill, Christina & Melissa. Love you girls to the moon and back**

family

Not only do I have amazing friends, but I also have an amazing family. They are so supportive and loving and again, I don't know what I did to deserve them. Of course they are not perfect, but they love me for me, and I appreciate that more than I'll ever know.

So thank you to my mom, dad, Sofia, Nicholas, Albert, and my furbaby Maya. You have helped me grow into the person I am today, and have done nothing but help support me and love me, so thank you.

makeup

I wasn't one for makeup growing up. I was fine with some black eyeshadow mixed with white shimmer in the inner corner, mascara, and some super black raccoon eyeliner. I have definitely come a long way since then.

I have absolutely fallen in love with makeup! It's another way I can express myself creatively. I love using pinks, reds, oranges, and even browns! I love playing with contour, bronzer, blushes, and highlights. I have bins full of makeup, and going to stores like Sephora and Ulta are like kids in a playground.

My makeup journey has evolved a lot since I first started, but I love it so much, and can't wait to continue to play, learn, and bond with other people who love makeup!

delicious food

While I've never been a person who eats a lot, I've always been a person who loves food. I love trying new foods (which you can definitely tell by the fact that I'm Yelp Elite), and food is more than just eating.

Food is an experience. Eat meal is different, even if you're eating the same thing. It's joy and sharing that joy with others. I don't really have the words to explain what food means to me other than a means to fill my stomach. Eating certain foods bring me back to certain memories. At the end of the day it just makes me happy. 

music

When I was younger, I would just listen to anything on the radio, but as I've gotten older, I've branched out. I listened to anything and everything (well, almost). I look forward to listening to new music, and finding songs I'm in love with. I love introducing people to new songs.

Music just influences me so much. It can immediately change my mood. Music makes me beyond happy. Music is so important to me, I honestly wouldn't be able to live without it!

Music, I find, can also be a fantastic creative outlet. While writing and photography are my favorites (see more about my creative outlet below), I want to make a special mention to all those who express themselves through music instead. Music has a power: It can influence your mood, and using music in a creative way is a super effective way to not just share what you think, but also let other people feel what you feel. That’s why I fall in love with so many songs that I relate to! So whether you can sit at a keyboard and let the keys do all the talking for you, or you use a singular sound looper pedal to overlay different layers of sounds like a semi pro, thank you for expressing your emotions through music and sharing them with us. You honestly make my world richer.

a creative outlet

This is a huge one. I didn't realize how much of a positive effect having a creative outlet of some sort has on me. In terms of writing, I have been writing on this blog for two and a half years, and also occasionally write in a journal when I don't really want to write about certain topics on here.

On top of those two things, I dabble in water color painting and I love coloring with some crayons. While I don't consider myself to be the best of it, when I do either of those things, I just feel so calm and at peace with life.

I would also add that my bullet journal allows me to be creative in anyway I want. I can be productive and minimalist, but I can also have super crazy spreads! I love being to have the creative freedom with it.

The final thing that I love playing around with is Photography. I have to say I've always loved taking pictures, but I didn't actually start improving until the last year or so. The reason was because of things like Instagram and this blog. Not only do I love taking photos, but I also love the editing process. It's so much more work than I thought it was going to be, but it's so much fun playing with colors and making a photo look even more beautiful than it once was!

So is it cheating that I put all these things I love under creative outlet? I say no, because while I don't need all these things in my life, I always need at least one of them as my creative outlet!

So these are the things that I can't live without. What are some things you can't live without? Let me know in the comments down below! Thank you so much for reading and commenting. Sending you love, strength, and positivity.

-melina xx