The unyielding and ever increasing desire to live a life that knows no restrictions walks hand in hand with a pressure to succeed that draws upon those same characteristics. It's difficult to choose between your head and your heart when your head doesn't know what the hell your heart is talking about.

The pull to fly away into cities I've never seen, filled with people I've never met, is tantalisingly strong. To surround myself with a knowledge gained from experience - it seems to make the most sense if I want to have any chance at making my words matter. Books surely must only take me so far. Wouldn't it be better to experience foreign sunrises, storms, laughter and excitement first hand then to fantasise about it as I do now?

Yet to throw myself straight into the world of words also holds a logic my brain comprehends well. Being thrown into the ocean isn't always a bad way to learn how to swim, although to drown early on would have a devastating affect on your career. So how can I be sure as to what is the right decision when it comes to my future?

I thought picking a uni was hard enough - now I have to consider how I want the next chapter of my life to begin. I don't believe in leaving everything up to chance, I'm far too stubborn for that. What I do believe in is the capacity for a person to fall into a rhythm of life that plays to their strengths.

I suppose I'm afraid of making the wrong choice. A vain thought but one that persists nonetheless.

Write to me one day,
Nikki Keating.

There is a real beauty in doing simple things with people you love. And when you take the time to do the simple things you notice parts of your world that make it worth living. Like the little things you notice about someone you love. I know that the sound of laughter is one of the most precious sounds in my life and many of the people I love do it well. Or like the tiny details that stick out in your memory. The smell of pine, the glare of the sun, the absence of sound and the texture of a book. These are all little things that stick in my mind and make me happy.

It's the strange little details of simpiler times that can define your relationship with someone else. Eating breakfast with your family in the morning, everyday, is a simply mundane act that you'll always remember. It becomes such a big part of your morning that when one of your family isn't there you notice it and it changes your whole day. Coco Pops suddenly seem duller and not even mixing nutella and peanut butter together on your toast fills that gap.

So the next time you have breakfast and they're there at the table you'll notice how their bed hair favours the left side of their head and that it takes them five mouthfuls of cereal before they become a fully functioning member of society again. And you'll remember it.

But, in my pursuit to do as much as humanly possible in the time I'm given to live, it's always the simple things that warm the cockles of my heart.

Write to me one day,
Nikki Keating.