I would have loved to start this post by saying something like “I thought long and hard about what my first post should be,” but the truth that I am currently on my mattress, after procrastinating for the longest time, writing this post to procrastinate my night time “routine” that’s not quite yet a routine yet. What a strong opening paragraph!

My name is Mabel, and I am a 20 year old girl who currently lives in Brisbane, Queensland. I moved here when I was 17 to study Information Techonology, but I can say for a fact that the person I was when I moved here is not the person I am today. For example, I withdrew from my degree after my foundation year and decided to apply to study Finance and Accounting instead. Why? That’s a story for another post.

I’ve recently been thinking (fantasizing) about what I want for myself in this life and realised that while I don’t like to say it out loud, the truth is that having potential is not enough. I want to be able to look back next year, in five years, in ten years and be able to say “yes, I did everything I said I would do.” I don’t want to become like one of those people who focus on how they could have done so much when they were younger, not realising that their focus on the past is taking them away from the one thing they actually have some form of control over, which is the present.

Now is not the time really to talk about motivation and goals and wanting things bad enough, those are all stories for another time. We are keeping it light and breezy, like you are on a first date with me. You’ve never met me before, and after a bit of awkward small talk you ask me: “So what are some things you like?”

Actually, scratch that, you probably wouldn’t ask it that way. You’d probably say something like “what are your hobbies,” or “what is your favourite food” or “what genre of music do you listen to.” I’m the kind of person who would chuckle at either of those questions and say something like: “I don’t really have a favourite food, but I do love some types of cuisine around the world.” I would emphasize the word cuisine and make it seem like I was well travelled or something. I’m also the kind of person who is quite basic in the sense that I realised a few months ago that I don’t have any hobbies, and if you ask me, that’s depressing, and it’s part of the reason why I decided to pick up writing again. I believe I’m too young for my whole life to revolve solely around trying to balance work and school and having a life. I don’t count things like social activities and exercise as hobbies because I consider them part of everyday things that people should have in their routine, but I do enjoy dancing. Okay, maybe I do have some hobbies.

The other question was music, so I’ll start my list of things I like with the music I like. I like when music is genre bending, thing electronic rnb, afro house, e.t.c. In the years 2018-2023 when I still lived in Nigeria (I lived in Nigeria for my whole life,but those five years were when I started to develop my own personal tastes), anything that fell outside the traditional Nigerian Hip Hop, Pop, or Rap was considered “alternative.” You really just had to be there, I cannot explain to you how much of a vibe it was. Some of the most creative people in the art and music and fashion space I know and have heard of and Nigerian, but honestly I could make a whole other post as to why I think the Nigerian arts industry as done as well as it did and become something so mainstream. I also like when an artiste’s singing makes me feel the emotions they felt when recording, it feels like when people say things like “the secret ingredient is love,” but sometimes the secret ingredient is having a talking stagiounship with a guy who needs his ego massaged.

For these simple reasons, I don’t have a favourite song. Most of the times when I need to, I listen to albums that remind me of a very specific time in my life, a time where I was a bit more naive, and more curious, and more stupid. I know I’ll never get that back (and I genuinely don’t even want it), so sometimes I listen to songs that make me feel something. Sometimes I don’t care about the lyrics, just the production quality. Sometimes I talk to myself about it because not many people around me love Afrobeats the way I do (or at least I haven’t met them yet) where I live in Brisbane.

At this point in our date I will realise that I have been talking a lot so I will smile awkwardly and say “I talk a lot.” If you agree, but you are a nice person, you probably wouldn’t verbally agree nor disagree. Because we are NOT on a date however and you are reading the ramblings of a girl in her 20s, I will continue the list of things I like in a more listy fashion:

• slow mornings
• bushwalking
• hiking (but specifically after the point where you stop thinking about how much you feel like you’re probably going to die on this hike)
• long drives
• camembert cheese
• getting my eyebrows threaded (but specifically after the fact, not during)
• oranges
• that one blueberry cheesecake gelato from al bacio burleigh heads
• fast cars
• upper body day
• white bikinis
• guitars (specifically when they are handled by someone who knows how to handle a guitar)
• picnic on an open field
• mango sorbet
• cheap moscato (prefarably pink)
• sourdough, actually scratch that, bread in general
• black lipliner
• tajin on fruit
• skirts
• a dip in perfect temperature water
• braids in a bun
• long drives
• brown liquor
• but also, vodka
• heavy leg extensions
• boots
• dancing
• blush as contour
• white mani pedis
• pointy heels
• bone broth
• long blacks made from specialty coffee
• dark chocolate
• chai flavoured cookies
• and honestly, many more…

I don’t have a dedicated list of things I don’t like (yet), but I’ve considered starting one. But I feel like everything I don’t like can be classified under two categories: things that make me feel stupid, and things that make me look stupid.

The reason why I started a list of things I like is because there was day a few years ago, when I was still quite new to…well having to survive mostly on my own, and I was finding it really hard to be grateful for the things I had, or more like I didn’t feel like I had anything to be grateful for. So I decided to make a list of things I like so that whenever I felt that way again, I could focus on being grateful for the awesome things I have gotten to experience and come to like. Now that I write this paragraph I realise could have started with this as a stronger opener, but it’s actually all good.

If you’ve made it this far, I think the main lesson I learned is that having a list of things I like has helped me be more grateful and my blessings in perspective a bit more. I might not have everything I want yet, but I have the wonderful privilege to be able to experience and enjoy such wonderful things. My hope is that my blog makes it to the list of things you like.