Becoming Amanda!

 This post was originally posted by Amanda Dadson who runs a blog called Mandy Talks Avenue (https://mandietalks.wordpress.com/). 

Amanda writes about her thoughts and stories and describes herself as a dreamer. Her blog is a street with many mansions so you can check it out.

Enjoy her piece about her journey so far and we hope that it inspires you

Better to be the one who smiled than the one who didn’t smile back. – Unknown

That’s it. That’s the quote that perfectly describes me. I’ve been told several times that I have a nice smile and that makes it easy for people to approach me.

I am a spontaneous, fun-loving, and no-nonsense person and get along with pretty much everyone.

I was born on a Tuesday night, 6:43 pm precisely. I was supposed to be a Christmas baby but I arrived three days before Christmas much to the dismay of the doctors. I remember asking my mum when I was a little girl why she didn’t wait to give birth to me on Christmas Day.

Growing up, I was an active and curious child who was asked dozens of questions. I always wanted to know why some things were the way they were. I was an only child for a little over six years before my brother was born and since I had no one to play with, I was given books and toys. I found books to be interesting and was fascinated by the vast amount of information I derived from them. I became addicted to them. My childhood and personal development have been shaped mostly by my mum since my dad wasn’t always around. She used to read to me and carefully selected and recommended books to me when I started reading on my own. Ladybird Books, Enid Blyton, Shakespeare, Tales of Arabian Nights, Canterbury Tales, Babysitters Club, Sweet Valley High, Nancy Drew Mysteries, Pacesetters and Trendsetters series, among others, were all part of my library thanks to her. Through all these, writing became a part of me.

At school, I excelled in the reading subjects and performed fairly well in mathematics. Ironically, in secondary school and college, I studied business. All the jobs I worked after college and the one I’m currently doing are not even related to the business I studied in school. Life!

I’m a Christian. I wasn’t born into a typical Christian family and I never attended Sunday school. I was in senior high school when I fully accepted Christ and my life took a much positive turn from there. I like to describe myself as a resilient person. Nothing really breaks me. I’m able to go through the most painful of situations and still be fine on the outside. I also like to take things slowly, a trait that people find contradictory to my assertive and sometimes aggressive nature. I mostly allow things to flow naturally and don’t really believe in manipulating the outcome of things. I’m also a very outspoken, outgoing, and straightforward person. I’m an extrovert but I can keep to myself when necessary.

I mentioned earlier that I love having fun. You can’t take that away from me. Traveling to discover new places, road trips, sightseeing, tasting and sampling dishes, and learning about cultures excite me. Engaging in activities people see to be sometimes risky excites me. I’m an adventurous person and I really look forward to riding a hot air balloon, kayaking, and scuba diving one day. I have a long list of places in the world I would like to visit and I look forward to when the world will finally be free from Corona so I can start globetrotting. Bali, Santorini, Mykonos, and the streets of Tokyo are a few of the places I really look forward to seeing.

Life after college has not been easy for me and perhaps one day, I’ll write about my struggle as a graduate trying to find a decent job and the hell I went through. Like the resilient person I am, and with the patience and endurance that I have, I finally managed to secure a permanent job. After 4 long years. This new job has led to me moving out of my city for the first time and starting life anew. I’ve left my friends, relationships, and projects behind to start a life elsewhere. It’s quite confusing and unsettling but with technology, everything’s within reach so I’m not that affected and I believe with time, things will fall in place.

With this new life, I plan on trying out things I never had the chance and courage to do. I discovered a new way of working called Agile somewhere last year and I plan on studying extensively on that. I have plans to go back to school for a Master's degree and of course, there are more places in this country that I’m yet to discover. My bucket list looks lit at the moment and I can’t wait to check the items off gradually.

Personally, I believe there are more questions than answers in this world and you will not always get what you want in life. Nevertheless, I don’t give up. It ain’t over until it’s over.

I’m still learning, I’m still evolving and I’m still discovering pieces about myself. The path ahead of me is unknown but one thing I’m sure of is that I’m still becoming Amanda!