Live YOUR Best Life

I have a little extra time to work on ‘me’ right now… I’m not going to post about why I have this extra time, because that’s irrelevant. I think it’s funny when people tell you that you need to “know” yourself before you can ever have a successful relationship with a significant other. I mean, maybe it’s just me-but as long as I’ve known Alana Kathryn Dillette, she is always changing! Yes, I have things about me that remain challenging for me as a person, or things about my personality that stay the same, but I’m forever changing my perception on things, my outlook on life, my fashion sense LOL- I mean, if you think you’re going to one day just wake up and say “Today is the day, I finally KNOW who I am!”, I, personally (and don’t take my opinion too seriously), but I think that’s crazy! I love the fact that life is a continuous journey, forever changing and throwing rocks down your smoothly paved road. Yes, it makes things a little more difficult than planned sometimes, but so much more of a story in the end!

I’ve come to realize that life isn’t just going to one day-all of a sudden, ‘make sense’, in fact, it may never make sense.

This realization has been quite shocking to me, because when I was 13, I would have sworn that 25 was going to be my age of clarity, that I would be married & ‘living happily ever after’ (whatever that means), imagine that! I know you are all thinking of when you were 13 now, and how you used to play M.A.S.H with your friends during class at school to decide what your life would be like (what was it? Mansion, apartment, shack or house LMAO). Or your first ‘love’, and how much it broke your heart when it ended, and then ended again, and again-for however many times it took for you to realize the guy (or girl-let’s not be gender biased here) was an idiot. So now that I finally know this, I’m on a life long mission to embrace these changes and on a continual quest to find a way, everyday to ‘live my best life’ as Oprah (or her writers) would say.

I’m not exactly sure how this is going to work quite yet. I don’t really think there is a method to the madness. But I do plan to share with you some of the things I use to channel my thoughts & energy, whether they’ve failed or not, with the hope that you may also share yours, or just get a laugh from reading. 

Just a little trip down memory lane... 

Quote for the week... well, weeks. This is going to be a tough one

"Nothing is ever good or bad-it's just the way you think about it" 

Back to the grind...

It's been about a month since I left the ship and jumped back into reality. Life has been...well, let's just say it hasn't been a vacation. I got right back into the swing of things upon my arrival with the 2012 Hospitality  Graduate Conference that was in Auburn this year. I presented on a study I did last summer in some Bahamian family islands-not exactly sure how I did that, but I pulled it off and quite well if I do say so myself...

I didn't think I would continue blogging after my internship, but I actually really miss it. In a way it was therapy, whether or not people read it, I never really knew, but writing with the mindset that there was someone out there reading and nodding to your words was enough for me to keep going. On top of that it provides a great release from the hussle & bussle of life and that's more than enough reason to keep going!

The weeks after I got back, it was strange...being on land again, driving my car, having a cell phone. I wasn't quite sure how I felt about it all. Being on the ship allowed me to feel so liberated and learn things about myself that I don't think I would have in any other setting. I would sometimes sit on my couch, or the floor, or wherever and just listen to the silence...I felt like I had grown so much, yet the things and all the people around me were the same. This made it extremely difficult to get back into things with enthusiasm. I tried to think back to my time on the ship and what it was that 'changed' me, or how was it that I felt I had grown so much. Because honestly, feeling like you've grown is one thing... but knowing the things that you've conquered is another. So I pondered and over time I realized that the biggest difference between the Alana from the ship and the Alana before the ship was the attitude that I chose to have.

I remember days when I would roll out of bed into pitch darkness after only a few hours of sleep to go to my first of 3 shifts of work, and somehow...I just chose to be happy, I chose to joke around, to smile, to have fun. Working breakfast at 6:30 a.m. may not have been the most exciting thing...but it was, that day, that morning it was. And let me tell you, it made the world of difference to how much I learned, the friendships I made and the experiences I had for the rest of that day.

Not only did I develop a "choose to be happier" attitude, but I also feel like I was way more open to change...to things being thrown at me and taking them head on. It pretty much happened to me every day I was there. Once you work on a ship, you realize that anything goes and your "job description" doesn't really mean anything.

So after all these realizations and (I must admit) a bit of feeling sorry for myself, I've decided, that I'm going to take control of my life, my attitude and the way I handle situations. "Nothing is ever good or bad, it's just the way you think of it" And if you're reading this blog-I give you permission to hold me accountable to this ;)

"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered."

Nelson Mandela 'A Long Walk to Freedom' 

Farewell!

I knew this point would come some time…the point where I would get so busy that I’d stop writing for my blog! I’m sorry to my readers (if there are any)…but it was really busy on the ship during our stay in Cape Town & of course during my free time I had to play tourists! So this is my attempt at a catch up post, won’t be so many details…mostly pictures.

Girls night out...plus two guys, in Durban 

The East Crew :) 

Sailing into Cape Town 

I’m now sitting in the Cape Town airport at my new favorite coffee shop-Mug&Bean. Yes, I now drink coffee…can you believe that?? I guess that’s what ship life will do to you. They have this hot chocolate/coconut/capaccino thing here that is amazing!! And I’m having an omelet for dinner after this, can you tell how excited I am? Haha

My adventures aboard The World are now over and well, it was more than amazing…more than words can really even describe. I left the boat today and I was actually sad to go-imagine that, from the girl who cried her eyes out the first week, I am now the girl who cried when I left. I was fine-until Vera, my cabin mate started crying-then I couldn’t help it. We shared so much in our 8X8 room haha…late nights, early mornings, long days, girls nights, dinners out, Christmas…new years. We became such great friends and like sisters on the ship because we were always together-“the intern twins”.

Cape Town was amazing, a very beautiful city with lots of things to do & see. It’s summer time here now so there are loads of tourists and locals around on vacation. The ship was docked at The Victoria Wharf Waterfront which is apparently famous in Cape Town. In between & after work I managed to get a few things in ;)

A ride up to Table Mountain-the views weren’t too bad ;)

On our way up Table Mountain

Just so you can see how high it was...

Camps Bay-one of the most beautiful beaches in the world-so they say

Yes-my all time favorite, the jumping pic

Yeah-this is how it really looked, I think Vera was a little scared 

An encounter with the Cheetahs at a Cheetah conservatory park.

Just saying hi..

Sleeping Cheetah

Yawning Cheetah 

Jumping Cheetah (I know-great descriptions lol)

A visit to the Glen Carlou Winery where we got to have a tour and educational lesson about the vineyards followed by a tasting of all their wines-this was pretty cool.

The Glen Carlou Winery 

In between time, there were shopping malls and amazing restaurants within walking distance from the ship. Vera and I shared a South African Christmas lunch together on the waterfront which was amazing! A few nights of sushi….mmmm J A famous Indian Restaurant-nights out on the town.

Christmas and New Years were great-I thought I would miss my family more (I did miss them-don’t get me wrong) but I found it very hard to get too sad because I was surrounded by somewhat of a new family, and spending Christmas in Cape Town for goodness sake, how can you be sad about that!? I just felt so grateful honestly, I felt grateful to have a family that was worth missing, and worth feeling sad about. I felt grateful for all the new friends I’d made who were going through similar emotions that I was…but instead of being sad, I just embraced them and embraced the new idea of Christmas on the ship. They made it very nice for us…I must say, we even got to sit on Santas lap! We had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner in the crew mess & were all given digital photo frames and chocolate for Christmas. On top of that we had a Christmas party in the O’Bar where I ended up dancing with all the South African Musicians haha-I guess I got a little rhythm in me ;) They were an acapella singing group for Durban that came onboard to perform on the night of the Christmas Tree lighting. The night the group performed, crew were allowed to watch from the deck above.

Their voices were beautiful-you know, that African melody that you can find nowhere else in the world. They performed one of my favorites Amazing Grace. It reminds me of my Grandad when I was a little girl. I remember when it played at his funeral and I was sitting there in my velvet dress next to Daddy (most likely)-It was a sad-but happy moment as well because I suddenly had these extremely clear visions of myself as a little girl sitting on his lap and him telling me not to slam the door. He was such a sweet & loving man-so much like my Daddy. And again, even though it made me sad for a moment because he is no longer with us, it makes me happy that I was able to know him-that I had the chance to make these memories with him. To me, it was like a gift from heaven-and that he was watching over me in some way while I was on the ship.  

Santa!

Christmas Eve Dinner...Table Mountain in the background, if you were wondering about the name...now you can see why it's called that 

christmas lunch

Sunbathing seals 

New Years was extremely busy…all F&B Crew worked until about 1:30 a.m… We all stopped service from 11;45-12:00 to have a champagne toast and watch the fire works from the bridge. Again, yes it would have been nice to have a little new years thing-but it was just as fun working on the floor & celebrating with people that I actually know-instead of being in some overcrowded hot club or bar. I much rather be in the comfort of my own home with my own people-which, in this case was the ship.

That’s about it folks…I know this post lacked a little detail, and I pretty much summed up the whole 10 days in Cape Town, but I really hope you enjoyed. I enjoyed writing it…it’s like a form of therapy, and release for my thoughts. So, off I go back to my Auburn loves to figure out my next step in this amazing journey called life. I love you all & thanks for reading!