And the sacrifices I’m going to have to make to get there
Homeownership.
It is a much-debated topic among millennials. The dream of owning your own home vs the responsibilities that come with it.
Ever since my parents allowed me to pick my own bedroom wall colour as a child I fantasized about owning my own home one day. The freedom to do anything you want to the place that you live, with your imagination being the only thing in your way. What a dream!
However, as I have grown up the realities of what it means to be a homeowner, especially in 2021, is drastically different from my childhood fantasies.
Even…
How to go from intention to action
So you have seen a post on your social media about the effects of climate change on our earth. You see images of deforestation, plastic washing up on shorelines, greenhouse gasses emitted into the air from factories and glaciers receding back up mountainsides, melting away.
You dig deeper, learning more about a topic that previously you didn’t think was much of a big deal. However, now you are horrified to see that our actions as a human civilisation are killing the exact same world that we can not live without.
So now you decide it is time to take action…
How I am coping waiting to hear if we have bought our first home
Yesterday, my partner and I put an offer on a house. We have all of our finances lined up, did all the due diligence we could on the property and put in what we believe to be a fair and reasonable offer.
Now, all we can do is wait….
We are at the mercy of someone else's decision and there is nothing else we can do to sway their opinion. It is completely out of our control. We have put up a quick settlement date, and written a personal letter to the sellers introducing ourselves as a family. I have…
It is a lot easier than you think
Staying Consistent
The number one action that has contributed to my over 500% increase in viewership in the last 30 days is consistency. Prior to this past month, I was probably only posting one article a month. I would get a few views trickle in every day but they were far and few between.
In 2011 I was offered a scholarship to swim at Texas A&M University! Later that year in August I packed up my bags in Wellington, New Zealand and boarded a plane to Texas. At the time I was a young 18-year-old girl who had no idea what my life ahead looked like. All I knew was that I was going to be able to study full-time, continue my swimming career (something not easily done in New Zealand) and have some amazing life experiences.
The Most Underwhelming Realisation
Now at the time, I didn’t know I was queer. To be honest I hadn’t really given…
Instead, I have learned more than I could have imagined
26 days ago I wrote an article titled “My 30 Day Challenge With A Twist”. My goal was to exercise and write an article on Medium every single day for 30 days.
On March 7th, 19 days into the challenge, I failed to write an article. Then only 2 days later I was sick and didn’t exercise.
Although I didn’t achieve what I set out to achieve, I’m not looking at this failure as a negative. In fact, I have learnt more about myself in the last 26 days than I could have ever expected.
“Failure should be our teacher…
And you can start today for less than $50
Food Wastage
Food wastage is a global problem that is scientifically proven to be a significant factor in global warming and climate change. It affects all of us and the world we are building for our future generations.
With so much rhetoric around more “visible” contributors of GHG emissions such as vehicles, factories and animal agriculture; the contribution of food waste is often overlooked.
Improving farming processes, supply chains and human…
You are the only thing that stands in your way
My partner and I have always had a dream of living out in the country. Ever since we met we would talk about rural life, with vegetable gardens, chickens and solar power.
We have even taken small steps towards making it a reality in the past. Converting and living in a 9m School Bus was meant to be the first step on the journey towards the life we wanted. With the idea that we would temporarily stay on friends land until we had enough money to purchase our own. However, we stalled and never reached the next phase.
This past…
Detailing all aspects of life that I want to understand and master
I currently live in Auckland, New Zealand with my partner and 9-year-old daughter. We are renting a three-bedroom property with a small garden with some raised planter boxes that don’t get much sun. We are also fully on-grid relying on power, water and waste management from our local council.
This is not how we want to be living!
Ideally, we would love to stay close to friends and family in the northern areas of Auckland. However, due to the current housing crisis and property bubble in New Zealand, this is looking increasingly difficult to achieve (even out in the countryside)
For when a standard push-up is getting a little stale
Push-ups are the quintessential movement that people relate to strength and fitness. The ability to even do just one with perfect form is a bench-mark for your physical prowess.
Many people (myself included) will spend countless hours over weeks and months trying to move up through different scaled push-up variations trying to improve strength and technique to finally be able to do the elusive full-body push-up.
However, what happens when you can finally do full push-ups with ease?
Sure, you can continue to do standard push-ups and increase your volume. But all that is really achieving is muscular endurance rather…
Ellen Quirke
Living a sustainable life and writing about my experience. Based in Auckland, New Zealand. Get my free sustainability eGuide https://bit.ly/38wy3tF
