It’s Been Awhile – a personal update

It’s been awhile… Since I could hold my head up high…*hums*

Oh. What was I doing? Right, writing a blog to my much neglected blog. A few weeks ago I visited my own site for the first time in a while. Man, was I embarrassed. My last post, titled “Preparing for my Return” was posted on January 10. Well, I’m prepared now -here I am! Better late than never!

I’ve been up to a lot. Guess I should update y’all.

1. Graduated

I’m now officially a BSc in Clinical Psychology. I introduce myself as “Manon de Reeper, BSc.,” these days, when I shake people’s hands (okay not really). Needless to say I’m happy and proud about it.

Also, I got 80% for my thesis. I was psyched (yes, pun intended!).

Receiving my degree

It’s really for real

2. Got accepted into the only Master’s I applied for 

I’m not sure whether I mentioned this before on the blog, but some time ago, I decided I wanted to continue into criminology and “leave” the clinical psychology path behind. I wrote a motivation letter (which is much harder than it seems at first), sent it in… And waited. Waited. Waited some more. Then, finally, a few weeks ago I got the message I was accepted into the Global Criminology Master’s track at Utrecht University. I’m excited and scared at the same time. This is a one year Master’s, so I’ll be graduating again in a year. Then, I can introduce myself as “Manon de Reeper, BSc, MA”. Now, that’s what I call swag.

3. Started about six new hobbies

I’m easily bored (and distracted… SQUIRREL!), what can I say (this is for real, this was already scientifically proven by some psychologist that checked me out when I was little). I started making soap (real soap with the lye and everything) and started a homemade cosmetics company, started an online (Dutch) magazine for which I wrote six articles a day (needless to say that burnt me out quite quickly)… Well. I bit off more than I could chew. Too enthusiastic for my own good, I think.

4. Bought a house

O_o We did. A few weeks ago, we bought a house. In Utrecht. I’m insanely excited. I’m not sure if anyone knows but at the moment I live in the city center of Utrecht, which is wonderful if you love old architecture (like I do), but absolutely horrific if you like your peace (like I do). Or some space (like I do). And at the moment, renting a house is more expensive in The Netherlands than buying a house, so to us it seemed the logical move.

This house though, is in a miserable state. If you lean against a wall on the top floor, it nearly topples over.

And we’ll be doing the renovating… Ourselves O_O. I know, ambitious much? We still don’t have the keys to the house yet (stupid realtor going on a stupid vacation), we’ll probably get it some time later this month… Right when my master’s start. O_o

Anyway, the house practically needs to be stripped and built up again. It’s exhilarating but also frightening. The boyfriend wants to be done by Christmas, but I’m skeptical (but hopeful). We’ll see. Thankfully, there’s loads of people that want to help us.

5. Remember I started Roller Derby?

Yeah, I did. I’m still a newbie as for skills (seriously I suck and am still mostly scared I’ll die) but I made it into the board of the league. Which is loads of fun but costs quite some time. But. Fun! And great for my résumé.

6. I promised kitty pics

Nappytime… This was not staged!

Two weeks before I disappeared, we got a little Bengal kitten. Our pretty little Poh, we picked him up on second Christmas day (we have that here, neener). He’s almost 10 months now, and he has opened my eyes. He made me see that cats can be like fucking hurricanes. I don’t know what it is but although I studied conditioning, I clearly suck ass at it. When I say no, wag my finger, he just looks at me, sniffs and continues digging in the bin. Then I shout, stamp with my feet, wave my arms, approach him big and wide-eyed (I heard it helps with wolves/bears/other random dangerous animals), he regards me again – I see him think “fool” – and goes back to what he’s doing.

If I ever get children I’m doomed.

Nevertheless, I never met any cat that’s so soft and cuddly as he is. And when I brush him (Bengals do shed) or clip his nails, or pull his legs or ears or poke his eyes (okay I don’t do that but still), he barely even responds. He’s all for doing naughty things, but I don’t think he even made the connection between claws, teeth, pain and making us stop.

In any case, I promised pics. And pics thou shall get. In a future post, I’m already frying your collective brains enough with this one.

7. Ehhh.. What was it … Oh yeah, writing fiction

I kind of failed on that aspect. Had loooaaads and heaps of free time the past few months, should have practically been able to finish an entire book in that time. If only I could focus long-SQUIRREL!-er on one thing. However, I did make some progress in the past few months which I think equally as important as writing an actual book. Namely.

• I decided I had to stop with what I was doing with Aeon
• I decided I want to and should write YA. I’ll never be this great poetic fantasy writer (à la Patrick Rothfuss) – although I can proudly say I am almost fluent, my English vocabulary isn’t sufficient and I was fooling myself it was. Plus, I love YA, and writing it.
• I wanted to start over with something else so I could really plan ahead instead of just writing and see your brain brings forth.
• I’m slowly planning and starting to write my new project, tentatively called Pandemonium. It’s YA, it’s set in future India in a post-world war world. It has a very interesting main character – with very interesting flaws.

That I had to stop with Aeon was a bitter pill though and did demotivate me for some time, honestly. Even though I stopped writing fiction for some time, I didn’t stop writing non-fiction, as I blogged vigorously for the aforementioned Dutch online magazine.

Sorta unimportant but still important… Diet

I’m not overweight, I’m pretty much healthy… But my diet changed gradually but majorly the past months. I’ve always eaten (and cooked) healthily, but honestly, I feel that today’s supermarket food (even leaving fast food out of the equation here because I barely eat it) is a farce. Literally, actually, so much is fake. Since I got into making my own cosmetics, I became aware of how much crap is in it and what we put on our skins (it’s insane). Same thing for what we eat.

Anyway, what happened is that I started reading blogs that promote healthy eating (often equated with vegetarian/vegan eating). I still eat meat, but only when someone cooks/buys it for me – I rarely prepare it myself (perhaps once or twice a month), I make snacks myself now (even chips!)… And it’s all much more delicious, too. It costs time, but it’s worth it in my oh so humble opinion. My diet’s just generally more healthy now than before and I think my body will thank me for it in the future.

I think I’ve updated you enough for now. I plan on upping the frequency of my blogging (instead of once every half year, I might consider posting once every three months. Ha. ha. ha.).

If you still want to read this blog and are interested in what I can write (if you’ll remember, I wrote a lot about psychology, criminology, philosophy, weird stuff, pop culture and writing); I’d love to know what you want me to write about and learn more of. If you’re interested in my real life stuff, I’d definitely write about that too.

Let me know!

I missed this.

Much love,

Manon

P.S. Check out my website, I thought a make-over was appropriate to celebrate my return!

P.P.S. Thanks everyone who checked up with me in the past months, I greatly appreciated it <3. Also, the fact that my blog continued to receive between 100-150 visits a day is very encouraging to pick this back up, too.

P.P.P.S. if you have “It’s been Awhile” stuck in your head now… You’re not the only one.