Vandz18

So I am not usually a person that succumbs to fads but when I looked at the Penny Skateboards I knew it was something that I desperately wanted.

From it's brilliant colours to it's mobility - I was hooked. The only problem was the price. It's advertised internationally as being just $100 and being the naive South African consumer that I am - I thought "wow that's probably cheap, it'll probably be about R150/R200 here, I NEED ONE NOW".

So I visited the South African store and was immediately bewitched by the beautiful boards up for sale. And then I was even more blown away by that fact that you could customize your board! For a slightly higher price of course. 

So after a few moments of browsing I found one that I liked and I decided to finally look at the price.

Click click click. Load load load.

Finally.

And that's when I nearly had a heart attack.

The board came to a whopping R1250! And that was a standard board. Not only that, seeing as this is an online store I also, in addition to the actual price of the product, would have to pay for the delivery costs which are about another R100. So I was looking at a whopping total of around R1350 without any customizing or anything fancy.

And that's when this scary thing happened. Instead of going "well this is ridiculous, I can get a proper longboard for even less than that price" and pressing that little red x, I actually sat and contemplated buying this board! Maybe it was the lateness of the hour or that fact that I was losing my mind and I didn't know about it. And that's when it hit me. I wasn't exiting the page or cancelling the transaction because I was so consumed by the popularity of the product. Sure a longboard would do the same thing and for a fraction of the cost, but who wants a regular old long board when they have the option of saying "I have a penny board!" Who wants to ride a regular wood board when they can ride colourful plastic boards that can fit in a backpack? No one that's who! 

And it's all because of media and consumerism. I mean, I would not still be sitting on that page if there wasn't something in the back of my mind saying "it's a penny board...PENNY board!" And so there I was. Someone who usually doesn't give a damn about trends and fads, was sucked into the world of money and trends and how to get people to spend money on trends. And it's a damn scary world. And it's so easy to get sucked into it because you don't even know that it's drawing you in! And I used the penny board as my own personal example, and I have no hate at all towards that company or their products (I mean clearly I love them!) but this concept applies to everything! From the food we eat to our clothes. And we don't even know how we are affected by it. I mean another example is a shirt my friend and I have. The shirts were exactly the same in every way except that one shirt had a brand name on it. The nameless shirt R50, the branded shirt over R300! When we discovered this we were blown away. A simple brand name costed R250 extra. Yet once again, which shirt would you pick? The one with the name on it right? See. It's so easy to get pulled into that world.

My point is, after all this rambling, is that you need to be aware of what you buy and how the media affects you. And it's sad to see how we are so easily manipulated. But what's sadder is that people take advantage of this and manipulate us further for their own gain. They are trying to dumb us down for their own gain. (that's right, I went all "The Man" on you) But we need to be smart. We are individuals with our own minds and we have the ability to make our own choices despite what is constantly being fed to us. We are smart. We have brains for a reason. We just have to use them!

That being said, I got my penny cruiser board. It is not the brand "Penny" but a completely blank board. And I got mine, postage and all included for R1000 less than my authentic "Penny" would have amounted to. It may not say "Penny" but it looks and rides in the exact same incredible way as the branded one does! 

The Man: 0

Me: 1 (in some way)

Juhu Beach

Where would I be without you? Drowning in this sea of nothingness Where nothing is what it seems Lost in the waves of sadness Insignificant as a grain of sand Sometimes I forget why I am here                                   But you never forget to grab my hand You steer me in the right direction With your footprints in the sand And as I thread carefully I see your smile in the distance Your arms opened wide It's a long painful path But I know that if I'm pure of heart One day Through grace and mercy I will walk with you  On the shores of your eternal Juhu Beach

Maya’s Illusion

Maya’s illusion is like the foam Which mixes again with the sea. No one is mother, father, or relative; Like the sea foam, they remain a short while only. And, as the sea foam merges into the sea, This precious body of five elements disappears. Who can say how many ephemeral forms The embodied soul has taken?

So I'm having one of those days when you just sit and reflect about all the stuff that's been going on in life. 

And I have lots to be thankful for but the one thing I am most thankful for this year was learning who my real friends are. 

I was one of those people that had a huge a group of friends that i would d o practically anything for. I'm not even exaggerating. If someone was ill I'd drop everything to get them medicine and go over and make them feel better or if they really wanted me to go to something that my parents were not keen on letting me go to, I'd still go - defy my parents - and be there with my friends.

One friend in particular comes to mind. Boy was I blindsided by her. I would cross oceans for her and she, well, as I discovered this year, she wouldn't even want to dirty her boot with a drop of water for me. And it took me so long to figure this out, and I think that that is the worst part about it. I was being used and I was letting people use me.

But this year, possibly the longest and most difficult year of my life, I learnt that I need to stand up for myself. I learnt that being a friend does not mean that you forget who you are or that you become a doormat. Friendship is a two way street. Being a friend is being true to yourself and realizing what you are worth and knowing that your friends see you for what you're worth. 

So yes, there may be friends everywhere as they say. But true friends, those are fair and few. So what if my true friends have gone from 100 to only 5 or 6? Those are 5 or 6 people that I know love me for who I am and would be there for me in a heartbeat. And that's what matters.