Long time no see everyone. I thought I'd finally get to a post that was long overdue. If you know anything about me, you'd know I'm often very busy throughout the semester. Actually, I've actually built quite a name for myself as someone who's incredibly occupied all the time.
This year more than ever before, I've been working on many things. Not only do I study full time, I have two part time jobs, and have also been heavily involved in a project that I have mentioned on many occasions, known as Multicultural Week.
So what exactly is Multicultural Week? Most people have heard me refer to my involvement in a 'club' at university. It's not often a topic I elaborate all that much on, despite the fact that it's been an ongoing project that began during the latter half of 2014.

My role in the 'club' is a Media Director. There are two of us in a Board of Directors that organise events and the runnings of the club for the whole year. Multicultural Week is a department under UWA's International Student Services, which is under the Guild. Now that the technical aspects of my role are out of the way, let's get into the details of what I've been working on for the past year.

I feel that most uni students have a huge misconception of what clubs are like and what joining means. Yes there's social clubs, clubs with a cause, clubs that join people who have similar interests. But it's not as simple and joining and never putting your $5 membership fee to use (the best part is that MCW is actually a free club!!!). A crucial aspect of understanding these clubs is how much you care about them. For me, identifying with the values of the organisation is what keeps you there. Because it's not really just about the parties or hanging out. When you move into higher positions such as director, treasurer etc. there is a lot of work to get through to keep the club running.

Most people don't consider the work that goes into even small events such as a sausage sizzle or fundraiser. Who files for the permits and approvals for food to the council and the Guild? Who organises the equipment, food, utensils, stalls? And those posters letting you know there's a sausage sizzle, where do they come from? Most clubs are where you will find people that work for free as well :)

There are several aspects of my role that I'd like to mention as key learning outcomes from my experience as a Media Director;

1. Managing Professional Commitments and the Invaluable Process Of
Many might think that as a Director, it's easy to run and manage your duties. But the reality is that there will always be a thorough procedure for our work.

• The first step is conceptualising a method of expressing our ideas(which I will discuss at length in the next two parts of this post)
• Once we map out our plans and establish the projects we will be working on, we will either source people to help us or we will do it ourselves
• We will share our ideas with other directors and management
• We must receive approval

If one step does not go smoothly, we are back to the others so from getting to our ideas to the finished product can be quite delayed. Outside of posters, we design other promotional materials. We both divide the tasks among us. I'm excited to share with you today as an example of my commitments, the process of designing a committee polo.

The committee shirt has been one of the longer projects that has I've only recently completed. The design for the shirt was the most difficult aspect as it is quite an important piece that represents MCW at all our events. We also include sponsor logos on the shirt, so it is important that it accurately represents the values of our sponsors as well.

Although we design the shirt, we have a lot of stages before arriving at a finished product. A consensus is important when coming to a decision on what the final outcome will be. We have our Managing Director and ISS Director who know our brand and values the best and have a clear vision for how it needs to be represented. Marketing is responsible for our sponsors and Finance who needs to consider the costs of printing. Our brief included a polo design, with the sponsors and with this in mind we finally came to a consensus on the theme colours. Although our theme colour is green, many felt the green was too strong for a shirt. We used black and grey instead, the same colour as Lee.

The shirts usually had an image as the focal point, but I felt that we could incorporate the image in a different way. We went with Lee's face on one sleeve, and the MCW logo on the front chest with a large back graphic with the words "Multicultural Week 2015". We left more space for the sponsor logos and kept them in clear tiers. It is quite different to the previous years.

Most importantly, as evidenced by the polos, is that the commitments we have to sponsorships directly affect how we can actualise our ideas. I think that learning about this process, and having the experience of fulfilling these commitments on such a legitimate scale was one of the most enriching aspects of developing my self management.

2. Management of a Team
A large part of being a Media Director also includes coordinating our Media committee. We have a group of roughly ten people that we regularly meet up with. The behind-the-scenes of managing a team is probably the driest part of the job. It requires a lot of commitment and organisation.

On a typical week, Elaine and I will discuss what needs to be done, and then set some topics for discussion which will be drafted into an agenda. We do this almost every week before we meet with our team. We also write up a weekly report for the board so that everyone knows where we are at with our projects.

This semester we have attempted to communicate with our members in a more personalised manner, with smaller meetings and smaller group chats where we can have an active forum of discussion with faster replies. I have really enjoyed this style of management as I feel that we have increased our productivity as well as created a better work environment where our members feel a sense of value and reward for their work. We naturally have developed a stronger relationship with those choose to be more active with projects and our communication and ability to manage these projects has become much more sophisticated.

Being a team leader is often difficult and requires an unmatched level of investment into the cause. The reality is that everyone values the cause differently. I've learned to be very persistent with follow through and ensuring things can be completed. Although I have always been extremely self motivated, I realised that many people performed efficiently when being motivated by others. The most important thing I have done is accept this and taking responsibility for my duties.

I have learned that I cannot expect others to have an equal level of commitment and I cannot, as an individual, expect things to be done in the way, speed or method that I would imagine to do them. The best way to ensure that a mutually pleasing outcome can be produced is to communicate the expectations I have and create a dialogue between my team members as to whether my expectation is reasonable.

I think that I still have a lot to learn in this aspect. Everyone has such a vastly differing work ethic and I still find it difficult to manage a team using a standardised means. Throughout the year I have developed invaluable relationships through managing a team and I've experienced many different situations that have made me realise the importance of adapting to differences within team members.

3. Contingencies and Letting Go!
The final learning outcome I would like to touch on in regards to my evaluation of my management abilities relates to self management and how I've dealt with letting go.
It is quite possible that this is the most important learning outcome for me personally, as I've really understood what it means to be me. I'm a control freak because I'm a perfectionist. If I choose to complete something, I'm very much obsessed with creating THE perfect outcome. If I feel that I can't then I won't make any effort to involve myself.
It seems so simple but is one of my biggest challenges which is to move back and draw myself out of that abstraction. I've ended up getting involved with things that aren't related to my duties and I've also ended up messing up projects that were under my responsibilities.

No matter how much I know and how much I feel I can contribute, the reality is that it doesn't matter because it's not about what I want! That's the harsh reality is that the most difficult but most important learning outcome we need to achieve is adapting to others. It's about what the team or my boss wants. My job is to fulfil that. I need to accept that my personal opinion has limited bearing on the situation.


That was Part I of my three part series on Life as a Media Director. If you will stick around I can assure you the next parts will be much more fun! With many more interesting images to stimulate your mind and break up this wall of text. x

This is a disclaimer that what I'm about to recount is scathingly truthful. It might disgust you, but I'm not in the business of feeling too poor about it because I'm being honest. All I ask is not to judge so easily. It's taken a lot for me to post this, but I did so in good faith that it will be in some way helpful, insightful, or entertaining.

One of the most personal experiences I could share with you is that of my first ever relationship. It finally happened at the very ripe old age of 19. Yes, that is pretty much a rarity in this day and age, that prior to my 19 years of life, I had never actually dated/had a boyfriend/relationship.

Most people have play marriages with boys in their class before they turn 5, but not for me.

I am the girl guys like to be friends with. I'm a little crude, very open and someone who gives solid advice on females. I started noticing most guys see me as a friend. I'm not particularly attractive but my female friends are. Guys can be friends with me easily because I'm not attractive and I never pose a threat to the friendship. I started feeling complacent about making romantic connections even from a young age because I didn't have the confidence that anyone would actually be attracted to me. I think that was my biggest issue.

I don't like the idea of the "friendzone". Because it assumes a sense of entitlement. Just because you treat someone well, you don't deserve their love. You can't control someone else's thoughts and emotions. I never felt in the "friendzone". But yes, my romantic void began from a young age.

I'm not sure if it seems as bizarre to everyone else as it did to me: that my dating life was non-existent. I wasn't upholding a promise, or practicing certain values that I particularly believed in. But it just never really happened. Most of my friends are relatively late bloomers, but there was always romance in the air- crushes, who liked who and whatnot. Just not for me. It just never happened. No boy was interested in me when I was younger and I never felt a connection with anyone either.

I was dealing with my own issues and even though I did want to date, I never felt the urge to until all my friends started engaging in their own romantic entanglings when we left high school. I kept feeling like time was ticking and I wasn't getting any younger. First it was people dating, and then I realised more and more people were losing their virginity. I thought I was going to be the only one left on earth. It loomed over my head as I heard people from my primary school and high school were pregnant, getting engaged and even getting married.

It was 2014 and I turned 19 in March going through too much romantic teenage angst for someone my age. Society was telling me I was an adult, a full fledged (pretty much), bill-paying member of society. By that time, my frustration pushed me to rush and hope that I'd get over this first time anxiety quickly so that I would stop feeling so hesitant to put myself out there. I kept thinking that if I could just get it all over with for the first time, the source of my stress would disappear. I thought I should get it over with quickly, then I'll be able to move on. I thought I shouldn't make a big deal about it.

So I went out regularly. It wasn't as much as my peers, who I'd see getting tagged in party pics every weekend. But I did go clubbing a lot more and the frequency increased especially in the middle of the year. I genuinely liked going out, it wasn't purely to hook up. It was a great way to de-stress from study, work, and the general daily routine. Being disguised in that setting eased my anxiety about the issue. No one could tell I had never talked to a guy, or danced with a guy. I was pretty natural and found it easy to socialise when I was socially lubricated with alcohol.

I was excited because my enjoyment of dancing drunk unintentionally led to those experiences I thought I had longed for. I learned to talk to guys. I got attention from guys and I finally started to feel somewhat attractive due to that attention. I was suddenly meeting all these guys that didn't know who I was. I wasn't the romantic void I thought I was. Although I am quite social and I do have many male and female friends, this was a different type of socialising that I was becoming comfortable with.

I really enjoyed going out and I think it helped me enjoy my other relationships even more as well. I made a fair few new friends in my "day life" because it became so much more easier to put myself out there and talk to anyone I could. At this point in time, I think I was finally accepting my situation. Being single became this cool thing where I could enjoy my youth and still feel "special" because I was keeping those memories for someone special. Although I was still dateless, I was quite happy because I was meeting guys and having fun.

I felt very liberated being independent, doing everything I wanted while also having a slice of life. When I was clubbing I experienced this fantasy, where I could have a lover for half a night. The clock ticked over and I could just run away on my carriage and keep such a pretty memory without having to see that person ever again (most times!).

That's when it all changed. A boy took interest in me. Not a guy at a club, but someone from my "day life"- where I was this busy, loud, sensible girl who read comic books and had brunch too much. It came so left of field, someone who liked me for me, the day me who wasn't glammed up in a provocative dress and giggly from too much vodka.

What did that feel like? Scary. Something I had never gone through. As an adult, it felt like am impossibility.

It was something I had wanted so badly in the past and it was now a reality. So without even feeling the same way about that person, I entered this new territory and got into a relationship with them. Everything was so new and exciting. When someone was so interested in me- what I'm doing, what I like, what I dislike. Soon I began wondering the same things about him too, all the time.

We began dating around the end of the year and everything was amazing. I was so happy and I felt a sense of fulfilment I had never experienced before in my entire life. He gave me something I had never felt from even my family. I think eventually I started liking him more than he liked me and that's when it became complicated.

I had always wondered what it felt like to hold hands, to hug someone, to do all these things with people you cared about. I received flowers, gifts, kisses for the first time. I had someone's shoulder to lean on, I had someone's hand to hold in the movie theatre. I had someone to poke or scare when I jumped out behind the door (which never worked -_-).

They were small gestures that meant the world to me because I had never experienced any of them before. Every time they happened, I realised it was my first time doing them and something in my head ticked off this infinite unknown list I hadn't even consciously devised.

I was someone that was starved- who was starving for all their life- and had eaten a meal for the first time. A thousand hidden treasures couldn't replace that spoonful of food that I had been starved of my whole life. I don't think I really understood that at that point in time.

Of course I got to feel jealousy for the first time as well. It came crashing over me. I realised how irrational my emotions were becoming but it was something that was out of my control. I would feel inferior for being inexperienced, and I would feel self conscious about my looks in this new setting of intimacy that had unearthed itself in the relationship.

I had never imagined being so jealous over other girls. I always hoped to be the "cool" girlfriend. But the reality was that I started caring so much about the other person that every time I felt that it wasn't being reciprocated, it crushed me quite a lot. Remember when I previously mentioned entitlement? Yeah, I should've told that to the girl from 2014 who was slowly falling for this boy.

Everything came crashing down. He didn't want to be in the relationship so we broke up. I think I felt truly devastated. It was one of the worst points in my life. A lot of that had to do with the idea that I had already convinced myself I loved him. I never received much love in my life, so to have it disappear in a day? It was like my entire life was crashing down.

But what really happened? We dated for less than six months. In the grand scheme of things, that is negligible time. We didn't have pictures together on social media. Our footprint on this earth as a couple was practically zilch. But I still felt this misery of having to lose something and lose something that was a part of myself too.

I was now 20 and it was too late in my life to be feeling like this. The fact that I felt stupid and too old to be experiencing the "first love heartbreak" only made it worse. Experiencing this as an adult only amplified its effects on my life. I had to cope with responsibilities that didn't exist as a teenager.

I had to be "mature about it", and to minimise the effects our breakup would have on our friends. I had to forcibly stop myself from being so emotionally and physically distraught when I set foot into work every day and put on a smile which was extremely agonising. I had to overcome all these feelings in a timeframe that wouldn't effect my studies and work.

I had to be friends and cool with everything. I guess thats the norm when you're experienced with relationships. But it was my first, it was like the rug had been jerked away from under me. It became a very rough period for me, I didn't know who I was anymore and I didn't know what to do next.

I spent a lot of time resenting everything. Regretting, and hating myself and my mistakes. But I think over time I came to realise it was imminent. Nothing last forever. Especially not the first one. We build a fantasy world- everyone does- it only goes away when they fantasy is shattered. I still experienced the love and heartache of a first time. Even as a twenty-something, the feelings still felt new and fresh and equally as devastating.

Now I keep looking back as if it were a dream. My thoughts on it change back and forth, every trigger leads to a different re-imaging of one point in time. They become different memories. I've settled with feeling bittersweet about the experience. I'm appreciative now- that this person could reach out and give me that dream. It felt as if they opened a door to this fairytale where I could experience all these new and exciting memories. I remember those images of happiness and fulfilment. It's something I would've never had the chance to go through without them, and something I won't feel ever again. The sour note comes from the fact that they were responsible for everything- the happiness and the end of it.

What's next for me? I think it's brought me full circle- back to that girl in 2014 who was free and loving her life. She wasn't being held back by anything even though there were difficult things weighing her down. It's kind of beautiful that I'm back here. I'm trying to find that happiness again.

I'm not going to date for a while. I joke to my friends that I'm never dating again after it. The outcome was, to an extent, what I had actually wanted. I got over my first time anxiety. I didn't ask for the emotional roller coaster that came with it but you can't always get what you want. I'm not ready for the potential emotional damage that comes with relationships and I'm not sure when I will be.

Angie.

I recently picked this very popular contouring kit by Australis up from Priceline in their 40% off sale and I've been enjoying it quite a bit! The palette comes with 6 shades; 3 highlight and 3 contours for $16.99rrp. Really good deal and probably the only "drugstore" contour kit at this price on the Australian Market.
I prefer doing the highlight before the contour as I feel like it is much more forgiving and easier to control. My contouring skills are basic so it's easier for me to start with the less offensive step.
Gently sweep the product in your preferred area. I like to separate my nose bridge and tip when contouring to avoid painting a 'line' down either side of my nose. Definitely more wearable.
For the base contouring, I'm going to keep it even more minimal. I will admit, I am not proficient in contouring my jawline and I probably would if I could. But unless it's a special occasion, well I really can't be bothered! Establish where your facial bones are by pouting like you about to take a wicked selfie. I like to define my non-existent cheek bones using a shading brush by Ecotools by loosely sweeping the powder along the cheekbone.

You can tell I'm really addicted to this...