Marieke = realist.

I’m quite realistic you know. Things I am realistic about:

My cooking and baking skills are rather poor, even though I like to pretend I am a contestant on Masterchef with YEARS of experience, TONS of knowledge and BUTT LOADS of talent. I’m always over-salting and over-peppering things and I can’t remember the last time I baked a cake and actually measured the vanilla sugar and baking powder. I do it on feeling. That’s a thing I’ve got from my impeccable talent for cooking. Which is nonexistent.

My English is above average for being a 17 year old Dutch immigrant who lives in Norway. It sounds awful I know, but I have so many weaknesses that I like to brag about the few positives I actually have. My English is in no way flawless or always grammatical correct, but it is fluent. Nowadays I switch effortlessly from thinking and talking in Dutch or Norwegian to thinking and talking in English. Even though I’m not sure at all, I think that I’ll end up doing something with English, whether it is translating, working as an interpreter or teaching. Kinda scary, I know.

I seriously hate the girl who stands right in front of the instructor at Zumba and who can dance the whole routine flawlessly, always with a proud smirk and a horrible bitchy attitude. She is in the way. I don’t care how nice she looks, I hate her. And maybe there are some little sparks of jealousy when I am in the back struggling with the step-step-clap-jump-step-LINEDANCE.

I’m great at motivating other people. But I suck at motivating myself. For example, the few times I’ve jogged with someone who actually is in worse shape than me, I was excellent at cheering them on. I would jump, shout and laugh, and enjoy being a happy, little cloud of energy. But when I have to jog alone and motivate myself I really suck. I feel pains I don’t have, I need breath when I still have enough and I need water even though I just swallowed half my bottle. It is all in my head. As if my big ass brain is in the way. The same big ass brain who makes me think that I can jog. You see? There I go again. MOTIVATION IS THE KEY TO HAPPINESS. I’ll just have to say positive things to myself to motivate me.

You are NOT boring. Everyone else is boring. You are not stupid. You are just TOO smart. You are not a social failure. You are SPECIAL.

Nice way to do ''4 things you didn't know about me'', right? YES IT WAS, Marieke, you are so creative.