Welcome to the Festive world

The Carnival of Venice

This Carnival of Venice is described as one of the best carnivals in the world. It is centered around the Piazza San Marco. The events are held in every towns and cities of Venice. This event also contains boat parades along with the Grand Canal. Its main specialty is about their elaborate masks and a mask parade is done in the Piazza San Marco. It comprises of a special Carnival for Children in the Cannaregio district of Venice. It is kind of annual festival held every year in the city of Venice.

It is held for a period of two weeks . It ends just the day before the Ash Wednesday which is very commonly said as the shrove Thursday. During this carnival a number of freebies are available for the tourists. Like the free show , special video projections and free guided museum tours , there’s a lot of free things that happens during the Carnival which makes us to add this carnival as a must attending one on our bucket list. The tradition of the mask started long back to the 13th century .

According to the pages of history, The Carnival of Venice started when the venetians military, of the Venetian Republic won against the Patriarch of Aquileia in the year of 1162. On that time people started celebrating the the victory by dancing . This festival be became an official on during the period of Renaissance. During the 17^th century it became the prestigious way to save the image of the Venice in the world. This carnival reached its peak fame during the 18^th century.

Running has truly changed my life. I never thought that because I never understood running as a form of exercise.

When physical harm is looming, our natural response is to run. It’s human nature — we either fight or flee. Most of us choose to flee— I would surely run if a wild animal would charge at me. But I also found that our fear mechanism kicks in when we face emotional challenges.

During the first two weeks this year, my grandmother passed away, I broke up with my girlfriend, and I started to dislike my job in London because of office politics. Everything seemed to work against me.

My life felt stuck. So I decided to run. It was my natural response. I just wanted to getaway. I laced my shoes and started running — by the time I came back, I felt tired and energized at the same time. I knew I was on to something.

I’ve always exercised since I was little. I played basketball through high school. In my adult years, I’ve practiced different sports — I tried kickboxing, tennis, squash. But I never got excited about those things.

So I did what most people do when they don’t want to get fat — go to the gym. In a way, going to the gym is lazy. You hop in your car, do some light to moderate exercise while you have a chat with a friend or someone you know from the gym. I’ve been doing that for the past ten years for 2 or 3 times a week.

Once in a while, I would get hyped about running. However, I always picked up running for the wrong reasons. I used running as a reason to buy new Nike’s and compression clothes. Or I decided to run to lose weight or become more healthy.

Other times, I went for a run on Sunday morning to get rid of the alcohol from the previous night out. My running stints never lasted longer than 2–3 weeks. I would lose interest in running. I just didn’t understand it.
Why would anyone go through the pain of running? Especially when the weather is bad. Who does that? I’d rather go to the gym with my friends, talk, and pick up some weights.

But I found that pain is precisely the reason I started to run again. When my life was not what I wanted it to be, I was upset. I felt like punching a stranger on the subway. But instead of getting busted by a British police officer, I decided to run when I arrived home one day after work.
It was a cold January day, and I only ran for 3 miles in a time that I am too ashamed to mention. But my time is not what’s important — during that run I finally got it.

My stamina was synonymous with my life at the time — it was bad, but I knew it would be better if I kept running. If I would fight against the wind, rain, cold, and my thoughts of giving up, I would eventually improve my stamina and be a better runner.

My life has improved at the same rate that my running pace and stamina has improved. But running has the most impact on my productivity, mood, creativity, and overall livelihood. Scientific research backs all of this.

Dr. John Ratey wrote a book about the effect of exercise on our brain, called Spark. He says:

“Cognitive flexibility is an important executive function that reflects our ability to shift thinking and to produce a steady flow of creative thoughts and answers as opposed to a regurgitation of the usual responses. The trait correlates with high-performance levels in intellectually demanding jobs. So if you have an important afternoon brainstorming session scheduled, going for a short, intense run during lunchtime is a smart idea.”

Every time life became difficult I would give up. When I wanted to travel the world after college, I decided that I did not have money — so I told myself I should save money. Years passed, and that round-the-world trip never happened — I was scared to be away from home for a long time.

Now, when life is difficult, my response is different — I love the pain and struggle instead of shy away from it. I owe this to running.
And the best thing about running is that is easy to start. You just go. You decide when, where, and how fast.

To me, running is exactly like life. It’s hard, you do not always want to do it, summers are better than winters, and you feel better when you have new shoes. But it’s worth it. After the pain comes happiness, both in life and in running. That’s why my life is moving forward again — I’ve never stopped running for a day. You should try it too.

Is college worth the investment of your time and money? And what do you even learn in college?

When it comes to learning—I like to learn by doing. So from that point of view, going to college wouldn’t be necessary for me. But I did go. For six years.

Most of my friends and peers who are like me never went to college. They just did things. But weirdly enough, I did not only go to college, but I also loved it.

I spent four years getting a bachelor’s degree in business, and another two years to get a Master’s degree in marketing from another university. 

People often ask me:

• “Should I go to college?”
• “Should I drop out?”
• “Should my kid go to college?”
• “Do you need a degree to get a job?”

I don’t think I’m in a position to answer any of those questions. It all depends on what you want to do in life.

The only thing I can do is share with you what I’ve learned from those six years in college. Because there are some valuable things I’ve learned that I probably wouldn’t know if I didn’t go to college.

So here are the 6 biggest lessons I’ve learned in college.

1. Learning Should Be Fun

Most of my professors were quite boring. And that often made learning a boring affair.

But fortunately, I also had many enthusiastic professors. That made me learn an important lesson: Learning is not boring. People are.

The school doesn’t have to be boring as long as the teachers are passionate about what they teach.

Why not make it more fun for students? I never get it when teachers think they are police offers. Teachers should teach, not the police.

2. The More You Learn, The Less You Know

During my time in college, I learned mostly from professors, books, and my fellow students. As a business student, you often work together on assignments. And that’s how I learned the most useful things I know.

But the funny thing was that every year I felt like I had fewer answers to everything.

“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.” ― Voltaire

That’s the beauty of education. Idiots think they know everything. But the more you learn, the less certain you are of things.

Some people go to college and they become even bigger idiots because they think they have a degree.

But going to college has NOTHING to do with being smart. We’re all in the same boat: We know nothing.

3. “Thinking” Is A Skill

I would say that I’ve forgotten about 95% of the stuff I learned. But I don’t care.

I don’t get why people HAVE to study something they enjoy. If you think that you should only study subjects that you love, you’re completely missing the point of college.

The most valuable thing you learn in college is the ability to think.

As long as you study SOMETHING, you train your brain to think. And that’s priceless. Thomas Edison put it best:

“Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think.”

We live in a world where resourceful people thrive. How do you become resourceful? Exercise that brain of yours. Learn how to think.

4. Finishing Something Is HARD

College was hard. People who say they went through college with ease are full of shit.

It’s not easy to learn full time for at least 4 years. And teachers often try to make it hard on you as well. And they should.

In college, you learn that finishing something is hard—it takes real blood, sweat, and tears.

But you know what? Once you finish something that you started, you’ll be proud of yourself.

5. Experience Is Never A Waste Of Time Or Money

People often regret that they chose a wrong degree. Or sometimes you feel like you wasted your time and money on education that you didn’t pursue further with a career in that direction.

But how else do you expect to know yourself? Everything you do in life is an experiment.

If something doesn’t work out, just try something else. Maybe you switched majors, classes, or even degrees. So what? As long as you don’t give up it’s all good.

“All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

6. There Are People Who Are Drastically Different From You

When you grow up in one area, you think that’s life. You are exposed to the same people, same opinions, thoughts, culture, etc.

That’s a very limited life.

But once you go to college, you often meet people from different countries, with different ideas and cultures.

That’s a great way to learn about people and the world. In a way, it’s like traveling the world. But when you go to college, the world comes to you.

During my time in college, I worked with people from South-Africa, China, South-Korea, Romania, Germany, America, Canada, Brazil, India. That’s what I can recall. I was probably exposed to even more people from different countries.

It gives you a better perspective of the world and the people who live in it. One thing you’ll learn is that, in a way, we’re all the same — and yet, we’re so different.

That’s not only the beauty of college but also of life.

So, if you have the chance; go to college. If not; try to learn in a different way.

As I said, I don’t know much, but there’s one thing I’m confident about: Education never ends. So whether you’re in college or not, just keep on keep on learning.

“I quit.” That’s what I think three or four times a month.

To be honest, the thought of quitting whatever I’m doing in my life has been on my mind as long as I remember. When I was in high school, I wanted to quit and just find a job. When I played basketball, I wanted to quit.

When I started a business, I wanted to quit and get a job. When I got a job, I wanted to quit and get back to my business.

I can go on and on until I reach the present. I know, it sounds like an existential crisis that people in the first world only have. But that’s not what’s going on.

You’ll never find me crying about stuff like missing out on parties, not being able to get my hands on a ‘one-of-a-kind’ t-shirt (you hype beasts out there), or a dead battery.

But no matter how much I love what I do, the thoughts of quitting and just walking away show up in my mind every time things get hard. And in the past, those thoughts cost me many nights of sleep.

About two years ago I had enough. I wanted to quit thinking.

So I started becoming aware of my thoughts instead of always acting on every single thought I had.

“You don’t control me,” I would say to myself like a weirdo. But it works. I’m much calmer, patient, and happier because of it. However, when I want to quit, I still listen to it because sometimes it is a sign. 

But more often, it’s just fear. And I refuse to surrender to it. And so should you.

Don’t Quit When It Gets Hard

I’m all about quitting things that are not worth it. Sometimes, you’re doing things that don’t contribute anything to your life. For example, I’ve left jobs, clients, and even friends in the past.

However, I’m firmly against quitting when things get hard. And unfortunately, that’s exactly the reason most of us quit.

Look, achieving goals never happens in a linear way.

We believe there’s a straight line from where you are to where you want to be. Let’s say your goal is to start a business so you can have more freedom in your life. That was my goal since I was 17.

I still remember how I came up with that goal. I started working several jobs since I was 15. I worked in kitchens, stores, and call centers. And I quickly realized, there’s only one person who benefits from all this: The one at the top.

So from an early age, I set my mind to working for myself. I thought I could just start working for myself from the beginning.

But that’s not how it worked out for me. I had to take a lot of detours. I worked for many other people in between. I also started businesses that failed. And I’m still no way near where I want to be.

But understanding that life is not linear helps us to change the way we think.

It took me years to figure out how you can work for yourself successfully. Along the way, I’ve thought about quitting many times.

Now, I realize that’s a good thing. If you never feel like quitting, that means life is too easy, and you need to take action in your life.

Everybody plays tough and pretends they can easily handle life. I don’t believe that. No one knows what they’re doing. Some people are just better at dealing with their fear than others.

Because when you get over your fear, good things happen. Unfortunately, there’s nothing I can say to make things easier for you. Life is not easy. No matter what you do, it’s time to stop watching Netflix every night and browsing webshops for the newest clothes.

Don’t put your life off. It takes a while to figure things out. But that doesn’t mean you should quit. I’ve learned that if you haven’t reached your goals yet, or haven’t found a way to be successful, it doesn’t mean you’re a loser.

It means you haven’t found out how to win yet. If you keep going, you will find out.

But if you quit, you won’t. So don’t.