Introducing myself

Hello world!

My name is Myrto and this blog’s been in the making for years! I’ll be probably be doing most of my writing in english, but there will be some pieces in greek on here as well, I am pretty sure.

So for my first post I was planning to write a silly/funny thing, something along the lines of “35 things about being 35” (inspired by my recent 35th birthday, in case you’re wondering), but it turned out way more serious than I intended it to, so I still haven’t decided whether I will be posting it or not. In all honesty, the only light-hearted thing on there was the fact that I am fine with the grey hair on my head, but I absolutely loathe the 3-4 grey hairs on my eyebrows.

Instead, I’ll be sharing a story with you that made me think and warmed my heart as well.

But first, an introduction: one of the (million) things I do at work, is finding content for our official webpage, which, as you can assume, requires lots and lots of internet searching.

In most cases, said searching happens at home, because 9.5 times out of 10, if I am at work and try searching for an article or a video or whatever, I’ll never get to finish it because something always comes up.

I never learn from past mistakes though, so, last week, I was at work and spotted a video on YouTube that seemed appropriate for our page. I started it, and just 2 minutes into it, an emergency came up and I had to deal with that first.

It was so urgent, that I didn’t even shut down my browser, and the video kept playing in the background; usually when I need to be focused I don’t mind minor noises, like people talking, so it was all good.

So I had MS Word open, typing away the thing I was supposed to write, when I heard the following phrase from the speakers: “My heart is unavailable to anyone else at the moment” and I am like: “What the heck? I had a video about libraries playing; were did this come from?”

So, I switch applications and realise a) that an hour had passed, so of course my video had ended long ago and b) that all my recent searches had created a rather weird (and interesting) playlist for me, and the video playing was ones of my recommended ones. Keep in mind that I search things for work, for my writing (like how a corset is properly worn for instance), for my Master’s thesis (so many interesting documentaries!), or simply for things I find funny.

I think I’ve drawn a pretty accurate picture of how random and weird my recommended section can look from time to time; anyway, I check the video and I see it’s 45 minutes long, and at first glance it’s just two (very young looking) girls talking.

Normally, I wouldn’t be watching this. I mean there was nothing wrong with it, the two girls seemed lovely and funny, but they looked 18 or so, so I don’t think I am their target audience. I mean, I am ancient compared to them; I turned 35 a week ago!

But that phrase had caught my attention, so I made a note on my phone to check it at a later point. I admit it, I was curious...

...but also completely forgot about it for almost a week. So, fast forward to last Wednesday; it was a very long and tiring day, so when I finally got home I had zero interest in working on neither my stories nor my thesis. I needed something to unwind so watching that video made perfect sense.

As it turned out, it was a live stream of two sisters answering questions from their followers, most of which revolved around whether one of the sisters was dating anyone.

And there were awkward moments, like when people kept pressing for an answer (but not in a mean way, it was friendly), and blushing cheeks, and heart-eyes (because clearly there was a guy, but she didn't want to talk about it, which makes sense for me; you may choose to share things on the internet, but some things are yours and yours alone); oh, and a very strong sibling bond too; her sister was lightly teasing too at first, but when the topic got too uncomfortable for her sister, she instantly went into ‘we’re changing the subject right now’ mode. Which I totally get; I can tease my sister all I want, but anyone else, leave her alone!

All and all, it really felt like eavesdropping on a sweet and funny conversation between friends and it made me smile quite a few times actually, in the ‘oh, I remember what that age feels like’ way.

After that, I actually ended up watching a few more of their videos too; and let me tell you, these girls are funny! I have a feeling my younger self would have been a devoted fan. :-)

From what I gathered, the girl that people kept pestering, is the louder sibling. But a phrase like “my heart is unavailable to anyone else at the moment” reveals a very sweet, sensitive person too. And,  being a loud (and hopefully funny) person myself, I think people are very often surprised when they see that loud people have a soft, quiet side too. 

When I started writing this piece, I had no idea where it was going; but that’s something I am used to. Most of the time, I start writing in order to figure out my thoughts.

I could not put my finger on why I found this phrase so appealing, but, as it was pointed out to me, that’s very close to my own view on romance (I quote: “That sounds like something you’d say, at any age”). I was like “oh” for a moment but then of course it made sense. My heart went out to that girl, because back in my early twenties I was very similar to her. And I still I am that person, just slightly more mature I think.

Because, see, that’s the thing with romantic relationships. If you have given your heart away, it makes very little difference to put an “official” label on that relationship. Titles like "boyfriend/girlfriend/taken/whatever else you want to call it" don't matter at all, when your heart is already taken. Of course, if it’s one sided, that sucks big time, but that’s a topic for another time.

What I am basically trying to say is this though: it was refreshing to remember how that age is like; and it was good to be reminded that as you get older, you gain experience and are better prepared for whatever life throws your way, but also that there will always be a ton of things that will leave you confused, no matter how much experience and wisdom you have.

Also, would you look at that; 1000+ words of nonsense as an introduction. Wow! If I could write this fast for my thesis, it would have been done six months ago. :-p

Anyway, I really hope you've enjoyed my ramblings.

Till next time,

M.

P.S. I will also be uploading some older pieces I've written and posted here and there over the years, so I can finally have them all in one place, so that will be a thing too.