Posts by Sandra Martin63

Come on, Raymond Newman2, who's actually going to bother posting travel photos anyway?!

I’m not going to get bogged down in whatever petty little forum drama you guys have going on—I don't spend enough time here for that anyway—but I noticed that since I joined the DiK section, nobody has labeled me as some Offovk type or given me a lecture on how to behave. Clearly, there's a reason for that. But my brief, accidental stint in that subforum (that thread Ljes started which got moved to Off) was cut short because some of the posts from certain users were just completely unreadable. Coming back to DiK today, it looks like the same childish nonsense is playing out all over again.
Can we just open a dedicated subforum for people to act like absolute thugs so they can vent their little frustrations and leave the rest of us users alone?

Personally, I’ve never been afraid of death—not once. Growing up, funerals were just part of life; I saw bodies in caskets without any sense of dread. It was just... normal. Once I hit high school, though, my perspective shifted. I started seeing death as this massive, fascinating phenomenon. I guess it’s because it remains the ultimate mystery. You have scientists theorizing about total nothingness, while spiritualists talk about transitioning into some higher plane or a new state of being. Even ancient civilizations spent lifetimes studying the process of dying and the stages we pass through.
I honestly think people fear death because we’ve become so disconnected from nature and our own primal selves. Nowadays, we ship people off to specialized hospice facilities or nursing homes, whereas in the past, people died at home, surrounded by their family and everything they knew.

I feel incredibly lucky that I had the chance to say goodbye to someone very dear to me in such an intimate way. It really helped me process their physical absence and, strangely enough, only deepened my fascination with how enigmatic existence truly is.

Death isn't something outside of me. It lives within me
from the very first moment: growing alongside me
in every passing second
And one day
I will come to a halt
while it keeps growing
inside me, until it completely overtakes me
and reaches my very edge. (B. Šimić)

Whether I'm trekking through the mountains, wandering along the coast, navigating empty city streets at dusk, or just hitting the woods and the open road—along rivers, trails, or some random backroad in a part of the country I barely know—I’m in my element. Rain, sunshine, biting winds, or a warm breeze... it doesn't matter. Doing it solo or with company, I just love it. Honestly, walking or riding my bike are the only times my brain actually shuts up—it finally goes quiet, stops racing, and just stays still for once.

It’s pretty funny reading someone claim that I’m some kind of naive optimist who avoids real issues, shuts my eyes to reality, or is too scared to actually speak my mind. ☕

I’m upbeat, I love a good laugh, and I’m always down for a bit of chaos—honestly, I’m the exact opposite of that description.

So, apparently, I fall into that "cheerful" category. Does that mean I just nod along to everything and lack a critical bone in my body, like some people here seem to think? Absolutely not. I have never—not once—just accepted something just because it was there if it didn't sit right with me. I’ve always been picky about who I surround myself with; I seek out actual individuals, not just carbon copies of someone else or mindless followers. I listen to the music I actually like, watch my weird indie films... things that feed my soul. And honestly, that’s what keeps my energy positive. As for coworkers or random people I can't choose to avoid? They aren't important enough in my life for me to let them ruin my mood.