Hey @nyke, been a while!! *hugs* Life is good at the moment. To my own surprise, I've resolved a lot of the issues I harboured when I was highly active on ReachOut. I'm comfortable with a good group of people now :). And honestly yes, exams, exams, exams, never ending haha. I've just finished my first term of HSC and am happy with how I've gone. Uhh yeah, I've found plenty of new beats in the last year :P, listening to Vera Blue a bit recently. How are you going? ... View more

Yep, yep, yep @nyke. Plenty of fans are concerned about her mental health... she has been pumping out music (not specifically releasing, but writing/recording) for like two years straight. People have also said that there have been increasingly dark undertones in her recent songs, notably the one she released recently; "I wanna end me" is repeated too many times for comfort in my opinion. Although, this might just be her going for her whole new album aesthetic. She has exploded into the music industry at the age of 17. It's great for her, but she will have to go to hefty lengths to maintain her status for years to come. I couldn't imagine how exhausted she would be right now. ... View more

I relate to what @nyke said so much, I was thinking that while scrolling just now . I feel with things like this I've gotta be sat down and not distracted to write something good (bad choice of words) about it. I'll keep my eye out this week for other interesting cases. Also, I may be mistaken, but wasn't there some kind of development in the William Tyrrell case? A witness? Evidence? I thought I heard something on the news one night recently. ... View more

I've never watched a FB live, both specifically from ReachOut and in general, so like.. someone fill me in a bit, will we be able to comment in a chat (?) as the live is ongoing? If so, can the participants in the video actually respond to them, or are they just answering/discussing the submitted questions/comments? I feel like I need a dummies guide to FB.. honestly, I have never used it ... View more

Yes @nyke omg, I listened to it the second I woke up on Thursday (the day it came out ). Love the song, the video is really interesting too. Excited for her album on 29 March, she has created her own genre of music at this point :D Currently not listening to anything :P the sound of my fan maybe? ... View more

Grass ... View more

Winter -- I think the heat this summer explains why Fiction or non-fiction books? ... View more

It’s a common thought that I have too @Saltwaterdreamtime, “it’s stupid”. I have only recently opened up to a counsellor at my school about my constant anxious thoughts. I feel that you would benefit from looking at your thoughts from a different perspective. Instead of accepting that everything your anxious brain is telling you is absolute truth, challenge it. For example, you mentioned that you have a stressful week. Is the week stressful becuase your have something on every day which you find stressful, or is it one thing on a Friday that you’ll be thinking about all week? If you identify what is specifically making you feel anxious, what can you do to lessen the anxiety around the event? Are there worse-case scenarios that you’re envisioning? What is the logical probability that your thoughts will materialise into reality? Generally, people with who suffer with anxiety tend to work up the worst case scenario of any situation where anxiety is associated, I personally do this, but am learning to stop my overthinking before it reaches that point. And if you THINK it will be a hard week, why so? Going out on Friday won’t change anything but the fact that you’ll be out whenever you are on Friday. What if you weren’t going out on Friday? Would you still feel this way? Not sure if this will help, and no pressure to answer these questions, just something to think about :) ... View more

Great chat tonight, it was nice to have a discussion around school :D ... View more

What do you usually bring or buy for lunch?   All jokes aside, this is the worst question . My mum must ask me a million times before school goes back what I want for school lunches, I never, never, know. For some reason, I hate school lunches, I don't know where this hatred came from .   I usually bring like one of those granola bar things, a piece or two of fruit (although they aren't nice during the hot asf summer), and a sandwich, which also gets nice and warm during the summer months. I feel like I just eat crap, easy foods during school, often feeling hungry during classes -- someone give me some inspiration, please ... View more

How do you prepare for going back to school? What kind of back to school shopping or preparations do you do?   Putting aside shopping for a second, I usually attempt to fix my sleep schedule a week before school goes back. During the holiday, I go to bed any time between 1am and 4am, so I've got to get back to sleeping at 11pm, even if that is late by some people's standards .   I went school shopping today, so that was fun (not rly). Our teachers are making us switch to using binders and loose-leaf paper this year, as opposed to exercise books. Anyone have opinions on this? Would love to hear tips/tricks to make using binders easier/how to better utilise them. ... View more

@nyke wrote: I think the other thing @unwind, is that the skills you learn in the histories are invaluable! You learn how to form arguments, connect different ideas, identify bias and people's motivations, research properly and present information in different ways. I chose Ancient History as my sixth senior subject for that.   So so so so true. Towards the end of my elective history course last year, after a year of developing these skills, I started to see how quickly my friends' arguments (during a discussion or something) fell apart when I asked them the questions that my teacher would make us answer when we were analysing an argument from a source -- it was great fun :D ... View more

Do you have a subject or subjects that you are good at or enjoy studying?    I feel like I always have a different answer to this question depending on the topic I'm studying . My favourite subject (at the moment) would probably be History. I really took to this subject at the end of last year. I really enjoy learning about history, it gives you a perspective into the past that really changes my perspective on modern issues.   A lot of the content that you learn is arguably useful. I think it's advantageous to be knowledgeable about pivotal moments in history, namely world wars, for example. The knowledge is more applicable to everyday life than, for an example, harder math work. ... View more

"works well in theory but life is a bit different" YESS!! So many times I've tried to perfectly plan EVERYTHING out, disregarding the fact that life just happens. I've slowly come to the realisation that this really isn't healthy at all because when things didn't go to plan, it would really affect my anxiety. I still like to loosely plan things, but I think sticking to a rigid plan is actually quite damaging to some people's mental health. ... View more

Do you have any anxiety about starting the school year? If so, how can we lessen our anxiety and stress regarding school?   The start of the school is honestly such a bad trigger for my anxiety, despite what I said above. I always have this line of thought that because I've been off school for so long, I won't be able to perform when I return. Or that I won't be able to handle the workload, because I've spent so much time relaxing. Also, new teachers are bit nerve wracking, anyone else? When I don't really know how someone is/acts, I feel uncomfortable because I can't really predict how they'll act in a situation -- does that even make sense?   For me, I mainly just think through the thoughts LOGICALLY. For example, I spent 40 weeks last year doing school work, 6 weeks of holidays won't out-weight the "practice" I've had with school/workload. Another thing I like to do is talk things out with friends/family, they provide a good judgement if I struggle to see past anxious thoughts at the time. For example "yes, you may have teachers who are difficult, but you've never experienced a teacher where they had a problem with you before as they have no reason to have a problem with you." ... View more

Woah, honours @ecla34!! I don't fully understand what that means because I'm a high school student, but it sounds fancy and something that you probably worked hard for, so good on ya and good luck :) ... View more

Are you excited about school? Why/ why not?   I don't know if I'd say I am "excited", but I think some aspects of school I do actually like. I really love structure, so I guess the daily routine of school gives me some peace of mind knowing what I'll be doing tomorrow (somewhat). Many of my goals relate to school, so it'll give me a chance to work towards those goals (ie. grades, study hours per night).   I would also say that I'm happy to go back because these holidays have felt LONG and BORING for me . I'm excited to see my friends again on a daily basis. On the flip though, I don't think I'm looking forward to the stress that school puts on everyone. ... View more

Excited for this, can already tell it will be a great chat :D ... View more

Thank you for posting this @mrmusic, it's nice to have an open discussion about these kind of things.   Personally, I always feel uncomfortable talking about this, so I'm sorry if what I say comes across wrong, but just know that I'll try to get out what I'm saying in the best way   When I was growing up, I didn't even understand why we celebrated on January 26 -- it was just a time where my family got together and we all put on those temporary tattoos and we all celebrated being Australians (I guess?). As I've grown up I've come to realise the cultural considerations around this event, through school and generally living in this country.   I do now typically feel guilty celebrating on January 26, but I want anyone who has taken offense to what I've said to know that I don't celebrate the invasion of this land, I think what has happened in the past is disgusting. I celebrate the fact that I'm living here in Australia, a country not affected by war and conflict, where people can live with a higher standard of freedom than most countries in the world. I'm so grateful that I'm living in this country.   People have said to me in the past that because I celebrate on January 26 it automatically means that I don't have an issue with what happened to ATSI people in the past. This really frustrates me honestly -- as I said before, I do have an issue with it, and I know that all my family members who celebrate Australia Day do too. Maybe I do sound bad? I don't know. I probably do.   January 26 marked the beginning of generations of pain, but also the day Australia became part of "the making of the modern world", the reason why I'm sitting behind a laptop screen right now. I think it's pointless me trying to think about different scenarios as to how Australia became a British colony, but honestly, during that time period it was destined to happen. It's just terrible that it happened in the way that it did.   I know my opinion will probably stir some argument, and I'm happy to reply to anyone. I know what I said probably doesn't portray what I believe, mainly because I just struggled to find the right words :/ ... View more

*shane dawson has joined the chat* ... View more

yeah, when children go missing it’s way more scary. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that picture of him in the spider-man outfit :( it would be sad if they found his body, but at the end of the it would give the family some closure. it would be so difficult to return to normal life not knowing what really happened to someone that you love. ... View more

I love this thread so much!! I have to say that my interest in crime came from Shane Dawson – he used to post frequent conspiracy videos where he would discuss many things, but sometimes he talked about different murders and they almost always made me feel creeped out. Regarding the William Tyrell case, I actually find it particularly creepy. The fact that it has been 5 years and the police haven’t caught a trace of him means that whoever took him knew what they were doing, and weren’t just some joe-average kidnapper. I can’t imagine how hard it would be for people that know William – for the past 5 years they have no idea where he is, what has happened to him, or even if he’s alive. I feel there are many conspiracies which fall off this story.. ... View more

Ok, so I am 10 pages late ( ). But yeah @annabethxchase, I think it would be really interesting to have something crime themed on the forum -- we did a 'solve the murder' game in elective history last year which I enjoyed :D ... View more

Grounded (not in the parent sense haha, more that you’re grounded and feeling in control – I say this to myself a lot, dunno if other people do). ... View more

(we stumbled a bit up there, back on track now ) 101 796 101 797 101 798 101 799 101 800 (woo) ... View more

Gotta go with the good ol’ Australia ... View more

Mhmmm, @nyke, it's so frustrating that our own private business becomes someone else's business. I've seen a few times in my life where someone believes that another person is LGBTQ+, so it suddenly becomes their business to find out. However, if someone gives off the 'vibes' that they're straight, the others don't care!! No one says "wow, you're so straight" or "are you straight?!" I don't understand the double standard that exists here.   Also, it's nice to see that other people feel the same with regard to labels and stereotypes. When I was younger, and freaking out about the thought of being attracted to guys, I thought that all gay people were like Tyler Oakley, and I was nothing like him, so I thought that I wasn't gay... reflecting on that I can now see how confused I was.   Another thing that I find irony in is that we live in a mostly free society, in Australia at least, yet it's almost an unspoken rule to have to categorise yourself into a specific box, characterised by specific requirements. I mean I do see how these labels give people direction and confidence, but I've often sat and thought "why am I a 'gay' human? Aren't I just a human who will eventually look for another human to share my life with?" I don't see how it differs because I prefer guys, the journey and aim is ultimately the same. I dunno, I feel like I'm complaining   I was going to say something to the rest of what you said but I've gotten really tired suddenly and nEEd sleep now.   This is a great thread tho, so glad it was brought back up. I know that I rarely get the chance to express my thoughts on this topic. ... View more

Religious schools are very strange @annabethxchase haha. I go to one as well, and I get what you mean. 90 per cent of the students saying negative things about the LGBTQ+ community can't justify why they are saying negative things, the main reason being "cuz bro that's f***ed", another one being "it's Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve" , sometimes you've just gotta laugh at their reasoning. It's so unreasonable that a whole group of people are forced to experience a tougher reality with their sexuality than others because of made up stories. When Jesus founded Christianity, this was not what he had in mind haha.   And just to add the cherry on top, I placed first in Religion last semester. I found that quite amusing considering that, to many of my peers, I'm the antichrist of Catholicism :D :P ... View more

Thank you @annabethxchase   Yeah, I totally get whatchu mean. Being straight is the norm, and therefore the expectation. Parents typically assume that their child will be attracted to the other sex, which is evidently not the case for everyone. I think "coming out" is quite challenging because, for people who don't like to break the norm or stand out (ie. myself, who suffers quite a bit with social anxiety), you've just got to break the norm. I don't think of myself as anyone special, I'm just a guy who likes other guys, but to some others I'm like a different type of human or something *shrug*.   And yeah, I LOVED that scene. It was even weird to watch it myself. I especially loved the reaction of Abby's mother . To anyone who's just crusing this thread, this is what we're talking about.   Also, I really think that the whole notion of "coming out" and "being closeted" needs to be removed from our society. If "coming out" wasn't a thing, it wouldn't be a milestone in my life, it really shouldn't be . I don't hear this view a lot, but I hope y'all see where I'm coming from. If we don't make "coming out" such an achievement in someone's life, it will stop being such a big deal, and therefore will stop making kids feel apprehensive and worried about coming out, yaknow? ... View more

Oh my god, @litgym, you're a legend. I'm having a bit of an anxious moment right now and just took a breath when I saw this thread. I always get overwhelmed when I look for mental health apps, so THANK YOU!! I have only read the first two paragraphs, but I just had to say how much better this made me feel straight away ... View more