Awesome Blogger Award

Utopie versus Realität got nominated for the “Awesome Blogger Award“!

Thanks to dear Sovely from the blog MurmelMeister, I get to answer some fun and thought provoking questions about myself, which I love to do! I have only dived into the blogging world (again) for the past weeks, since the breakout of the Coronavirus, and Sovely’s blog is one of the first blogs that I now read regularly. It may sound a bit overdramatic, but I am truly honored to be nominated by someone so established in the blogging scene and I really appreciate the way she shares her thoughts and in turn makes me and others think. So, thanks a lot, Sovely, I’m really glad to be here and to have stumbled upon your inspiring art/work!

About Awesome Blogger Award

This is an award for the absolutely wonderful writers all across the blogging world. They have beautiful blogs, are kind and lovely, and always find a way to add happiness and laughter to the lives of their readers. That is what truly defines an awesome blogger.

Rules To Be Part Of Awesome Blogger Award

• Thank the person who nominated you.
• Tag the post with #awesomebloggeraward.
• Answer the questions you were asked.
• Nominate at least 5 bloggers and inform them of their nomination.
• Give them 10 new questions to answer.

Questions for me:

1. When are you happiest?
The moments when I overflow with happiness have always involved an element of freedom and adventure: running into the cold Atlantic on a January day on my first backpacking trip, hitchhiking in Portugal. Good company makes those moments more worthwhile, but I noticed that it doesn’t really matter to me whether I’ve known the person(s) I’m with for years or for ten minutes. Another factor that contributes to my happiness is a sense of purpose or success. Most definitely, I need to get out of my comfort zone to experience true happiness, and being outside also helps.
My personal happiness formula goes:
freedom +  lovely humans + achievement + nature.

2. Do you prefer happiness or challenging situations?
Challenges are what keep me going. I do prefer the self-induced „30 days no plastic“ or „let’s hitchhike to the Atlantic“ kind of challenges to substantial life crises, though. Of course, never having to worry about essential things again sounds great, but I would still always choose the rollercoaster. In my opinion, a state of constant happiness is bound to wear thin.

3. What is the most useful thing you own?
I like to think that my brain is pretty useful, most of the time. This makes me think that I shouldn’t neglect my body either.
In terms of material possessions, my car used to give me some form of freedom, but unfortunately it is not with us anymore. The next most useful thing must be my laptop, which I currently spend a lot of time with. Boring, I know.

4. For what in your life do you feel most grateful?
I am grateful for many things: my health, my supportive friends, family and partner, my incredibly privileged and largely worry-free upbringing and young adulthood, including my education…

5. What makes you laugh the most?
This is a hard one. I feel like I have quite a bad, silly sense of humor, but also, the things which cause me to have fits of laughter don’t fit into a consistent pattern. Most of the time, funny and odd situations simply make me laugh really hard.

6. What is something you like to do that other people would probably consider “weird” if they knew?
I am a total kid at heart. I cannot simply bypass a pair of swings or a climb-worthy tree. Oh, and recently I was walking barefoot through the fields (connecting to the earth obviously) while loudly speaking encouraging words to myself. Fingers crossed I’m not gonna be admitted to an asylum any time soon.

7. What was the most thoughtful gift you made?
One time I sent each of my parents a very emotional and personal letter, which they really appreciated. These days, I am also planning a treasure hunt for my boyfriend, but I am 99% percent sure that I am way more excited about it than he will be…

8. What’s the best topping/ice cream combination?
I have a weakness for the combination of sweet and salty, so it has to be caramel ice cream with sea salt (if that counts as a topping).

9. How do you feel about diversity?
When I read that question, my initial thought was „diversity is great and much needed. Of course I love diversity!“ However, the question also makes me think: do I really know diversity? Only last year, I have made friends that do not fit the heterosexual norm and I really got to think about just how heteronormative my thinking was and probably still is. And this is just one example where my life may lack diversity.
On the other hand, even though I really wanna advocate for more diversity, I feel that I am not… diverse enough. This makes absolutely no sense, as diversity obviously is about variety within groups of people, but as the blonde, white-skinned middle class girl that I am, wearing my T-Shirt with the „diversity“ slogan makes me feel weirdly hypocritical. This is a shame, because it’s a really nice shirt.

10. What is your most favorite blog post that did not get enough attention yet?
An old blog post that I still feel very deeply and probably always will is this one:
Die Gewohnheit: der Motor, die Angst: das Benzin.

11. What was the meanest thing you’ve ever done?
When I was in kindergarten, I took another kid’s painting and claimed it as my own, which, in hindsight, was really not a nice move. Apart from this evil act, I ended my first relationship of over three years in a pretty selfish way; this is probably one of the few regrets I have in life.

12. Which jobs would you like to try out, if you had a chance?
There are few things that I wouldn’t want to try out, if I had the chance. But what interests me the most are jobs that I wouldn’t want to do for a longer time: firefighter, actress, CEO or forester, for example. I would also go for being surfing teacher or president for a day. And hiking guide! Maybe model as well, but only to see how sick the business really is and to write a revealing article about it afterwards.

13. You’re good at?
I am an empathic listener and a creative spirit. As a bit of an allrounder, I am fairly good at most things, but I don’t see myself heading towards a nobel prize for anything (which is fine). Languages come easy to me and I’m good with kids, food and mustering up the courage to step outside my comfort zone.

My nominations:

Julia aka The German Introvert
Johanna from the Blog unter Freunden 
Leni from WHOLE HEARTS.
Karmen with Ich kreiere, also bin ich
And the author of Schreib.blog, whose name I don’t know.

Of course you can answer the questions in any language of your choice 🙃 if you want to answer them!

Questions to my nominees:

1. 1. 1. What gets you out of bed in the morning?
      2. What is the most important thing you learned in the past year?
      3. Are you an introvert, an extrovert or an ambivert?
      4. What do you dream about?
      5. What makes you really angry?
      6. Where would you like to be right now, if you could be anywhere?
      7. What is your way of coping with stress?
      8. What is your favorite childhood memory?
      9. Do you have a bucket list?
      10. What inspires you?

Thanks for reading, I enjoyed answering these questions and I’m glad to have found a more consistent writing routine thanks to this blog. I really appreciate every comment and simply the fact that I can reach a few people with my words.