GÖKÜ'DEN NOTLAR

Click for Joe Cocker's perfect performance  in Woodstock ✌🏻 7.10.22 Bilkent University - Ankara/Turkiye P.S. Two lucky hedgehogs since, apparently, they found each other. :) This is the writing that I've been putting in a few sentences whenever I captured a moment to do so the whole pretty demanding year in Bilkent. So I made it July to share it with you, finally :). Let's get started to talk about hedgehogs, then.  I have a feeling that reminds me from time to time that makes me close to hedgehogs, for some reason, which I want to talk about here. I hope to touch on some common points other hedgehogs in this writing. Why? Cos, I want to defend and normalise this feeling experienced.  What does being a hedgehog sound like? What are the first associations in your mind about it? Being untouchable.. cute.. a half smile on a face.. sharp and risky quills that could be harmful at any moment, a thing that makes you hesitant to contact it anyway?! ..and more and more. This conc...

Note. This lovely drawing belongs to Ece Tuğlacı. Thanks very much for her support of the blog in this way. :) Who am I?  As a blogger, I wanted to briefly introduce myself here. I am Gökçe. I was born in Aydin, a very close city to Izmir, Turkiye. I love Izmir. 🌴 I spent my five youth years there. Izmir made me an absolute different person and helped me shape myself, a priceless experience in human life. I've met wonderful people close to me in both places. I have recently completed my Master's degree in Developmental Psychology at Bilkent University. With the help of what I have learned, I aspire to contribute to children's lives, and in particular  those living in disadvantaged conditions.  I believe in love. I do love my loved ones. This makes my life more fulfilling in many possible ways. When it comes to love, I'd like to say, " love's the greatest thing ." These are lyrics from a song played in a movie that shook me a bit emotionally; it was touch...

15/7/21 Skive/Denmark It's been quite a long time, roughly 6 years since I encountered one of Noam Chomsky's quotes while watching Captain Fantastic  :). Briefly, Noam Chomsky is a well-known linguist. He made priceless contributions to the related literature. Because it helped me a lot to change my perspective and cope with certain obstacles in my life while trying to move onward, this quote is special. It always encourages me to think that all is manageable somehow with the help of HOPE insistently .   So here it is: “If you assume that there is no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, that there are opportunities to change things, then there is a possibility that you can contribute to making a better world.” ⭐ In my humble opinion, besides patience and dedication, to making some “dreams come true” (I will create a series based on this in close future:)) hope is indispensable. It is even a must, actual...

Intro Note. This quote series basically consists of inspiring and encouraging notes for me. I do hope that some of you also find some courage, hope, or whatever it makes you feel after reading these writings.  In this second part of the series, I'd like to mention a well-known primatologist, Jane Goodall. Having searched for something to listen in  The New Yorker Radio Hour section, I encountered an interview done with Jane Goodall; naturally, I felt the urge to read it. A part that was so striking made me feel so strong. Whenever I read this part, it reminds me of how important being determined and resilient in any circumstances is. So, keeping it here to make it permanent and visible, I think, is a good idea. 

21/12/21 Izmir/Turkiye While I, as something of a Wes Anderson aficionado, was reading an interview about his latest movie ( The   French Dispatch ), I came across his reflections on living abroad, which made me recall a similar thought I mentioned in one of my previous writings, The Polar Express-4 . I think, therefore, the expression below genuinely impressed me.  Regarding the interviewer's comment,   Interviewer: When I saw the movie, I told you how much Lillian Ross, who died a few years ago, would have liked it. You said that Lillian’s first reaction would have been to demand, "Why France?" Anderson said this: ⭐ Wes Anderson: Well, I’ve had an apartment in Paris for I don’t know how many years. I’ve reverse-emigrated. And, in Paris, anytime I walk down a street I don’t know well, it’s like going to the movies. It’s just entertaining. There’s also a sort of isolation living abroad, which can be good, or it can be bad. It can be lonely, certainly. But y...

“ Mehmet Bey düşünüyordu. Acaba Ahmet Bey ne yapmak istiyordu? Ahmet Bey hiçbir şey yapmak istemiyordu. Sadece seviyordu. Yaşamak istiyordu. Sevilememiş insanın bütün hırsıyla sevilmek için, en sevilemeyeceği yerden, çabalayıp duruyordu. Istırap çekiyordu. Hiçbir şey olmayacağını hissetmemesine imkan yoktu. İşte yaşamak istiyordu. Bırakalım insanları istediklerini yapsınlar. Herkes kendi hikayesini yazacaktır.” Mr. Mehmet was thinking. He was wondering what Mr. Ahmet would like to do? Mr. Ahmet was not willing to do anything. He was just in love.  He was willing to live.   With all the passion of someone who had not experienced love, he was struggling to be  loved from the point where he would not be loved.   He was suffering.  It was impossible that he would not feel that nothing  would happen.   He was only wishing to live. Let people do whatever they want. Everyone will write their own story. 

A retrospective writing to illustrate as a metaphor that The Polar Express has arrived where it started this journey. 🌟  It's been 4 months since I returned to Turkey. ''How is my country's current situation?'' This is an absolutely different topic, but I will mention it briefly in the following sections. Based on the calendar, I grew one more year, but this is not the only measurement of how much we do grow. So, I am much more mature now than just one year older version of me (expected to happen), after last year. This is life and it generally takes the form by experiences (number of them, their intensity, and so on). Sometimes external situations you face force you to grow up immediately and fast; as a result, growing two times more than usual is normal. :) I had to grow, I had to expand and redefine my boundaries, and I had to be more flexible to not be fragile when there were plenty of factors outside insisting to stretch me; I then did so -still not enoug...