Welcome to my world

Have you ever wondered where you would be in 10 years time? Yeah, I am sure you all have. It is a common question that gets asked so often nowadays that you probably have that answer down. Well 10 years ago I would have never guessed that this would be my life. In 2007, I was an actual small town girl with big dreams of moving to a city that offered me endless opportunities and allowed me to fully immerse myself in creating my “perfect” life. A life that I so longed for considering I was a 15 year old awkward girl growing up in Port Elizabeth. The problem was that Port Elizabeth was “small town”. We had a joke amongst ourselves which went something along the lines of Port Elizabeth is a 5 minute town, and everyone’s parents had dated one another at some point or another. I loved my home town; don’t get me wrong, but that life was not what I was destined for. I longed for more. I wanted to be a fashion forward style icon and touch people’s lives in some way or another with my creativity. But I couldn’t reach my full potential in such a limited town. Until one day....  my dreams came true, or so I thought, in June 2008 when my family packed up and moved to Cape Town. A new adventure, a new chapter, and the start of my epic journey to building my new life.

But not all journeys are what you expect them to be. And although this story has a happy ending, the start to my new life was not what I wanted it to be. I had always been a person that took things to heart, but what I was about to experience would change who I was completely. Someone that I could no longer recognise, even though that person was me.

I experienced 2 years of constant bullying at my new high school which took my happy nature away from me and resulted in a lack of self-love and confidence. Those final years of high school really impacted me deeply. High school in Cape Town was a whole different ball game, one that I was not prepared for. But like all things do, high school came and went, and I finally had the opportunity to start a fresh at University.

Unfortunately, I found a very unhealthy love in life... food. And not the healthy kind. Food was everything to me. It hit the spot in more ways than one. It was there for me whenever I needed a boost, and damn did it always taste good.

And with that came the nasty kilogram monsters that kept adding up. The scale went from 68kgs at the end of matric in 2010 to 95kgs in 2013. In a three year time span I had gained 27kgs. My mind was blown. To read a scale that says 95kgs hit me hard. Kind of like getting hit in the gut by a baseball bat. Not fun. Especially when I was always a small child and teen growing up.

But I decided to no longer let my past cripple me. I would not let my future mirror my unhappy past. By 2014, I had lost over 10kgs, and in 2015, I weighed 74kgs. An amazing achievement for me, as I had then lost a massive 21kgs. I had never felt prouder than in that moment. I had shed the weight that had represented my pain. A feeling that was greater than food could ever bring me.

It is now 2017, I am 25 years old, happy, healthy and weigh 63kgs. I finally love myself again. I am the best version of myself, and I am grateful every day for how far I have come and how I have grown as a person. I am here to share the rest of my journey with all of you. I have overcome adversity and challenges that I thought would consume me for the rest of my life. I wish to inspire you to live your best life. I am a constant work of art, an unfinished book, and I want to share all that life has to offer with you...

You are all worth loving and being the best version of yourself is really worth it. If I had not put myself first and decided to heal myself, I would still be stuck in a vicious cycle of hate and despair. Luckily, I found the strength to grow and now I can fulfill my long term goal to build a perfectly “imperfect” life.

My blogging goal is to give you the complete Kris Melanie Experience. I am a lover of life, and I indulge in all things that bring me absolute joy and fulfillment. I am going to be bringing you the low down on all things from fashion to cooking, to my very own personal experiences. I am a lifestyle blogger by night and a Personal Assistant by day, and I want to enrich your life with weekly blog posts that will add value to your busy lives. So expect it all. You are in for one exciting ride as I plan to live life to the fullest.