BELLSPIRATION CLUB - IVANA ŠĆEPANOVIĆ: I am a proud owner of 5,000 books that I nurture as if they are a part of me (Part 1/4)

Cairo, Egypt

1)Dear Ivana, we tie inspiration, planes, the sky to you... But who is really Ivana, what does she dream about, what does she love and what does she do? For the readers of the Bellspiration blog, introduce yourself, so that we can all get to know you.

Ivana is still one of those girls who are looking at the world like it is a miracle and she is still rejoicing every day because she knows that every day brings something new. New lecture, new memory, a new friend, or a new book that I’m going to read. Every time I get lost in clouds and figures of clouds are dancing the prettiest dances. As a stewardess, I always bring luggage with me. When I get up and when I'm packing my luggage, I put all of my dreams and hopes into it and I impatiently wait where this day is going to take me to. And the books that are my first love - one of them is always hiding in my luggage. I am a proud owner of 5000 books which I nurture the same as they are part of me. Recently I turned 28. 28 years! I try to celebrate my every birthday with people who are close to me and I try to be free for a few days. Because I am that kind of person who believes that birthdays should be celebrated a few days before and a few days later, purely because I’m blessed to walk for one more year, to stroll around, to breathe, to smile and cry… We often forget to respect ourselves. I think that each of us needs to get up regardless of our mood and regardless of what happened last night, last day… you need to get up, look at the mirror and say: I’m proud of you, you are strong, and you can do everything! Because if you don’t push yourself, how can you expect somebody to do that for you. Every one of us needs to be aware that everything is possible if you want it to be like that. Some days come when you need to realize that you need to be alone and that loneliness and being far away from friends and family is not that bad because that is the time when you meet yourself and find your strength. One of my morning routines is when I wake up, I stay lying in my bed and thank God in the morning and count at least a few things for which I’m grateful on that day. When you do that every day you realize how much you are actually rich, happy, and blessed and that all depressions and beasts will run from your head, and then you have a chance for the start of one more beautiful day. As books taught me, life is a book. And we are writers. And as we want, we write our pages.

Seychelles

2)What is ‘’Success’’ by your definition and how it can be achieved?

For me, success is being happy. Being happy with who you are. Accepting yourself. Rejoice for everything as a child. Look at the world through a kid's eyes. Success is for me when you fight for and achieve everything that others told you that you never can, and you do it in spite of them. Success is every path that I discovered even when my tired legs wanted to give up and when the voice in my head told me to give up. Success is to know and to realize that you are not giving up when you are tired, but you are taking a break and moving on. Success is never giving up. Through all travels, places, and people that I have met cultures, traditions… I realized that we all aspire to success. We all want to be the best in our job, we all want to be the best students, we all want to have the best salary… and that’s okay, but we often get disappointed when we get all of those things, we realize that happiness wasn’t in that. Happiness is always in you, but it needs to be searched somewhere deeper. Because success comes with happiness. How to be successful? Simply - overcome the fear!

Last year I was in Zanzibar and the conditions in which those people live are some of the saddest things that I have ever seen. I went to one small village and I have met people who live there. Besides beautiful children for who one toy is representing unlimited happiness, there was one grandpa as well. He started to tell me the story of the tree. ‘’Root of the tree is love’’, he said. The tree represents the years of your life, and branches represent every emotion: anger, rage, sadness, happiness, doubt, fear. With every year of your life, you discover a new emotion. And all those emotions are surrounding you through life. You spend your life angry, in fear, in doubt, but you don’t realize where you have started from and where is the root of the tree - LOVE. He smiled and told me: ‘’Every emotion arises from love. And when you realize that fear arises from love and when you hug him and tell him, you are love as well - fear leaves. The same goes for anger and every kind of emotion. Realize that everything starts with love and that everything is healed by love and that everything is ending with love!’’

3) Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being a member of the Bellspiration Club and for sharing your experiences with us in the coming weeks and inspiring us! What are your expectations from the Bellspiration Club?

It’s my honor for being a part of the Bellspiration Club and I’m really proud of you and everything that you have achieved. I expect lots of inspiration. In these crazy times when everything we are reading is black chronics, depressions, and reality TV shows, this is something that needed to happen in this world. This is a beautiful opportunity not only to meet other people but to see the world from a different perspective. To be an inspiration to one another. To see people who were fighting and fought with it, and created their own way to the stars. I’m so excited and I can’t wait to grow.

4) Follow Ivana:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ivana.scepanovic.142

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/poslednja_nevesta/