Forthefirsttime,hello.Mynameis Ayla,Iamthefounder,editorand chiefofWaaveMagazineandIam beyondexcited.Waavewas foundedJanuary2023whileIwas attemptingtofallasleep.The followingmorningIsatdownfor hourswritingdownadetailedplan ofwhatWaavewillbe,(Iamstill workingonit)
I'mjumpingintoveryunknown territorywiththisproject,sofakeittill youmakeithasneverbeenso relevant.WhatIdoknowisthatI havesomuchtoshare,andIknow thelittlekidwalkingbesideyouon thestreetsorthewomanstanding behindin lineatthegrocerystore doestoo!Waavemagazineisabout gettingtoknowstrangersand openinguptonewaspectsinlifeas wellasjusthavingsomethingeasy goingtoreadwithyourmorning coffee.
HopeyouenjoyreadingWaaveas muchasIenjoyedmakingit!
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I will not tell you her name It is not that she was an anonymous person, in fact she was very well known all over Sweden, but her name is not the most important part to this story It is what she said and the impact she left.
A few weeks ago I woke up and opened up my Instagram I scrolled a few pages down and got stuck on one picture I recognized the bright smile and the lively two eyes and everything felt normal until I saw the caption
Rest in peace X
-What?! This can not be right?!, my mind said. Everything was put on pause. But my fingers kept on scrolling through the feed.
-There she is again!
My mind said, and my body started to feel sick. I scrolled for two more seconds and stopped Once again I saw the caption and this time it was posted by her family on her own instagram-page. -The disease took her after all
Her life was over but all around me everything was normal The coffee was brewing loudly and I could smell the roasted beans turning into my favourite drink. From a distance I could hear someone opening and closing a door with soft touch And a few centimetres from the bed my boyfriend was trying to find the exit in his newly washed t-shirt while he was pulling it over his head - I am alive, but she isn’t, my mind said.
She used to be an elite athlete and as she got older she kept focusing on health and exercise In 2020 she was diagnosed with lungcancer and she was told that she only had a few months left to live.
She was sad for a while, but felt like she needed to make a decision. She could decide to either live in the dark and hopelessness, or create a life with love and light She enjoyed her life before the diagnosis, but she came to realise that she never lived in the moment and was always planning ahead, striving for something better She was never satisfied and her life was a constant race for performance.
A few weeks after crying and laying in bed, she made a choice to focus on the light and it was the beginning of her inner healing journey. She learned to be in the moment and appreciated every day She worked on loving herself instead of valuing herself from her performances. This is something everyone has to get better at We have to learn to press pause, look around, feel and be kind to ourselves. She describes the last years as her most challenging, but also the best years She came to the insight that the only way one can fully succeed in life is to live it to the fullest
I know This sounds cheesy and like a mindset impossible to achieve, but even though it sounds too unrealistic these are good things to consider.
Me, as many others, have always valued myself from my accomplishments. When we painted when we were little, our parents said:
-Well done, it looks so good!
Instead of asking if we were having fun. In school the students get grades and diplomas if their accomplishments are high. We constantly hear about people that have successful careers and we are taught to strive for the same We often hear that nowadays we live with more stress than ever even though we have better life standards than previous generations
Was this it? She thought when she had ingested the words from her doctor Before her diagnosis she felt immortal, but all of a sudden she was only given a few months At her Ted Talk from 2022 she says that the biggest misconception people have is that we have time. But in fact, all we ever have or will have is now At her Ted Talk she asked the listeners:
-How do you live your life today? Would you change anything, if you found out that you just had a few more months to live? If the answer is yes, what are you waiting for? There is rarely a good time or a right time to make big changes in life
I scrolled for a few more seconds, and came over a picture that her sister had posted. I opened the comments and started reading the messages one after one
The love was everywhere and I deeply hoped she
She said the words everyone needed to hear over and over. She felt more alive than ever, even though her life was disappearing under her feet. Today she reminds me of the most important things in life. The most cheesy but true things. The importance of being in the moment, understanding your worth and realising that we never know when it will get pitch dark forever.
could read it from the clouds. We are so good at showing our love for people once they have disappeared from the earthly life
But the words will not reach the one who should hear it in the first place One of her important sayings was to show and give love. To say the most beautiful things too many times rather than too seldom We need to get better at showing our love before it’s too late. Both to family, friends and acquaintances.
- I love you.
The words left a warm feeling in my body And my action made so much sense. I need to say the words when I’m still alive. Because one day we aren’t
She lived numerous months more than the doctors told her she would Now she is in the stars.
Rest
in peace Elin Kjos"How do you live your life today? Would you change anything, if you found out that you just had a few more months to live? If the answer is yes, what are you waiting for? There is rarely a good time or a right time to make big changes in life."
-Elin Kjos
Photo:Privat
Photo Privat
Photo Privat
I got in touch with Jhuma through a facebook page made by the digital brand Yes Theory called Yes Theory Fam. Their youtube videos are packed with humans getting out of their comfort zone and traveling the world meeting so many amazing people. Their mantra “Seek Discomfort” has motivated me and thousands of others to follow their dreams and live life with an open mind. That is why I knew this was the perfect place to look for my first portrait interview candidate. After my post was published on their facebook page my inbox was flooded with people wanting to tell their stories and be a part of Waave Magazine. I ended up interviewing Jhuma and had a lovely conversation with him
I am nervous before interviewing Jhuma as it is my first ever interview for Waave I have made myself some coffee and take a sip before clicking the video chat icon Jhuma answers within seconds and greets me with a warm smile I am no longer nervous, just excited He must be sitting by a window or a door because I can hear the buzzing from outside Jhuma lives in a village called Harmutty in the north eastern part of India with his mom and sister in a house bought by his dad in the 90s Apart from living in a hostel for about a year in a city nearby this is where he has lived his whole life
“I work as a manager at an electronic store in a nearby village ”
Do you like it?
“No not really, I don’t plan on working here for long, I am saving money so that’s really my only motivation right now ”
“The only source of information I had of you was your facebook page, where I quickly discovered that you like to read. Would you say it’s your passion?”
“Yes absolutely, I love reading. I started reading when I was about 14 years old. I found free books on the internet and read a lot of those for a while, then I moved to wattpad. It wasn't before I was 17 years old when I read my first physical copy of a book.”
His face lights up when we start talking about books, he has so much to tell We get carried away talking about our common love for Rick Riordan and his Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus book series
Do you have a favorite book so far?
“That’s really hard, but the one I had most fun reading was a book called The Princess Bride by William Goldman”
What about now? What are you currently reading?
“Actually nothing, I am starting a new book tonight called The Midnight Library by Matt Haig ”
Would you say that reading has impacted your life?
“Yes absolutely, it gave me a passion Before I really had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, I was directionless I had lots of ideas, but none of them really interested me Within the first year of me really getting into reading I knew I wanted to own my own bookstore as well as become an author writing my own novels.”
You said you wanted to become an author, tell me more about that!
“Yes someday hopefully. I actually wrote my first book when I was in 6th grade, it was a novel called The Boy who Could Talk to the Ocean. It actually was a really good storyline but I wasn’t talented enough to do it justice at the time”
What about your everyday life, how does a typical day in your life look like?
“I wouldn’t say it’s so different from yours or anyone else's for that matter. I wake up, eat breakfast, and go to work. Business here is currently very low, so I maybe get 1 customer a day, sometimes not even that, so I just chill out and watch some shows, serial killer documentaries are my favorite. I read a lot too of course. After work I go home, eat dinner, talk with my girlfriend and yeah, that's pretty much it.”
What is a show you have watched recently that you can recommend?
I started watching Ozark and the first episodes are very good so far. I also really liked Wednesday on Netflix.
After work you head home to Harmutty, the village you live in, can you tell me more about it? “So I live in a very unique place. Actually it’s not just my village, it's the entire north eastern part of India It’s very different from the rest of the country, the people here look different, the culture is different and most people here are Christians as opposed to Hindus Another interesting fact is that this village actually didn’t exist before the British came When they were ruling India, they sent this guy to find a good place to grow tea The soil in Harmutty is apparently very fertile and compatible for growing tea He set up a factory and had slaves working and living there, which made it into the village it is today There are actually many people still living here today that worked at that factory
While researching I tried finding pictures ofJhuma's village but I only found pictures of tea. When I told him this he responded with “I have actually never tasted the tea before because they don’t sell it over here. When I think about it I don’t think I have met anyone from here that has tried the tea before. They just produce it and ship it over to other countries.”
I found this very interesting and googled to see if I could find Harmutty tea, and sure enough I could buy it at my local tea shop here in Trondheim, Norway.
What about food, what is your traditional food like?
Rice, we eat a lot of rice that is the primary part of our diet Where I live it’s most common with very short grained rice and we make so many different foods with it One of them is called Assamese Pitha , it’s made with grated rice Pitha is the most traditional food if you ask anyone in my village and myself Fish is also very big over here Jaggery is also very common, it’s a natural sweetener made of sugar cane
To continue with food, what would your typical breakfast look like?
Right now it’s mainly two things, rice with any type of curry or Maggi noodles The last mentioned is instant noodles but they have made one with a very typical indian seasoning, it’s very unique and I don't know what they do with it but it's so good
What would you typically order at a café?
“Since I live in a small village we don’t really have cafés, so I’ve only gone to cafés a handful of times When I have gone I’ve felt very intimidated and always just order what everyone else orders such as a latte or cappuccino, even though they are not my favorite type of coffee”
What is your favorite type of coffee?
“An americano”
If you could give the readers one tip,what would that be?
“I really need to think about this Don’t follow anybody else’s dream, I did that and it didn’t work out, because it never does Find out what your dream is or what you are passionate about and work everyday towards that dream”
What are you currently working towards?
“I am working towards writing a book and having it published I also want to move to Bahrain and find a job I like there, live with my girlfriend and get married”
The question of this issue is “What song instantly gets you in a good mood”, do you have one?
“I do! Lately I have been listening to Worlds Smallest Violin by AJR It’s a happy go lucky song and whenever I listen to it I smile and sing along ”
Is there anything I have missed or something more you would want to share?
“You got most of it in the start, when we were talking about books, that is my main passion I do want to mention the community of Yes Fam though If it wasn’t for them I would have been living a very different life right now, I really was in a rut when I found them My days consisted of myself in bed scrolling through my phone, for 2 years consistently I didn’t have any drive or work ethic When I found this supportive community it changed my life I actually also met my girlfriend there I will always be grateful for Yes Fam and Yes Theory ”
What do you sing at karaoke night?
“I have never been to a karaoke bar, I’m a really bad singer but if I had to choose I would sing any song from Atif Aslam”
Favorite holiday?
“I’m a muslim and my favorite holiday isn’t even a muslim holiday it’s a christian one, Halloween. I have never really celebrated it like they do in the western countries, but have my own tradition on halloween night, I have a horror movie marathon and I always look forward to it”
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