Growing Up

Dear Readers,

I finally have the time to pursue this interest of mine more fully due to the lack of other activities in my life. On 23rd May 2014, I officially ended my school career due to finishing my exams (I do or have done the IB). This is one sentence that I did not envision myself writing. As I have said in previous blog posts written as part of my on going procrastination schedule (see below), I have not imagined my life after school. I can't even imagine myself at university.

However, I have reached the summer of a lifetime where all students are meant to celebrate their lives in that limbo period before entering into the world of seriousness. To be perfectly honest, it started off with a bang! Going off on the traditional student holiday which was absolutely amazing. I definitely lived through all the experiences you are meant to have, or at least witnessed them! Another way to describe it without giving any details away is that it was not as disastrous as the Inbetweeners movie or a Jack Whitehall description, even though there might have been a few similarities!

The past few days however have not followed suit. I have been stuck in my room cleaning, throwing away junk that has built up over the two years since I last had a proper clean out. It just has been incredibly dull - I even found myself cleaning out the car voluntarily! I guess I have officially entered the world of becoming the responsible adult.

Therefore, I write this blog post to pledge to myself that this summer will not continue like this. It has to get better and top all the memories I have from the first week. I am going to make more amazing memories and respond this post at the end to prove it!

I wish everyone good luck with their exams - they will soon be over! But, I do challenge you to make sure you live every second of this summer to it's full potential!

Much Love,

Harriet

P.S. I will be doing more blogposts in the coming weeks to try and release my creativity spirit! I still have lots of ideas that I hope to share! Watch this space! (I know, cheesy but I couldn't think of anything else!)

xxx

A world without technology

Again, I know. I am meant to be doing economics revision but I thought this opportunity was too good to miss. Whilst scrolling through my facebook feed, I found this video:

It is a video that suggests that technology has become a burden on our society, an invention that is diminishing in returns (economics revision is working!!). We are losing our social life in the real world to a social life obsessed with likes, views and screens; not real people. For me, I know that I am completely guilty. The amount of time that I have spent procrastinating watching YouTube videos, checking Facebook and scrolling through twitter is unimaginable and this video just brought that home to me.

Therefore, I am going to set myself a challenge: to allow myself only an hour of free time on any technology or device a day. No more wasting my time of phones or computers. As said in previous blog posts, my exams in fact start on Monday so there isn't a better time to start taking on this challenge. After typing this, I have just realised how hard this is going to be, but I am up for it. Let's try this for at least three weeks and see what happens...

Disclaimer: I do not count looking up economics terms as "free time".

So, now there is no excuse for me to decide to write more blog posts as part of my procrastination activities. See you on the other side of this experiment!

Please share or join in yourself!

Much love,

Harriet

xxx

How to deal with goodbyes

I know I said I would be back after exams, but I am on a revision break. Writing a blog post can also count as English revision as well as text type revision for Spanish. There is my declaration over!

Well, I decided to write this blog post because tomorrow is my last official day at school as my exams start on Bank Holiday Monday (UK holiday only, thanks IBO!). So while the whole country is having a day off, the IB students of the UK have to come in a sit an exam. Yes, I am bitter. However, getting back to the end of my school career.

This week, I have finally come to terms that the time spent with my amazing IB cohort is coming to an end, which is one of the most saddest things that I think I have had to come to terms with. Today, for example, I said goodbye to one of them who I won't see before exams finally start - it turned into an emotional mess. However, it has hit me that the reason why I am so emotional and sad about these two wonderful years coming to an end is because they were wonderful. Even if other parts of life were not going that smoothly, I still had an amazing support group at school which I am incredibly thankful for. If they were not wonderful, I would be happy to walk out the door and this goodbye would be so much easier.

Therefore, I am saying that hard goodbyes have their downsides, but they are not necessarily permanent due to the fabulous invention of the internet and trains. They also mean they are so very very special people, and you were lucky to have them in you life in the first place.

I thought I end this emotional blog post with something my friend tweeted me that sums up what I want to say but far more eloquently, there are always positive sides.

I will talk soon after exams.

Much love,

Harriet

Dear readers,

I am very sorry that I have not posted in about 5 months. I have just re read my last blog post which was written before my driving test about nerves (which I past!). It got me thinking about how I have missed just typing and sharing my views on anything I want. Unfortunately, the IB and revision have some how got in the way of pursuing this interest more, but I promise that as soon as these exams are over, blogging will become part of life once again. I have so many plans!

So, in the past five months a lot has happened but the major one has been university. I firmed by place at university to study International Relations. This is a huge step in life and something that I had never really dreamed of happening, not that I thought I wouldn't go but because I never thought time would keep going and i would grow up. Over the past month and since turning 18 (again after the last post!), I have realised that I have not thought about my life after this point. I have never questioned what life is like after the security blanket of school and parents and home-cooked food - I just thought it existed and took it for granted which I now regret. But, when you start to apply for accommodation at university, you realise that this part of your life is over, and it literally is an end of an era. Do not get me wrong,  I am not an emotional person who clings onto the past, I think a change is good, but  have realised that a big change and moving environment is a little different in my head. Therefore, I have sort of been having that 'I am getting old and I don't want too' phase.

However, the point of this blog post was to say hi and I am coming back to blog about things I want to talk about. I am sure that the whole transition of moving from home to another place, getting results, a look back at my school career and other things that I have got on my list will start to happen, just you wait!

Anyway, thank you for reading as always. I will be back soon!

Much love,

Harriet

Nerves

Currently, I am meant to be doing some English homework for tomorrow, but instead I decided to write a blog post as I haven't in more than a month. As you can probably tell from the title, this post is going to be about nerves. I don't really understand the chemical process involved, but the basic non-science-y definition is that they suggest fear (you can tell I’m in an English frame of mind when I start using the word suggest.)

But, everyone knows that feeling, where butterflies are floating around in your stomach and you can't get rid of them until you have faced the fear or the task at hand. So, that is what you have to do, face the task. There is no point running away from it because it will just create more fear and even guilt, which are two emotions that aren't really the best to experience at the best of times. Hence, this is my advice to you; face the fear to get rid of the nerves.

The reason why I am writing this blog post is that I am currently experiencing that feeling of terror the night before my driving test. There are constant questions going through my head and I'm making myself more and more nervous by the minute. Therefore, I thought it was a good idea to write these feelings down. 

A situation like this should make you stop and take a step back. Firstly, what are the consequences? I bet I can guess most of them:

-         The fear of failure.

 This is only natural but reference to earlier post.

-         The fear of letting someone down.

Well, if they care for you they should forgive you and know that you tried you're absolute best. If not, let them cool for a little while.

-         Financial costs.

This is quite relevant for my driving test. If I fail, I will have to pay out more money. Therefore, it’s better to focus on this after the event and not before.

-         The attention.

When you fail at something and people know about it, it can be the worst feeling. However, if you surround yourself with the right people they will support you no matter what and help you get through it.

However, it must be remembered that none of the consequences include an unfortunate death, just a little perspective.

Therefore, when you worry about something, try to think rationally. It's no good making something bigger than it actually is. Irrational thinking is no good anywhere in life. So, to conclude this rather scatter-y blog post; stop worrying and being nervous, it is part of life.

Much love,

Harriet

Sunshine on Leith – A Review

Well, I didn’t think I would be ever doing one of these but it turns out I am now sitting down and writing one; a review! In the past half an hour, I have just got back from the cinema after watching a film with the family to celebrate half term (and also because my mother had vouchers!) and I just had the urge to write about how blooming amazing this film was!

Sunshine on Leith is a film set in the town of Edinburgh in Scotland and tells the story of how two boys who have just left the army coming back to re-integrate into the society. However, the story is mainly based around love and the ups of downs of long lasting love, new love and young love and how it works out in reality. The film starts with Ally and Davy in Afghanistan just before a road side bomb hits them. They both survive but decide to leave the army. This is when we get to see the close family relationships that are present when they return to their hometown together and all the ups and downs of love, which is what the film is predominantly based upon.

Normally, I am not the type of person to like romantic comedies, however this is actually a musical based on the songs of the Proclaimers. I don’t blame you if you don’t have any idea who they are but I think you would know: ‘I would walk 500 hundred miles, and I would walk 500 more’ and it has lots of ‘dadadada’ phrases in it. Yes, the son called 500 miles that is sung with a very distinct Scottish accent (Watch here: http://youtu.be/tM0sTNtWDiI) . Even though that was the only song I actually knew, all the other songs are pretty good – very upbeat which is something you need in life and the singing wasn’t half bad either!

My favourite part of this film was the fact that all the characters just started singing in the middle of sentences. I know people will disagree with me but it offered a sense of light hearted relief as well as another dimension to the drama due to all the emotions that can be expressed in song.

So, if you want to be cheered up and you are near a cinema, my suggestion this half term is to go and see this film because it definitely will put a smile on your face!

Here is the imdb link to the ‘Sunshine on Leith’ if you want to find out more: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2481198/

The youtube link for the trailer which is excellent:
http://youtu.be/74WEwUnmH-Y

Much love,

Harriet

xxx

Just Life.

This post is dedicated to all the lovely people that have recently started following my blog! This added motivation has suddenly made me start to write a blog post which I haven't done in awhile on a Saturday night when I could be watching TV or sleeping. However, I felt that this would probably be the best use of my time at the moment and I have forgotten what it feels like to type anything you want to say, rather than trying to answer a vague question for an essay. It feels good!

Anyway, so what has been happening in my life? Well, since returning from a dreadful Gold Duke of Edinburgh Expedition a few nights before, I returned to school, which wasn't one of the things that I would have like to be doing (for your information, I would have liked to be sleeping for days on end until my body had fully recovered from mental and physical damage - this is what Gold D of E feels like). After an 8 week summer playing with horses, swimming, tennis and family, I had no time for doing serious IB work that was on my list of things that preferably needed to be done before term starts, and preferable before my wonderful trip to Wales (D of E - so not wonderful in the slightest unless you count the free ice cream at the end). Well, as you may have guessed, work wasn't at the top of my priority list, so after returning back from mountains and sheep poo, I managed to do some but not all.

However, after returning to school at the beginning of September, I soon returned to my routine of constant work followed my interruptions of food, sleep and chatting withe IB lot which had been lost with the loss of structure to my days with the rigid school timetable). But, I have to admit, returning to school wasn't actually as bad as I thought. However, I have now realised that this is my last year in obligatory education, meaning that university or life will be next outside of this little bubble of free hot chocolate, sarcastic but hilarious teachers and amazing friends. Soon, I will have to face the world by myself without this security blanket, which truly terrifies me.

It hasn't helped with all the stress of applying to university as well as finishing off the ever lasting Extended Essay (16 pages and 4000 words later) that is the bain of any IB students life - which I did tonight (Yippee!). However, this month full of work and stress which has lead to pure exhaustion has put a lot of perspective on life. If I can get though this year scotch free (with a limited amount of mental breakdowns), then I will be pretty well set up for life with the attitude of wanting to get things done and not waste any moment of having time off.

Therefore, I leave you with this thought: how will you make the most of life. I also would like to dedicate this post to all the people that have been going through a difficult stage in their lives - we will damn well get through this and live to see the other side!

Much love,

Harriet

xxx