Lemons or Lemon seeds?

Hey, another month has passed since I have been on here and no progress has been made. I have had a brilliant time with some incredible friends and spent some time doing work for University just so that I can prove that wasn't a complete waste of my life.  Yet I still have no job.

You really do have to put a lot of work in to find a job in the UK. Obviously I could do more. I haven't gone round handing CVs out because I know the minute I turn my back out of that shop it will get chucked in the bin as most applications are made online now.

Lets talk about the application process. Since when do I have to do a personality test before I even get to interview. They analyse every single decision you could make. The minute you say you are confident you aren't considered a team player but if you don't do enough you are lazy or a liability. I cant remember how many times I have written out my qualifications or recent work history. How many times I've clicked drop down boxes about when I'm available or little yes no boxes about committing any crimes. Every time is either thank you for your application but no or I never hear a thing.

I came to the conclusion that when life gives you lemons you make lemonade is a stupid phrase. Not everyone gets lemons. Some of us get lemon seeds and we have to plant and grow the tree before we even get to the stage of making lemonade. And what about those who are privileged enough to buy their own lemonade readily prepared, how is that fair? I know I've gone into this metaphor way to much but the point is there right?

I'll keep searching. Life is still good because I could be somewhere a lot worse with nobody around me and I have some pretty awesome friends that keep each day interesting and full of laughs. Who knows what's around the corner. But seriously if anyone reading this has any ideas about helping me find a job I would actually be eternally grateful.

Please leave some comments about what you'd like me to write about next. Maybe I could do some story writing or a poem or something, Let me know.

Goodnight.

If life gives you Lemons make...Orange juice?

Definitely haven’t been here in a while and I know that's terrible. People having going mad not knowing what to do with their lives obviously.

Well that's kind of why I’m back. This blog was supposed to be about my time at university but recently I have discovered teaching isn’t for me and I'm taking some time away from university for at least a year. The problem now is I don’t have a clue what to do with my life?!

Everything I have done so far has led me up to this point in trying to be a teacher, all the work experience I have done has been working with children and now that’s not what I want to do. I’ve never had a proper job before so cant get anyone to hire me due to no prior experience. I know who hasn't heard of someone never having a job before the age of 20. I cant ride a bike either but I didn’t think that really mattered so much in life so left that aside.

What do I choose to do as a career now?

I love performing. I can hold a tune, I can remember and do dance routines and I think my acting skills are pretty good. Yet those close to me have said that is not enough. I don’t have enough talent to pursue it as a career. Okay so I'll do that for fun. But that still doesn’t answer my question. I would love to work on TV or on the Radio but you cant just walk into a job you have to have experience and qualifications which I don’t have.

I could go back to University but what could I do?

I can write pretty well I have an A level in English Literature and Applied Science. But again my nearest and dearest have told me I am not academic enough to continue to University doing something else. I am smart enough to do a variety of things but not smart enough in a particular field to make it as a specialist.

There are lots of things I'd love to do but none that are actually possible. Id love to do YouTube but there are so many people there now it is very hard to become successful. Id love to be a hairdresser or make up artist but haven’t got the skill or training, plus I cant even handle my own hair let alone anyone else’s. Working at the check in at an airport or on planes would be great fun but I don’t have the image. Working for Disney or in musical theatre would be a dream but again there is a specific image and you have to be extremely talented.

I guess what I’m trying to say is at the moment nothing seems to be making much sense but all I know is I have friends around me keeping me positive and encouraging me to keep searching. My life could be so much worse and it's not so I just have to be thankful for what I have and be patient that something will come my way in the end.

Goodnight.

Be the Cure

Back again. So over the past year I haven’t exactly been the most healthy of human beings. Yes University is a take away menace but it can be tamed. This is going to be about my recent health problems and is just a way for me to vent. Feel free not to read if its too personal.

Back in September when I first arrived at University within the first month or two I started experiencing panic attacks brought on by the thought of being so far away from home. I found it very difficult to make friends and as made evident by my blog by no means did I dislike my flat mates but if I had met them back home we never would have been close enough to be so intimate to live with them. It takes a lot to feel so comfortable with someone you could imagine living t=with them and being thrown into that situation doesn't help.

I had one very bad panic attack where I began finding it hard to breath and felt physically sick after having an argument with my flatmates. Thankfully one of my other flatmates came to help and managed to calm me down. I rang my parents and spoke to them to calm me down. I have lost count the amount of times I cried alone in my room this past year and wouldn’t wish that upon anyone.

I missed the odd lecture due to illness but this is pretty normal. Everyone gets ill now and again that's just normal. When I returned for the Easter holidays I was very ill the day before I travelled back to university. Upon my return the same symptoms returned again and again every week sometimes within the space of 4 days. Nothing seemed to trigger it and I stopped eating fatty foods, chocolate and drinking fizzy drinks yet it still persisted. I visited the doctors after a particularly bad night as I had begun to miss important lectures. I was placed on beta blockers to combat anxiety as it was thought the anxiety was triggering illness. There was no change.

I revisited the doctor who then placed me on tablets with the thought it could be acid reflux but needed more exploration once I returned home. Everything stopped I wasn't ill any more and felt a lot more happy and calm. Until recently it returned one weekend once home.

I visited the doctors back home where I was told to come off all my meds as they were wrong. It wasn’t anything the previous doctor had predicted and the medication for anxiety shouldn’t have been prescribed. She suggested antidepressants or meeting with a mental health nurse which I was unsure about as I don’t believe it is quite that bad. Since then I haven’t been ill again but have been experiencing new symptoms and felt a lot more agitated and negative.

I have had blood tests and will be having a full medical later this week to re-register at my medical practise back home. Now I have to wait and see what comes back. My worry is if nothing comes back as wrong and I only have the symptoms intermittently how can I prove there is anything wrong? How can they discover what is wrong? Will it come back or was it a weird fluke? Will it return in 10-20 years time for no reason? I don't know but I’m sure someone will figure it out eventually even if I cant.

So if I haven’t been around much or haven’t been myself, this is probably why. I’m not ignoring you I'm just not feeling quite myself at the moment.

Goodnight.

Friends...Pals...

I’ve made friends! I know it sounds hard to believe but I actually managed to get out of my university room and escape. Through a really odd path I became a member of the Christian Union and made friends from a range of churches and courses. I started going to church and felt the most amazing sense of community. We were meeting up all the time spending so much free time together. I almost felt like I was spending more time with them than on my course. I enjoyed going for them, the music and the message.

Specifically two people have had a huge impact on my life. We spent so much time together doing a wide variety of things from getting food out in kfc to sleeping round and having flour fights in my kitchen. These people will be my friends for life and I intend never to let go of them. We live so far apart but who would have known what could bring us together. Life may have been tough for us at times but when we are together we know all they want is to have fun and not talk about it, and that’s what we do. Knowing someone so well and thinking about living with them and knowing them when they grow old is the most fantastic feeling. I just wish one day we could all live together in the same old peoples home, it would be the funniest time of my life and I'm sure we would get up to so much trouble. They got me to go out and enjoy myself at things I never thought I could. A true gentleman pigeon and a crazy little puppy always. Love your seal :)

Since returning home from University I have discovered old friends as new. Often when I'm at dancing now I think I am so old and boring the young people would not be interested in me joining them. But they just include me and I feel no different. I’ve known them all such a long time that now they are older it is odd to see them as mature teens. They have become friends that I can have the most intense laughs with, we have so much in common and think in exactly the same way, maybe this just means I am a child at heart. Though a couple of them are very similar ages to me and we have known each other many more years I am so pleased I have had the opportunity to revisit old friendships and make them so much more. This summer is going to be very fun and I feel very privileged to be included in their shenanigans. I’m sure we will have many more twisted and hilarious times out in the sun or prancing about to some very strange songs. No matter how old I am my dancing family always makes me feel welcome no matter how long I have been away.

 

So maybe I am not quite as alone or friendless as I first believed and just need to trust those around me a little more to be there if I ever needed them.

 

Goodnight.

Journal Jottings

Hello,

Just a couple of entries from my English journal, let me know what you think.

Fashion Faux Pas

Are you one of those men who wears pink?

There has often been the stereotype that you have to be very confident with yourself as a man to be able to wear pink. I have never understood this. To begin where does this obsession with girls and pink come from? Who decided this and how we separate the men from the women?

If you don’t wear pink, why not? And why do girls swoon when a guy does wear pink, what is so attractive about that, girls have no similar situation which has the same result. Blue may be for boys but it has no difference for females.

There are many girls who from a young age don’t enjoy wearing pink, people often then assume purple is then the next best option. When it comes to shades of pink which is most startling, hot pink or baby pink? Is it worse as a shirt or a jumper, are ties acceptable? So many questions but who could ever really know?

Sexuality has now become associated with the style shape or size of clothes you wear. For example a guy who wore skinny jeans or sweater vests was gay and any girl in tracksuits and a hoody was automatically a lesbian. How did these style choices come about?

Colour plays a pivotal part in how we perceive others. Yellow and orange is generally a brave choice whereas black generally indicates desire to be slimming. And who remembers which way we should wear our stripes? I know this is way too deep into fashion for me but wondering these things is probably what keeps my mind as active as it is.

Body shape is another fashion no-no. Suddenly we are all fruit! Am I an apple or a pear? I am human shape, whatever next. Again this only seems to be a matter for women.

Jelly shoes have made a triumphant return and although I loved mine I feel like they should be kept just for that, children and the beach. I do not understand why grown women would think they are a good idea. Now they are heels and wedges and pumps. More than anything they are uncomfortable and let the dirt in.

I’m no fashion guru but this just doesn’t feel right!

Daddy

Daddy? When I grow up I want to be a princess.

You will always be my princess

Daddy? When I grow up I want to have a husband.

Only the best will do for you.

Little girls love their Daddies even when they are all grown up. The protector, the cuddly bear, the enforcer. The one you have arguments with because they love you and don’t like the thought of you growing up. The proud domestic goddess walking round in sensible slippers.

He’s the one you can tease about their height, size, hair (or lack of it) whilst he smiles and punishes you through tickling.

Daddy? When I grow up I want my children to have a Daddy just like when I used to have you.



Goodnight.

Busy Bee

Hello,

Sorry I haven't been on here in a while. Work pilled up and I needed to be focused on what I was doing at University so this got put back for a while. I haven't been talking to people back home as much as I wanted but my friend-base in Cheltenham has been growing and now I've been here almost 7 months I'm beginning to fit in and see this as my second home.

I have been doing more writing so here is one of the pieces I have done. Ill be putting the rest up over the next few weeks:

Look back and Remember

She turned the corner and was faced with a large brick wall towering above her. She did not wish to return the way she came or be faced with the past. Her breath deepened and became erratic as sweat begun tearing down her forehead. The footsteps grew ever closer as she began scrambling at the wall, hoping for a skilful escape. Crumbs of brickwork fell to the pavement as she clung to the rough edges, her nails worn back beyond her fingertips. They rounded the corner and stared up to see the embodiment of their desires attempting to escape from their grasp. With one sharp tug at the hips he pulled her off the wall and into his arms. He forced himself around her like a straightjacket. As she remembered her lips fell silent, her eyes hazed with emptiness. All thought and light left her mind as she slowly felt the soft cotton skirt wrap around her ankles. The full moon that remained the next morning was joined by a bright red sunrise staining the sky as Alissa slept on the floor by the brick wall, clown mascara down her cheeks. He, on the other hand, in bed only two doors down, the blonde haired lady lying next to him with diamonds on her finger.

 

Sorry its a bit morbid but I have discovered that is just how I write. I will write more when I have more time. Hopefully this week will be that time.

Speak to you all really soon where I will update you on all sorts of great things I have been doing this week.

 

Goodnight.

Unclogging

Hello,

Domestic goddess on the prowl! Oh yeah! Yesterday I did something truly impossible that I'm still coming to terms with my amazingness. I unclogged a kitchen sink.

I know what your thinking, isn't it men that normally have those kinds of jobs, including unblocking toilets and fitting new lightbulbs. But no yesterday I was all man.

The sink was blocked, probably partly because of the fat I had earlier poured down the sink but to be honest at Uni with the amount of goop that goes down that drain im surprised it doesn't get clogged more often. I was summoned to the kitchen to arrive to find a sink filled with warm water, up to them brim. Therefore I could not put any more hot water in the sink.

I open the cupboard underneath the sink to see if I could do anything with the pipes to disperse the gunky, fatty, food mass. I was faced with a huge puddle of water at the bottom of the shelf, water falling between the masses of plastic bags stored under the sink. Water was dripping from the pipes and falling into the open space. It smelled awful, I had to hold my breath to clear out eh soggy bags. 

I thought about what to do next and decided to pour bleach down the sink through the water to see if that would work. At first nothing happened so I left to ask the advise of my other flatmates. Upon our return, we arrived to an empty unblocked sink. I was amazed! I was then left to clear the overflowing cupboard puddle and mop up the water all over the floor.

I placed towels on the bottom layer of the shelf and mopped up the extra water with jay clothes and finished by mopping the kitchen floor. Job well done I think, and for a beginner I am proud of what I did.

Goodnight.