Tuesday 27 December 2011

"Don't leave until you've left"

This time of year is obviously a time for celebration. Everyone is starting to get into the Christmas spirit with the start of advent; Christmas decoration week at college and Secret Santa shopping, it’s hard not to feel a little bit festive. Without meaning to pull a negative out of a happy time, I’m starting to feel a little bit sentimental about where we’ll all be in a year’s time.

By this time next year, many of us will be nearing the end of our first term at University and preparing to return home for the Christmas holidays. Ready to see friends and the many landmarks that good old Maldon offers. We’ll be ready for big home cooked meals from Mum after too many Pot Noodles and chips, and surprisingly, we’ll probably all be looking forward to a slight detox from all the alcohol consumption. College will just see a role reversal, with the year 12s being handed a large case of email-refresh syndrome and the year 11s just getting settled in to college life. I’m almost certain that it will be as if we never left our friends, however it does feel hard to think like that at the moment. I’m sure that the majority of years 13s have got emotional at least once when considering how life is going to change in the next year; it doesn’t at all undermine the thrill of applying to university and the excitement that comes when thinking of actually being there, although it is inevitable when it comes to change. I think the worst thing about the prospect of moving away from home is the thought of being forgotten by the people you leave behind. You start to think that your family are going to transform your room into a guest bedroom and that you’re never going to see your best friends again. We all know that none of that is true, but it doesn’t stop it being a persistent worry for us all. One of my best and oldest friends is currently studying at Aberystwyth University in Wales and I’m really looking forward to seeing her in a couple of weeks, I’m always wondering how she’s getting on and constantly trying to find ways to talk to her and find out, so you’re definitely not forgotten, when you go.
It is inevitable that we will think about how different things are going to be this time next year, but realistically, Christmas shouldn’t be the time for it because next Christmas we’ll be home and still enjoying the family Christmas and Secret Santa with friends. The truth is we’ll probably just have more interesting stories to tell. I’m trying to install something my best friend said to me the other day, as a motto for my life. She said “Don’t leave before you’ve left” and I think that pretty much sums up what I, and many others, have been doing recently. I’m constantly thinking about how much things are going to change and trying to make sure everyone remembers me, which is resulting in me forgetting to enjoy the time I’ve got left in Maldon, and at plume.

Happy Christmas Everybody and give the email refreshing for Uni offers a rest over the holidays, we don’t need the stress!

Wednesday 23 November 2011

The Waiting Game

I'm extremely happy for everyone who is getting University offers and they definitely deserve to tell the world because it is a great feeling and I'm sure I'll be bragging to the high heavens when/if I get them. However, it does make me scream at my computer screen, asking why my Uni choices don't love me. This went to the extreme last night though, when the Professor of Journalism at one of my choices appeared on Newsnight, and while I listened intently to his point of view on The Leveson inquiry I whined, pleading to the television for him to send me an interview/test date.

That is embarrassing behaviour.

Yet, I don't think I'm the only one who is finding that their life is ruled by checking their e-mail and constantly worrying that every University hates you. As I've mentioned before, I check my e-mails at every spare moment and now that I have been made aware of the UCAS track iphone app, I have no doubt that I'll be logging on to that whenever I'm free too.

It's difficult to stay positive and trust that the replies will take time and some courses or universities will reply sooner than others when all you can think about is how much you want to succeed in your career of choice is. I can't seem to stop myself constantly running through exactly why I want to be a Journalist. This seems to make the worrying worse because in a cheesy x factor style "this is all I want". Although, I need to start listening to my own advice because, as I said to one of my best friends who was unfortunately rejected by her top choice, "You'll end up in the right place".

I will continue to wait and wait and wait. The UCAS process is definitely a never ending cycle and the worry won't be over until I'm settled into a University. I wonder how much my A level grades would improve if I stopped constantly refreshing my e-mails and spend the time doing revision or coursework. That's definitely food for thought...

Wednesday 16 November 2011

"Everybody's Changing and I don't know why"

Before I write this blog I want to make it very clear that I am really looking forward to going to University and nothing will change that in my mind. That is what makes this so hard.



Even with all the drama of visiting open days, sending off applications, constantly refreshing my email for offers or invitations and all the other stressful but exciting elements of the process, there is always this lingering thought in the back of my mind that I'm going to have to leave everything I love behind.

This thought causes me to break down into tears or struggle against them at many inconvenient times often in public. Today's venue for my break down was the school music room before a band rehearsal for the school production. Luckily, I had two very lovely girls, who I would class as some of my closest friends, were on hand to comfort me. That is not something you see in every subject area, a year 13 student crying on the shoulder of a year 10 student. Another reason why it is so difficult to leave. I would count the whole music department at Plume as an extended family and I'll miss the year 7s just as much as the year 12s, it's as if there isn't an age difference and I can't imagine finding that sort of atmosphere anywhere else.

I understand that things change, but the moments when you realise things have changed or are changing always manage to take you by surprise. When we were in Secondary school, we looked back on the friends we no longer talked to from primary school. Now we're in Sixth form, we look back on the friends we no longer talk to from secondary school and no doubt, when we're at University we'll look back on the friends we no longer talk to from sixth form, it's a never ending circle. Things change and I am a believer in fate so if you don't end up friends with them forever then I suppose you have to appreciate the time you were friends for.

There are definitely people who's friendship I took for granted. There are two boys who I was friends with while doing my GCSEs. I would have never spent time with either of them outside of school but I always enjoyed their company during lessons and times spent with them are probably some of the most enjoyable of my school life. One of them I drifted apart from in year 11 and when he moved to another sixth form, we weren't likely to make an effort to keep in touch. I still see the other frequently but for various reasons, we're not exactly on the best of terms anymore and until today, if I'm honest that didn't really bother me at all. The impending departure at the end of year has really made me think about how much those little friendships mean to you, they are never people you'd call your best friends but when you're not really on speaking terms with that person, it makes you realise that you miss the days when you could spend a Study Support lesson laughing with no awkardness.



This may be too personal for a blog post but if this blog wasn't a little personal, would anyone be interested at all?

Because I am aware that things are going to change a lot at the end of this year, I am determined to enjoy my last year in Maldon. I have got various exciting things planned for over the year but it's more about spending as much time as possible enjoying the company of my friends. Particuarly my two best friends. I know that not everything is good between you at the moment but I can't handle spending the year not being able to spend time with both of you together.

This is an open letter to my choir four in particular. I miss our friendship more than anything and propose a dominoes and X factor night very soon.



Katy xxx

Tuesday 15 November 2011

The dreaded acronym

I'm almost certain that if you were to take a survey of year 13 students all around the country, asking them the question: 'What is your main cause of stress?', I can almost guarantee that a lot of the answers will contain the acronym UCAS.

I have noticed that many people who have previously spoken of how much they wish to go to University have changed my mind due to a variety of different factors. After the controversial government changes to University fees, many people believe that less students will decide to go to University based on the high debt they expect to get. However, I think that a lot more people are being put off by the stress of filling in their UCAS application and getting it sent off.

I recently sent off my application and ever since I have, I've felt a lot more relaxed. I was getting too stressed that if I was to send it off too late then I would stand no chance of getting into University. Although, part of this stress was due to reasons beyond my control, I did feel that the wait to finally send of my application was taking over my life.

The question is, Are people being put off of going to University by the thought of filling out their UCAS application. Definitely, not everyone is and many people defer for a year or more because they would rather concentrate on getting good A level results in year 13 and then spend quality time filling out their UCAS application.

However, I disagree with the proposed plans to postpone the application process until after A2 exams. With a little bit of work, the application doesn't take too long and isn't too strenuous. You need to have time to do the research and be confident with your decisions. It causes a lot of stress for everyone but it should be worth it in the long run.

These are the moments when having an iphone can either be considered as a very bad thing or a very good thing, at some point it is bound to have a meltdown due to the amount I refresh my email...

Wednesday 26 October 2011

The power of Film.

Whenever I'm feeling a bit rubbish I always want to watch a film. Preferably something that doesn't take too much brain power. It may just be me, but I have a film for pretty much every mood. For example, if I'm feeling particularly sad then my film of choice is 'Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging', it's so bad, it's good and I can watch it over and over again and it never fails to cheer me up. I mean, who doesn't melt at 'Georgia's perfect too, she's just a perfect nutter'.




It just makes me think, where would we be without film? Bored and miserable I think. A trip to the cinema cheers most people up, even if the film was rubbish, people still feel like they've had a good time. It provides entertainment and people will probably bond more over a conversation about films than they will anything else, whether it is laughing at the other person's favourite film or discovering that you can both quote the whole script of mean girls (I mean, who can't?.

I'm pretty sure I give a different film name every time someone asks me what my favourite film is. The alternative is that I list a number of different films and explain exactly why I might list it as my favourite film but not give you a definitive answer. It is likely to be one of these.

-10 Things I hate about you
-Son of Rambow
-Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
-The Last Song
-The Wedding Singer
-Mickey Blue Eyes
-Jerry Maguire
-Pretty Woman
-Pretty in Pink

I could go on for hours listing my favourite films and I've probably missed some that I talk about all the time but that will do for now. I'd love to know what your favourite films are so feel free to share them in a comment.

Katy xxxx

Monday 24 October 2011

Leaving Home!

For the past 3 years or so I have been counting down the days until it's my turn to start University. That was the first year that people I knew quite well started University, before that as far as I knew everyone in year 13 left school and then disappeared. When that year started Uni I saw all the pictures on Facebook and from then on I have been looking forward to starting Uni more than anything else. Until recently, it hadn't even crossed my mind that it might be quite hard to leave my life at home behind.

I'm still excited to start, what is pretty much going to be my new life, but now I've realised just how hard it's going to be to say goodbye to everything and everyone. The difficulty of this whole process really depends on which university I end up at. One of my top choices is just under and hour and a half away so I would be able to pop home when ever I liked and people would be able to visit me all the time, however, the other one is on the other side of the country so things would be very different.

It's not actually too big a deal in my mind but I will miss everyone loads and it's a bit weird to think I'm going to leave everything behind. It's not only my family that will be here but my two best friends are in the year below me and it'll be a bit weird not having them around all the time too.




Those sad goodbyes don't come until the end of the year though and although I've got a lot of hard work to do to actually get into university, there's lots to look forward to because I'm not going just yet!

Thursday 20 October 2011

The Importance of Open Days (plus I'm forever a KatyCat)

If I could only give one piece of advice to people planning to go to University it would be to go to as many open days as possible!

I'm very lucky because I have the most supportive parents anyone could ask for who are willing to take me all over the country on my own personal university tour, but even if you don't have parents like that, ask anyone you know who drives; Aunts, Uncles, Grandmas, Granddads, Friends, whoever and if that doesn't work then try to get there yourself. In my opinion the open day is the most important part of your decision. Obviously, i'm not at uni yet so take that judgement with a pinch of salt but it tells you so much more than a prospectus or a website can.

When I finish my tour I will have visited 8 universities which I suspect is more than most people go to see. This is because after the first open day I went to, I realised how important they were in my decision. Personally, I think that there are three equal weighted elements that guide your decision about a University when you visit an open day, so if you're short of time on the day, definitely go to these things.

1)The course talk should inspire you, especially with a course like Journalism. 4 out of 6 of the course talks I've seen have inspired me, which leaves the others falling a bit behind in my mind and makes me wonder if that's the place that will give me the best and most enjoyable degree.

2)The Accommodation is crucial. It is most likely to be where you are living for at least a year of your life. It's enough of a shock to be away from home and the people you've seen every day for your whole life, without being thrown into awful living conditions. The first halls I visited were dirty and quite small, which I just assumed was how halls are, but after seeing other accommodation I now know that it's not supposed to be like that. If the place you are living is a tiny box filled with dirt and is an hours walk away from your lectures then you might want to question if it is actually worth it.

3)Finally, you need to be able to live there. Like I said before, it's a big shock to your life, there is so much change so I feel like I need to like the place and the university. Look around the town and see if you can imagine going shopping there or just living in that area. Most importantly though, I think you get a feel for the University as soon as you arrive. There was one university that I could imagine myself going to and many of my friends thought would be the place I'd end up but it confused me beyond belief. As soon as I arrived, I knew it wasn't somewhere I could see myself being, the course talk was amazing but in the end I knew that I wouldn't be happy living and studying in that place so it isn't one of my choices.

I'm interested to see how the final two open days go, this week and next because I'm banking on them being my 3rd and 4th choices but it could all change, they could be completely erased from my UCAS application or they could go higher up or lower down, we'll just have to see. They're going to have a hard job beating my first choice though, which ticked every single box, however I'm definitely going to need other choices as it really is one of the best of the best. The open day really showed me why everyone I have spoken to about Journalism there raves about how much respect they have for the inspirational Professor.

Also, along with this university tour I somehow managed to fit in going to see Katy Perry with one of my best friends on Saturday night at the O2. It was genuinely one of the most fun nights of my life and if you ever get the chance to see her, it is definitely worth it. The brilliant costumes and amazing vocals are great selling points but a candy floss scented arena and a foam and confetti party to finish the night off is a big bonus. It was also a bit strange though because I am also Katy and although the crowd weren't referring to me, having the whole of the o2 chanting your name makes you feel very good about yourself.

Monday 10 October 2011

Too much work!

Tonight's blog was going to be about the uni open day I went to on Saturday, however that will have to wait until another day because I have something else to talk about.

'I have too much work to do'. Probably the most common phrase you'll hear an A level student say, actually it's probably the most common phrase you'll hear any human being over the age of about 16 say. The thing is, most of the time, we are spending more time complaining about how much we've got to do than we are actually trying to do it.

We all feel like we're the busiest person in the world. It's one of my pet hates: I always seem to get jobs given to me by other people because they're too busy to do it which leads me to moan about being too busy myself but I'm certain that there are many people more busy than me! However, since I started A levels I do have a considerably larger amount to do and sometimes it gets a bit on top of me, just as it does with everyone else. Tonight was one of those times but I knew how much I had to do, so I came straight home and just got on with it with no distractions, working non-stop (except a break for dinner) but it's still not all finished.

I'm not much of a partier though, and I do spend the majority of my time being productive so I am starting to wonder why things don't get finished with lots of time to spare.

Despite being slightly behind, I am actually in quite a good mood and I think it's time now to go to bed with the biography of Stalin and try to understand how the leadership style changed in Russia during the rise and fall of the soviet union so that I don't fail history this year... I'm starting to feel very glad that I decided against History with journalism at Uni and switched to just straight Journalism. I'm definitely not intelligent enough to be a Historian, let's just hope I've finally found something I'm good at in Journalism.

Can you tell I'm tired?

Katy xxx

Sunday 9 October 2011

It's about time!

Hello!

About this time two years ago I started a blog after being inspired by the wonderful film Julie and Julia. This was before I knew I wanted to be a journalist, it just looked fun. I didn't want to blog just for the sake of it though, I wanted a purpose, but I couldn't think of anything I really wanted to write about. I finally decided on a concept based on visiting places beginning with C, however, I never made the effort to visit the places so the blog turned into more of a daily rant. I did enjoy writing it though and actually found it very therapeutic but now I have tumblr to get all that stuff out and have found a real purpose for writing a real blog.

I'm currently in my last year at sixth form, which is going to involve a lot of decisions, a lot of changes and worst of all a lot of goodbyes. This is a journey that so many people are going on, have been on or will go on and personally, I feel that it's a time I'm going to want to look back on in years to come.

This blog is for me but if you're interested then you're more than welcome to join me on my stories of 18th birthdays, University Open days, personal statement traumas and everything else that comes with the road to university!


Katy xxx