Time to lose the L plates!

Learning to drive is probably second only to A levels in the things taking up the average 17/18 year old's mind. I started driving in February last year. I'd avoided applying for my provisional license, starting a month after my birthday only because my Mum and Dad constantly told me it was a good idea. Most people I know turned 17 and couldn't wait to start driving, I was terrified at the idea.

My college takes part in the roadrunner course, where all the year 12s go over to Bradwell and learn about safe driving. As a part of this day, a driving school were taking us round for small off road drives. I'd never even attempted to drive before, I didn't know what any of the controls were, I didn't even know how to turn it on! It's safe to say I was the worst driver of the day, scaring all the other students and even the instructors, with one asking when I turned 17 so that he could stay off of the road. This experience didn't exactly make me less horrified at the idea of learning to drive so in the months running up to my birthday when I should have applied for my licence, I instead made a concerned effort to change the subject any time the topic of me driving came up in conversation.

Fortunately, I have extremely stubborn parents. They decided it was a good idea for me to learn to drive and themed all presents around driving lessons. I couldn't really say no any more when they were being paid for me so I finally admitted defeat and ordered my provisional. The next terrifying (I like to be dramatic!) step was deciding who to learn to drive with. Everyone who lives in Maldon always jokes about the large amount of cafes and hairdressers we're home to and I'm starting to think that driving schools should join that list! Luckily, my decision was made easy for me and to be completely honest, if it wasn't then I'd probably still be putting off learning to drive and arguing with my parents about it.

Supreme driving school run a course with my sixth form where they do driving practice around the playground for year 12s approaching their 17th birthday. This was the best thing ever for me. I got to get used to being in a car when I could only endanger the school, the instructor, the instructor's car and me which is a lot better than the danger I'd have faced going on the road straight away! This made me feel a little more confident about the idea and I booked lessons with Dave.

It's taken me a little longer than most people to get to the stage of taking a test. I'm in no way a natural driver and I'm the sort of person who worries about looking stupid so I didn't want to even try and take one if I didn't feel confident that I could drive. I've finally gotten to that stage after about a year and a half of driving and I'm happy to say that it meant I passed first time thanks to Dave being patient with my driving skills, it took me a while but I got there!

So, as much as I REALLY didn't want to learn to drive, now I can I love it! Driving on my own is the least stressful thing in the world, I'm super careful to look in my mirrors all the time and for once I actually feel like I know what I'm doing in the car. I went out for my first drive alone yesterday afternoon up to town. It was the smoothest drive I've ever had and I did a perfectly straight bay park first time, which has NEVER happened before. I keep being reminded that I'm going to learn more about driving now that I've passed and I've got to be super careful and I completely see that, it feels so different. The most important thing though, is driving music. I'm finding that Olly Murs sets the perfect relaxed yet happy mood for good driving, I'm not sure my "ooh ah Malia" playlist will have the same effect...

I would recommend anyone trying to learn to drive if possible. Every one is different, you might be car crazy and learn to drive straight away and pass ASAP, or you might be like me and think it's scary and not really worth it but just give it a try because no matter how long it takes, it's just something good to be able to do.

What happens in Crete stays in Crete...until I blog about it!

It's supposed to be a bit of a rite of passage to go on holiday with your friends to celebrate the end of A levels and it might just be the BEST way to do that. I can't think of much that would be better than spending a week in the sun drinking cocktails with your best friends. 


Me and my friends decided for definite in about june last year that we were going to go on holiday this year. Me and another friend went to Dublin last year for a couple of days to celebrate finishing our AS' and most of the group spent a week in Newquay doing the same so we weren't really going to experience that first bit of real freedom that the media always talks about when criticising these types of holiday. Over the summer we became a bit obsessed with the BBC3 show 'Sun, Sex and Suspicious parents' and The Inbetweeners movie made us fall a little bit for Malia, (despite the movie being mainly filmed in Magaluf). When we went back to college in September, booking the holiday seemed to be the only thing we could think about. I've spent endless hours looking through photos of other people's girls/lads holidays and asking people for their stories so I'm writing a check-list for all the nosy people like me. This is completely unqualified holiday planning and enjoying advice. 


Before you go! 


Step 1) Who's going?
Not everyone will want to go on a holiday, it's not everyone's cup of tea and not everyone will be able to afford it. Make sure everyone's 100% certain they want to go and they can find the money, it's stressful getting everyone together but don't pressure anyone to make a decision and try not to brag about how excited you are to the people not going, the holiday doesn't make the whole friendship so try not to make them feel left out! 


Step 2) Who's in charge? 
It should be a group holiday, so no one should be in charge but if you book it at the travel agents then you need a lead passenger and even if you don't then it's still good to have someone to keep all the details and nag everyone to pay their money. I wouldn't call myself bossy but I do find myself trying to take the lead most of the time which I always feel bad about. Even if you are the lead passenger, still try and remember that it's everyone's holiday so you can't make decisions for them.

Step 3) What type of Holiday?
18-30s, quiet and relaxing, culture filled - you can have whatever you want. Being a control freak, I argued for something in the middle, a place with culture where we could relax and party, constantly saying that I didn't want to go 18-30s because I didn't want to go somewhere where there would "be sick everywhere". My friend said it was ironic because out of all of us I'd be the most likely to be contributing to the sick everywhere in one of the 18-30 resorts. I don't want to speak for everyone else but I think we were all happy with our choice of a less mental party resort.

Step 4) Destination? 
Knowing what type of holiday you want will narrow the options but a country is a good place to start. It's good not to be too fussy but we were pretty certain we wanted to go to Greece, so that helped.

Step 5) Travel Agent or Independent?
The Travel Agents will help no matter what, they'll give you a good idea of prices and destinations but you might find that you can find it a lot cheaper on the Internet. We felt more secure going through the travel agents, we got really cheap insurance and were able to pay our own portion of the total off without having to keep track of it ourselves, I just felt it made everything a lot easier.

Step 6) Do the Research!
Trip Advisor became my new best friend, don't just trust what the travel brochures tell you, don't book anything until you're pretty certain what it's going to be like when you get there.

Step 7) Budget!
We were lucky enough to get pretty much the best deal ever: A 5 star all inclusive beach resort, 5 minutes walk away from a friendly yet lively bar strip for just £577. We all somehow found the money all on our own, even though I was a little worried I wouldn't for a while. Don't forget you need spending money from somewhere. I took 245 Euros and came home with 20 but we were all inclusive so all I needed money for was alcohol each night. I spent roughly 15Euros a night but you could spend less than that and still get very drunk.

Step 8) When to book?
I would recommend looking either early or late for the best deal. We booked our holiday in November and I'd rather have a long time to get excited rather than a rushed booking, we always thought that we wouldn't have saved the money ready to book it, but it depends what works for you.

Step 9) Last Minute Preparations
Don't pack too many pairs of heels, nights out are different abroad. Heels will just get in the way, you need lots of pairs of sandals and enough outfits to wear each night, 2 bikinis and a cover up and you'll get by. Also, other people might be different but I took 3 books and didn't get enough time to even read one, obviously that depends on the type of holiday.


Step 10) Leaving home! 
Decide with your parents if they want you to contact home and say you're alright. An "I've arrived safely" text is always worth it but if they're likely to worry if you don't ring them 5 times a day then find out before you go. My parents told me they wouldn't mind if they didn't talk to me until they picked me up from the airport and I was given the instruction, "do whatever you want, but I don't want to know!" from my mum but not everyone's the same.



When you're there! - more Dos than Don'ts! - 


Don't forget to check your flight status before you leave for the airport - we got there super early for our 4pm flight which was delayed until 6!


Do take advantage of any free alcohol samples at the airport and browse through duty free for hours!

Do go to bed if your flight doesn't get in until 1am - tired arguments on your first night because you have one control freak indecisive party animal who tells everyone they should stay in one minute and then wants to dance and get drunk as soon as she's on the strip, are not good.

Do have breakfast at least once during the holiday

Do have cocktails on the beach

Do take lots of pictures

Do buy a lilo, even if it deflates while you're in the sea!

Do a booze cruise, even if just to look down on all the over confident drunk teenagers who are happy to get naked for everyone to laugh at.

Do be sensible and drink less or no alcohol if you get travel sick!

Do jump off the boat!

Do find a favourite bar! SHENANIGANS!

Do stay up on the beach until the mad people in speedos come to reserve their sunbeds

Do have a holiday romance 

Don't give them your bracelet!

Do buy tacky touristy clothes to wear on your last night out!

Do look after your friend, Don't stop drinking!

Do eat pizza! It tastes even better when you're drunk!

Do fall in love/ become besties with all of the spotters outside the bars!

Do kiss random boys! (sorry Mum!)

Do dance on tabletops and bars and round poles!

Do quote geordie shore at every opportunity

Don't write all over yourself in sharpie unless you want #magicmike on your leg, property of ellie on your arm and a penis on your ankle by the pool in the morning!

Don't get too sad about going home, remember life just isn't as fun as a holiday.

BUT!

Do get post holiday blues - it's not possible not to so just embrace it!

Do have the best holiday ever! 

Letting go!

I put myself on a bit of a fun ban while I was doing my exams. I didn't take it to ridiculous levels and lock myself in the house or anything but I turned down a few nights out in order to revise. This made half 11 on the 19th June when I finished my last ever A level exam (fingers crossed!) even more exciting.

I like to think that I'm quite a fun person most of the time even if I pretend to be super sensible. I've realised though that having absolutely nothing to worry about is the best feeling in the world, not only because it means you have nothing to do but mainly because it seems to turn me into this super relaxed Katy that I don't think I've ever met before.

I think it's important to let go after a long period of stress and I celebrated the end of exams with a night out in Chelmsford with some of my best friends. It was really fun but it made me realise that sometimes I let go a little bit too much. I was trying to celebrate as much as possible and in the process got a little too drunk then spent the next week feeling like I was the worst person in the world, not ideal.

I had loads more to look forward to though, starting with the Year 13 prom, which was a lovely night with lovely people. It was very different to Year 11 prom but I'd argue that everyone probably looked nicer despite having made less effort. Drinks were massively over priced so we didn't get too drunk but it was a cute little goodbye.

After Prom, I still had two great things to look forward to, tour and my girls holiday (blog to come). Tour really showed off this new relaxed Katy. I was so immature that I think I made everyone wonder who the leaving year 13 was. I've never laughed so much in my life and at stuff I've never found funny before. Toilet humour and sexual innuendos have never really amused me but all weekend I was giggling away to just that. That mixed with living my childhood and just general life dream of performing at Disneyland Paris made it one of the best weekends ever and a great way to say goodbye to the people who have made my time at school unlike any other. 

The moral of the story for me is that it's good to let go and fun Katy is the best type of Katy. 

Ready to leave?

I have now officially left college. My school leavers day was over a month ago now and it was no where near as sad as I thought it was going to be. I'm someone who cries a lot and I've been crying about leaving school for most of the year, but I didn't cry then. It wasn't the same as the year 11 assembly (Class of 2012 blog), I was in the majority by staying tear-free. If I'm honest, we're all ready to leave, it doesn't mean we didn't enjoy our time at school, although I'm sure many people didn't, but we're ready to go to uni or work or whatever else we're planning to do. Year 13 leavers day, at my school anyway, is more of  a celebration, mainly a chance to laugh at how silly we all are.

I had been convinced I was going to cry. I was quite involved with organising the assembly and had seen the leavers film numerous times and each time it brought a tear to my eye. It was the perfect mix of humour and sentimentality but on the day it just didn't seem appropriate to cry. The assembly was lovely though and probably a lot better without any panda eyes. Three of my friends are in a band called The Trip Kings and performed at the assembly with their song "Trip Kings come to town" which is possibly the most catchy song you will ever hear.

After the assembly we went to the pub because...well, we're sixth form students! One of the boys in our year came outside to me and my friends saying "come inside we're playing drinking games with the teachers". Drinking... with the TEACHERS?! We had pretty much left school and we're adults now, so why did that seem so weird to us. For some reason, there is just something a bit strange about seeing teachers in a social situation. The other night I went out for a meal with the music tech student; their teachers and one of my music teachers (I'm the only Year 13 music student at my school this year). It was lovely and didn't feel at all weird to be out with them, although calling the teachers by their first names kept catching us out and I'm wondering if they'll ever stop feeling like our teachers!

On the morning of leavers day, I got a tweet from a friend who used to be in many of the school music groups with me. She said that the school leavers day seemed like nothing compared to her final concert. I think that's exactly how I'll be, I love my year at school but we're all leaving at the same time, whereas, it feels very sad to leave behind all my friends from years 7-12 within the music department, as well as the year 8 form I've worked with for 2 years and my 3 amazing violin pupils. It's just over a week until the school summer music concert; my last morning with my year 8s and my last lessons with my pupils so it might be time for me to stock on some tissues and waterproof mascara before I'm just a puddle on the floor! 

There's a reality show for everything!

Tonight is the final of 'The Exclusives'. The first advert caused much controversy, causing all the journalists I follow on twitter to burst into ridiculing the candidates and the whole idea of a reality TV show for this particular industry. The aim of the show to find the next young star to work for, arguably one of the most powerful Magazine groups, Bauer publications. The chance of a job at one of these magazines obviously appeals to me, (my absolute dream job is being the next Polly Vernon writing about feminist issues each week in Grazia), however, I completely agreed with the viewpoints of journalists like Grace Dent who wrote a review of the first episode for the Independent summarising the absurdity of reality TV and this show's glamorisation of working in the media industry with the sarcastic comment: "ITV2 put the kids up in the luxury apartment as a fair representation of where one can hope to abide in London on an unpaid editorial-assistant travel-expense wage" I've come to learn since looking to be a journalist that it's not easy. I've been told so many times by working journalists, journalism lecturers, journalism students and just about everyone  that it's going to be a life of lots of work for little pay, so there is something a little un-realistic about 'The Exclusives'. The competition that has been running for viewers throughout the show seems to sum up the producer's representation of journalism to me, saying that the Camera, Dictaphone, Laptop, Headphones, Magazine subscription, Mobile phone and Cash prize, was "everything you need to become a top reporter yourself"!

I have been asked by various people if I would ever apply for a show like 'The Exclusives' and at first I replied with a definite no. I saw it as ruining your credibility and career before it's even been established. There seems to be an unwritten rule in this career that you must remain independent and asking for help is a sign of weakness and the more I've watched 'The Exclusives' the more I've considered if that rule is outdated. We live in a world now, where there is a reality TV show for everything and although it's annoying, it does, to a certain extent, give everyone a chance to do something with their life, albeit quite high profile and often criticised. I would still say now that I wouldn't be interested in appearing on a show like 'The Exclusives but I can't deny that these candidates, particularly Ellie who I am most definitely rooting for in tonight's final, are passionate about journalism and are willing to work hard to get to the top. The show will give them contacts and as they say, 'It's who you know not what you know".

I've enjoyed watching the series and as much as I sit and criticise them, they're out doing what they want to do. The mentors and judges on the show which include Hannah Fernando and Lucie Cave from 'Heat!' have been constantly reinforcing the value of good writing, which I was pleased to see. I honestly don't know what my writing is like, but to me, without good writing and a strong viewpoint you don't have a journalist! 

'The Exclusives' final is on ITV2 at 9pm tonight (28th June) featuring finalists Ellie, Stuart and Felix. 

I'm getting old!

I keep finding myself saying the phrase “I sound so old”.

Obviously I’m not old, I’m actually quite young but I don’t think I’m the only 18 year old who’s feeling like this now and again. The idea of turning 18 felt a little bit scary to me and the idea of leaving home and having to look after yourself is even worse.  It’s the idea of being ‘officially’ an adult and having to grow up! I still feel like I'm about two and I still act like I am most of the time. I'm going to Disneyland Paris as part of the school music tour in July and despite being one of the oldest students going, I can guarantee that I will be the most excited one there, running around trying to get pictures with all the characters while dressed as a princess! 

I'm sure this is bound to embarrass one of my friends who'll be there with me. Me and my best friend have made it our mission to embarrass this girl at school. She's in year 9 so we like to make her look as uncool as possible! I shout at her in the corridor, tell her to correct her uniform and tell her off for being cheeky to teachers. I'm just as embarrassing to my brother who's in the same year but he has the power to embarrass me back. 

Both of them make me feel very old on a regular occasion. Often by using slang words that are now being said by EVERYONE their age but mean a completely different thing. The most recent word that I came across was when my friend told me she wouldn't be at Orchestra because "I'm going to a party because I'm MAINSTREAM". I thought that Mainstream was the opposite of Hipster. That you were a bit of a sheep, following the crowd, listening to chart music and wearing Chinos and Hollister hoodies. I questioned her use of the word to which she said "do you even understand what Mainstream means?" I was shocked and told her yes  to which she said "well I don't know, I thought you might be too old". 

After conferring with my brother over the word, I've found out that to 14 year olds now, the word mainstream means cool which doesn't make much sense to me. I hate the idea of patronising people younger than me but I do often refer to them as 'about 12' and laugh at year 9s in particular. I was ridiculous in year 9, so it's not exclusive to today's 14 year olds. I don't mean to be patronising but I'm going to be, we all are though. The latest thing that has allowed sixth formers to laugh at the year 9s in my school is the uniform protest, against a change in uniform policy...that hasn't changed anything. 

We laugh at them, but life was definitely much easier in year 9 and I'd probably rather be sitting on the field moaning about not being able to wear skinny trousers and fake eyelashes to school than stuck inside doing A  level practice papers. 

I'm embracing being boring!

Getting the perfect balance between having a social life and working hard to pass your exams seems to be almost impossible.

I've always thought that I'm quite good at prioritising things in my life. I work hard and do well enough at school, spend time with my friends on a regular basis and still find time to read Grazia, paint my nails and update my blog (albeit not as much as I'd like to). The problem is I don't have enough time or energy to do everything.

One of my pet peeves is when people moan about how busy they are as if no one else could possibly have more to do than them, this kind of ties in with another pet peeve of mine which is the phrase "you think GCSEs are hard, wait until you try A levels". Everything is difficult for someone at some point and no one should be made to feel as though they don't have the right to moan. I don't know a single person who has never felt overwhelmed by the amount of revision they have to do or how many concerts they have that week and how they're going to fit in time to see their friends and actually talk to their family. More often than not it gets to the point where you just want to go to sleep and wake up when you don't have anything to stress about. But let's be honest that day will never come. People seemed to be programmed to moan and although it feels a little ironic that we spend so much time complaining about complaining, it's a fact of life.

While I was doing my GCSEs I became a bit of a recluse. I'd caught the much feared Swine Flu in October of year 11 which gave a bit of a hit to my immune system and I spent the rest of the academic year feeling just a little bit weird. Parties were becoming and more and more popular and I didn't really drink so I wasn't too interested in going out a lot. I blamed my growing unsociability on "feeling ill" most of the time, which was never really a lie but truthfully I just wanted to stay in and revise. I didn't stress out too much about GCSEs but I felt like I needed to be spending as much time as possible working for them which was probably true as I still just got "good" results, no A*s. I was really happy with them but I was no where near the top.

As my A levels are approaching I have a slightly different attitude but the principle is still there. I've never been naturally intelligent. I'm definitely not stupid but in school I've always been just slightly above average, which isn't a real problem for me, it just means I have to work hard. I think on first impression, people either think I'm really stupid because I'm loud and chatty or really intelligent because I'm often the opposite in the classroom. I need a B in Media Studies to get into my first choice university and the others can be 3 Ds. That seems pretty achievable to me but I don't want that. Getting a D grade at A level is perfectly fine, in fact it's good but everyone has personal goals and if I don't get the grades that I want it won't be a problem for me as long as I know I did everything I could.

That's why I chose not to go out tonight. I would love to be dancing away to mama do the hump in Chicagos with my best friends drinking jager bombs until the early hours of the morning but I have my A level music recital on Friday and my brain cells can't cope with the damage right now. So I've spent my evening teaching violin pupils, practising, doing some homework, revising music, watching TOWIE and now writing this blog. Every time I tell my friends that I can't go out because I'm practising or revising or doing whatever, I always feel like they think I'm really boring because they have exactly the same problems as I do and I'm sure their results will be as good as mine, if not better, even with the nights out but if I didn't give up a bit of socialising just for these next couple of months I'd always be thinking that I could have done better in my A levels. The difference between now and year 11 is that I'm (hopefully) not going to become a complete recluse and leave my friends wondering if I've fallen off the face of the earth, I'm just going to 'take it easy'.

So, to all my friends: Fun Katy will be back after my last exam on the 19th June, grab me a vodka and coke and get ready for a summer without stress!