DISCUSSION: BOOKS

For the last two and a half weeks I've been relaxing and reading - the best R and R. With a three week period between the end of my exams and the start of my new job I have spent most of my time reading. For the first time in three years I have no set reading that I have to complete, no pressure to dissect every paragraph and no panics over writing literature reviews. I can actually read for pleasure!

The first book that I read in my period of freedom was Michelle Tea's How To Grow Up. I saw some people tweet about this book a few weeks ago but forgot about it until I came across it while scrolling through the Book Depository website. Seeing that I would soon be finishing uni and heading into the 'real world' I thought it would be an interesting book to read and it was. Tea's How To Grow Up is a memoir that documents the writer's life from young alcoholic to successful author, poet . . . the list goes on. Although I could not totally relate to Tea's colourful early life, the lessons she learns on her way to adulthood could be applied to most areas of every individual's life. She discusses economic, social and political struggles that the majority of young people experience, like for example, how are you going to pay the rent this month, how to live with loud, messy and drunk housemates, how to strike the balance between work and play, how to make a living doing something you actually love and everything in between. Although it is not a book I will reach for again and again like others on my bookshelf, it was well worth the read and it shows you that if you work hard things will eventually come together. 

END OF UNIVERSITY PLAYLIST

Seeing that I am technically not a student anymore, although my student card doesn't run out until the 15th of June, I decided to make a playlist to signal the end of my life in education, the end of my life as a student and the start of my life in the 'real world'. All these songs I love but they they are also songs (most of them) that discuss moving on, leaving something and enjoying life. I am writing this four days before I leave uni to start my new job, sat in the uni's coffee shop and it's pretty emotional. This week has has been and continues to be extremely busy in terms of going out, seeing friends and celebrating. I know I've said this a gazillion times but I can not believe that three years have passed since I first stepped foot on to campus. Gosh, time does fly! For the rest of the week I'm just going to soak it all up and enjoy my last week as a student! 

FOO FIGHTERS, AC/DC AND RIVAL SONS: JUNE/JULY GIGS

As you have probably noticed, things have been quite quiet on this blog as of late (or try the whole year). This is for many reasons but mainly because of hectic a university schedule, exams, dissertations and I also just did not know what to write. I kind of lost my blogging mojo. I think I tried to be other people when I know that in order to have a well written and interesting blog you have to write about what you know and what you're passionate about. So, on that note I am going to discuss something that I have not written about in far too long and that is music.

The next few weeks are going to be hectic in terms of gigs and I could not be happier.

First up, the loves of my life, Foo Fighters. Dave Grohl and the band will be rocking Wembley stadium on both Friday and Saturday evening -19th & 20th of June. If hearing Best of You, and Learn to Fly live wasn't enough, the Foo's have lined up some frickin' stellar warm up acts to get the crowd even more ready for the time of their lives. First on stage will be a duo who took Britain by storm in 2014, an act who bossed Reading festival last year and also opened for Arctic Monkeys in Finsbury Park last May - Royal Blood. After Royal Blood leave the stage, the legendary, shirtless, long haired rocker Iggy Pop is scheduled to come on to serenade the crowd (hopefully) with classics such as The Passenger & Lust For Life. From my extensive Foo Fighters YouTubing, the last time they were in Wembley they brought the house down and were even joined on stage with Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page to play Rock and Roll. I have a feeling that this gig is going to be pretty epic!

PODCAST HEAVEN

I’m probably very late to the game but how awesome are podcasts!?

While YouTubing (if that’s not already a word then it most definitely should be) Andy Samburg one afternoon I came across a pretty great podcast called Nerdist and the rest is history as they say!

Every spare moment I had between revision and general life I would listen to these podcasts. These are hilarious and informative hour or so interviews with some of the coolest, funniest and most interesting people out there. With hours of chat from the likes of Rainn Wilson, Nick Kroll, Morgan Freeman and Bill Gates, why would you not listen?

LIFE AND CAREER GOALS

After three years it is all over.

September 2012 - my family and I travelled the 250 or so miles to Royal Holloway, University of London and now it’s over. On that Saturday almost three years ago I had no idea what was in store. Never did I think that I would gain so much confidence, experience what I have and met people I now call my best friends.

With the last full stop of my dissertation and the last sentence of my exam it all ended. But it has not really ended, has it.

Everything you learn through attending university, the academic knowledge, how to make friends, how to live on your own, how to pay bills, how to wash clothes etc, are all things that you keep with you for the rest of your life. I am extremely grateful for this. I would hate to think where I would be now if I had not attended university. The experience has made me into an actual person.

You Are Stronger Than Your Anxiety

It seems as though everyone is talking about anxiety these days. Youtube stars such as Zoella and Tanya Burr often discuss the issue with their millions of followers. Writer and actor Lena Dunham opens up about her battle with anxiety in her book Not That Kind of Girl and universities and government are finally beginning to make it a priority to discuss the pressing issue of mental health. 

For so long anxiety and mental health has been a topic that people shy away from, a topic that gets pushed under the carpet or discussed in a whisper. As a result, people who suffer, and they do suffer; feel ashamed and embarrassed by the fact that they’re somehow weak, somehow different, and somehow crazy.

But they’re not. We’re not. We’re not any weaker, any different or any crazier than the average person on the street; if anything we’re stronger. We get on with life, even when it seems almost impossible to get out of bed. We turn up to work, lectures, and lessons without missing a beat; we turn up to life when we feel sick with worry and dread. We pluck up the courage to speak to people, even friends, when life feels like its been engulfed by fog.

Relax. Focus. Execute: The Best Piece of Advice I Was Ever Given

As I write this I have eighteen word documents opened on my desktop. Eighteen documents that are filled with dissertation chapters, notes regarding FBI Files, researched focused on news articles from 1952-65 and countless chapter outlines and random notes.

Yes, it’s that time of the year. It’s a time when dissertations need to be written, re-written, re-re-written, edited and bound. It is also the time of year when exams need to be revised for and the future needs to be thought about extensively. I guess you can say that it is pretty busy time of year.

Some days I have massive freak-outs about not finishing my dissertation on time or not managing to revise everything I need to revise (my friends can testy for this). Other days however, I feel as calm(ish) as you like, as though I have everything under control.  But I don’t have everything under control. Yes, I have my work and revision under control but the future is anything but controlled. I have no idea what I’ll be doing in three months time other than the fact that I will not be a student anymore.

My love for the cinema

It is no big secret by now that I am quite the introvert. I do not jump for joy when someone asks me to go out to the SU nor can I crack a smile when invited to pre-drinks at someone's house. It's not that I am a recluse and it's not that I am anti-social. I genuinely feel uncomfortable and anxious in situations where there are lots of (drunk) people and where there is immense pressure to drink. Don't get me wrong, I like to go and have a drink in the pub with friends where I can chat to them and have a nice catch up, I just hate situations where people expect you to drink and get drunk even though you really don't want to. That is not my idea of the perfect evening.


What I do like to do though is to go meet people for coffee, go over to people's houses and chat and one of my favourites is trips with friends to the cinema. Since the start of term (a week and a half ago) I have been to the cinema four times. I have seen the story of Steven Hawkins' life in the amazing The Theory of Everything; I watched a little boy grow into a man in the stunning Boyhood; Watched in awe as Cheryl Strayed walked a thousand miles across California and almost cried during Vera Brittain's harrowing war memoirs in The Testament of Youth. 

There are very few things I find as enjoyable and peaceful in life than walking into a theatre, making myself comfortable and investing myself in someone else's story for two hours. Two hours where no one can bother you. Two hours where its just you and the screen. Two hours where there is nothing else for you to do but to sit and watch.