Student Jobs

I have been looking into getting a job this summer, to help me save up for Uni. However, based on what my friends have told me, and what is often written in the advertisements, getting one that doesn't take advantage of you is easier said than done.

Many involve working quite long hours, more than the college recommends. Others though, say 5 or 6 hours, and then say "must be able to work longer when busy at no notice", which would suggest you just have to work whenever they want you to. This would make planning when you are going to do college work difficult, as well as not being able to know when you are or aren't free to do fun stuff. One of our teachers even said she has known students being expected to work when they have college! Others are 0 hours contracts. And of course, the few that are a reasonable number of set hours have a lot of people applying for them!

Personally, I think that if companies want loyal workers, they need to stop messing us about! Just because we are young doesn't mean we should be expected to drop everything and work with no notice. They are taking advantage of the fact that students really want the money and have a restricted choice of jobs. Have you got a part time job? Or have you been put off like I have?

It's Not Coming Home

I had started to get really hopeful about the football this year. I genuinely thought that this might be the year we brought it home. I was particularly looking forward to the final of us against France, because my friend is French, and we were going to watch it together. Of course, that would have probably have ended badly, and we might not have spoken for a while afterwards, but it would have been interesting! I suppose we can cheer France on together now! 

I have finished college for the year now. It has gone really quickly, scarily so, and I am definitely not ready for next year! However, I have a whole 8 weeks off to prepare myself for the nightmare that is A level course work, so it should be ok. If I can figure out what I want to do for Uni in that time too, then even better! And maybe I can get a bit better at the guitar too. Are you off for the summer yet? 

Football Fever

Well, my new plan to post every day has not got off to a great start so far. But hopefully, I can do better over the next week. If I am not too distracted by the World Cup, that is!

Up until now, I have not been a huge fan of football. I pay attention to where Southampton are in the leagues, but that was mostly so I could chat to the boys at school without looking stupid! But this year, I have got properly into the World Cup. It all started when I watched our first game against Tunisia. I was horrified when they scored on a penalty, and caught in suspense for the rest of the game to see if we could win against them. The final goal left me elated.

Since then, I have watched every single England game. I have become a Harry Kane fan, as he is a really good striker and didn't get angry when the other players kept fouling him. I hope he gets the golden boot! I can't wait to see how we get on tomorrow against Columbia to see if we can make the quarter finals. Hopefully, we might actually do well this year! Have you been following the football?

I Am Back!

As I am sure you have noticed, I have not been blogging for over a month. I needed a break from it as I was enjoying it less, and had other things going on in my life. Now though, I have started to miss it, and with the summer holidays soon approaching I should have no excuses, and will hopefully be back to regular service! I am going to try and write a post every day from now until we go back in September, so watch this space!

One thing I have not been busy doing though, is watching Love Island! My parents are hooked, but I hate it! I get enough boyfriend/girlfriend drama at college, I don't want more of it! I'm also not keen on how extremely image focused the show is. I think we are exposed to enough images of what we should look like as it is. I will admit though, that if you are just looking for eye candy, it is perfect!Have you been watching Love Island?

The Greatest Showman

At first, I was sceptical when everyone first became obsessed with The Greatest Showman. I didn't think it would be my sort of thing. After I had heard a few of the songs from it, I was a little keener, and went to see it at the cinema over the Easter holidays.

I loved every minute! I was completely amazed, I had no idea it would be that brilliant! What surprised me most though, was that I liked the storyline itself as well as all the singing and performing. The songs were still my favourite part though, I have been listening to them constantly. The other side is my favourite, as I really like some of the comments they make about each other's lives!

So if you haven't seen it yet, no matter how sceptical you are or if you think it is not your sort of thing, you should still watch it. Prepare to be converted!

University Fairs - Avoid The Sales Pitch, Talk To The Students!

On Friday, my college took a group of us to a UCAS fair at Winchester University. It was a huge event with Universities from all over the country, and would supposedly help us with deciding where we wanted to go to study.

Many of the stalls had real students from the universities there as representatives, and talking to them was really interesting, as they were able to answer questions not found in prospectuses and on websites. They could tell me what the social and night life is like as well as whether they like living in that town or city. I even found out about what it is like to study a certain subject area at degree level when I was lucky enough to come across one who studies in the area I want to. However, the staff of the Universities were not so helpful, as quite a lot of what they said wasn't even true! They were just desperate to make you think their Uni was the best!

Once we had found out all the information we wanted, we started a new game: freebie hunting! By targeting the stalls with the best free stuff on offer, I had managed to score a set of good quality earphones, a canvas shopping bag, a packet of seeds to grow flowers, a balloon, a rubber and 3 pens. However, I missed out on a beach ball, because by the time we had worked out which stall was giving them away, they had run out!

I would recommend going to these days as they are fun, but I would suggest focusing on talking to students at the university rather than staff, as they tend to be more honest, and can tell you more about what it is actually like to go there. Have you been to any university fairs?

Am I Normal Yet?

When my mum handed me a book with the title "Am I Normal Yet" just over a week ago I had to laugh. Mostly because the answer for me was "No", and probably always will be! On closer inspection, it was about a girl who was recovering from an anxiety disorder going to college and trying to act just like everyone else so they wouldn't know what is wrong with her. I recognised author Holly Bourne as the writer of another book I like, Soulmates, so I decided it was well worth a read.

When I read it though, I realised it was about feminism as well, as her and her new friends set up a group called "The Spinsters" to discuss feminist topics. They are trying to prove that they can be happy without boyfriends, and not become totally dependant on them when they do get them. It also discusses friendship, boyfriends, music and general college life, as well as what life is like when mental illness is slowly closing you off from everyone around you. The way it is written realistically portrays what it is like to be constantly attacked by your own thoughts.

I would recommend it to all girls at college, especially if they have ever been effected by mental illness.

University Choices

As I am heading toward the last year of my A levels, I am starting to properly think about University choices. Up until now, I have always thought it would be fairly straightforward, as I thought I knew I wanted to study graphic design. However, it turns out that every Uni's graphic design course is slightly different in content, and there are other courses like illustration and visual communication that are also interesting.

I guess the problem is we are no longer in the world of A levels, where there is a limited choice and they are all fairly standardised from college to college. Now, I am in a position where there is a huge range to pick from, and as the choice will determine which area of design I end up working in, that is pretty daunting.

And then there is the problem of where do I want to go? Home or away? City or closed campus? Huge lively University, or friendly art college? It is proving to be a lot more complicated than I thought. And one look at the employment statistics from each Uni prove how important this decision is. The percentage of people with a career after 6 months can vary dramatically.  For my courses, it can be anything from 80% to only 32%.

At least I have some idea though. If it is this hard when you know what career you want and are just trying to work out the best way to get there, how difficult must it be when you have no clue? How are you coping with the decisions?

Chaos In The Kitchen

As Channel 4 are going to be hosting Stand Up To Cancer soon, they have been showing a variety of programs that are also raising money for the cause. My favourite of these is Celebrity Great British Bake Off, as it is hilarious. I am a Bake Off fan anyway, but I like the celebrity one even better.

Each week, 4 celebrities (often comedians) with various amounts of baking experience tackle 3 challenging tasks, with limited amounts of success. This year there has been so many disasters, especially in the technical challenge, and I have been in hysterics watching Paul's face when he sees what they have made. The biscuits that looked like a Jackson Pollock produced a particularly special reaction! Nick Hewer also had quite a few problems.

What is really lovely about it though is that some of them genuinely improve. Lee Mack started off producing bakes that were inedible, but by the showstopper managed to do surprisingly well. However, Nick Hewer also struggled, but did not manage to pull it out the bag later on. Some of the celebrities do actually make some impressive bakes, a few of which even got Hollywood handshakes!

The show is on at 8pm every Tuesday on Channel 4, and you can watch the previous episodes on All 4. Have you been watching Celebrity Bake Off?

George Ezra Latest Release

I have always liked George Ezra. I often play his song "Budapest", and I also like "Blame It On Me". However, his new single "Paradise" is his best yet. I have listened to it 3 times today already and I can't stop singing it. It is so uplifting, every time I listen to it I am instantly in a good mood. You can have a listen to it below:

I have listened to his other singles Hold My Girl and Pretty Shining people too, and they are very good as well. I think the lyrics are brilliant, although they are quite different as they are much calmer. I can't wait to see what he releases next! Do you like George Ezra?