Something I've just thought of...

Equality of the sexes is a topic that is discussed constantly in today's society. Although women are sometimes unfairly treated where it be at home, work or under any other circumstance, I still wouldn't trade being a women for all the tea in China. Do you know why? Because we can carry children.
Of course I know that pregnancy is very hard on your body. It pretty much destroy's your body by covering you in stretchmarks; giving you aches and pains in your back and feet; giving you cravings; causing swelling; making you tired and unable to walk long distances without fatiguing; making you hormonal, grumpy, teary, even "erotically charged" as Rachel from Friends delightfully phrases it; and pretty much puts your body and mind through a lot of potentially difficult changes for 9 months. 
We can't ignore the labour part either. As well as the pain and fatigue of pregnancy, women also need to endure seemingly never-ending tortune and agony at the end of it all to bring the baby into the world. Of course there are a hundred and one different complications that can occur and could even affect you long-term as well.

 

But I also think being able to carry a baby is one of the most amazing things in the world. Think about it. Inside a woman's body, a single cell can grow into a brand new little human, a new life. We can watch and feel the baby grow inside our bodies like a little alien and we can even see their little fingers pressing against our tummies and feel their feet getting stuck in our ribs. (Maybe an icky notion to some but I think thats kinda cute.) How bizarre is that? We're essentially cooking a baby until the timer beeps and the new miniture person is ready to come out and start living. Then our bodies can provide milk that contains all the vitimans and nutrients that baby needs (breat milk can also be used for several different remedies for ailments too). I don't know if I'll just sound like a baby crazy lady or if other women will understand what I'm getting at or if men understand it at all. But I think we have one over on men for that. I mean, sure its painful but its a necessary and a worthy pain to make a baby. And for another thing, before the days of DNA testing, the mother of a baby was the only one who could know for a fact who her baby's father was. A man would never be able to know for sure just by looking at a child. 
I think the fact that we carry babies is one of the most powerful and amazing things in life and a man has never and will never be able to experience it. The fact that our bodies are capable of something so magical is mind-blowing to me and I think we're lucky to be the sex that can do it while men can only watch and imagine. I think thats pretty cool.

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I hope everyone has a great day tomorrow and a happy new year!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Hey everybody! Since the festive season is upon us, I thought I'd leave this here for you to read. :) Merry Christmas!

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house,

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds;

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;

And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow,

Gave a lustre of midday to objects below,

When what to my wondering eyes did appear,

But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny rein-deer,

With a little old driver so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment he must be St. Nick.

 

 

 

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:

"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now Prancer and Vixen!

On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blixen!

To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!

Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”

As leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,

When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;

So up to the housetop the coursers they flew

With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too—

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof

The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

As I drew in my head, and was turning around,

Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;

A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,

And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack.

His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples, how merry!

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,

And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,

And the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath;

He had a broad face and a little round belly

That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,

And laying his finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight—

“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

 

 

Tattoo Time!

So I turned 18 this year and finally got my first tattoo! I had wanted to get my grandpa's portrait tattooed every since I found the photo when I was about 14 and since the photo is about 60 years old (at least!) I wanted to get it sooner rather than later. 

My grandpa was my best friend and the person who encouraged me to write stories and taught me how to write, draw, bake and make videos. I owe so much to him and this was the least I could do. He died from a cardiac arrest when I was about 6 years old but I'll always remember him. 

Holidays are Coming!

Hi everyone!

I've survived my first semester of university! Well almost, I have one more day and then I'm completely finished. I'm so excited for Christmas! Hope everyone has a great festive season.
I thought I'd leave a little feature article I did for my journalism class here since its the closest thing to being published that it'll come to. Please leave comments/feedback if you'd like. Enjoy!

 

Woody: A cowboy or a bit of a plank?

When someone mentions the name Woody, everybody’s favourite fictional cowboy Sheriff Woody from the Toy Story franchise is most likely the animated image that comes to mind. But what if I told you that ‘Woody’ was also the nickname given to a patient recovering in the high dependency ward of Glasgow’s Southern General Hospital?

To clear up any confusion, on 3^rd September 2010, Raymond McNaughton, a Timbmet Ltd wood machinist, was the victim of a serious industrial accident in which several pieces of wood were ejected at speed from a malfunctioning rip saw. These pieces of wood stabbed Raymond in the lower back and in both legs, with one piece of wood piercing straight through one leg and clattering to the floor at the other side of the room, with flesh still skewered on to the small plank. Hence the nickname ‘Woody’ considering that for a time, Raymond appeared to be half man-half tree.

Raymond chuckled as he recalled the events that followed his accident: “It was one of the nurses who gave me the nickname when she wheeled me out from my first operation. She said to my wife and my mother, ‘Here comes Woody!’” The same nurse also compared Raymond to a pirate due to his ‘wooden leg’ and said “Your favourite bevy must be Strongbow, you know, because an arrow does right through the bottle in the advert?”

Raymond was also teased after his surgery when he was flopped on to a hospital bed with a puffy, swollen face like a baked potato and for being rather, shall we say, disorientated under the effects of morphine, much to everyone’s amusement. It seems that the jokes were hardly side-splitting, unlike the splinters, but the tongue and cheek teasing from friends and family did serve as a nudge towards recovery since laughter is naturally the best medicine.

If the surgeons performing Raymond’s emergency operation that night hadn’t been anxious enough, what with the daunting task of extracting wood that was lodged dangerously close to the spinal cord and the main artery in the right leg, they were also concerned that instead of having the ideal empty stomach for surgery, Raymond’s belly was instead full with a large, greasy chip roll and a 75cl of Irn Bru from his lunch break.

Though Raymond can muster a laugh over his ordeal now, the severity of his injuries were apparent to everyone from the start. Raymond went on to tell me that medical staff from throughout the hospital would come to see him, with many in astonishment that he was still alive. Groups of fresh faced student doctors would also be brought to gawk at Raymond’s wounds as if he were a freak side-show act at a circus. Step right up folks, come and see Woody the Tree Trunk Man who is half human-half timber!

“It took a long time for me to get back on my feet and it felt like years before I could work again,” Raymond told me when I asked about his recovery. “I had a catheter for around 10 days because my bowels and other internal organs had been damaged in the accident. The wood had also tilted my pelvis which made it very difficult and painful to walk.”

Unfortunately, shortly after Raymond’s health began to improve, it was discovered that there were still pieces of decaying wood and splinters inside his pelvis and thighs, which were the reason for his ongoing pain.  

“I had x-rays and MIR scans that showed there was still wood inside me. So I had a second operation to remove those pieces and now I have a big scar across the bottom of my stomach. This led to jokes about me having a caesarean section and being attacked by a shark since that’s what my scars look like,” Raymond laughed.

Although Raymond still suffers from pain in his legs, he has made a full recovery and in February of this year he finally received compensation for his ordeal. The company Raymond previously worked for, Timbmet Ltd, were also fined £24,000 at Glasgow Sheriff Court on Wednesday 27^th November this year for failing to adhere to safety regulations. The Health and Safety Executive, Aileen Jardine, specified: “It was preventable.”

“It was a good result but I’m just glad it’s all over. It has been a nightmare but I’m moving on and looking to the future,” Raymond said with a much needed cigarette freshly lit and sagging from his mouth.

As Raymond felt it would be too difficult to return to industrial work, he decided to radically change his career path after his recovery. Raymond is now a full-time support worker for adults with disabilities including autism, brain damage and challenging behaviour. To his surprise, he has discovered that he has quite a knack for his new line of work.

“I’m much happier now and I have received a lot of praise at my new job. I even got an Employ of the Month award for my efforts,” Raymond snorted with a slight hint of a cringe. “I feel more satisfied being in a job where I’m doing something good for other people.”

Today, Raymond keeps a small figurine of his Toy Story comrade, a gag gift from his family, in the kitchen at home as a reminder of his experience. However, Raymond’s old nickname ‘Woody’ doesn’t seem to suit him anymore. He’s made of tougher stuff than that.   



From Top Dog to Underdog

(A very rough draft of an article I wrote.)

The madness of the first lectures of this session commencing has begun. As a new first year university student, emerging timidly from my small, rainy hometown and being thrown into the deep end of a concrete jungle with thousands of people I’ve never met (and starting a new job in the same week!), I’m a little daunted to say the least.

Initially the nerves are reminiscent of how I felt when I first started secondary school. Being the newbies in that situation as impressionable eleven year olds, my year group lived in fear of having our heads flushed in the toilets by the “big kids” as the ancient legend told. However after a few weeks of settling in, making new friends and memorising our six-period-a-day timetables, we realised that the big bad school wasn’t so bad after all. We quickly found our way around with flimsy homemade-looking maps and adapted to our new school environment. But before we could get too comfortable, suddenly we were sixth year pupils setting up charity events, learning to drive, enduring the headaches and nausea after bouts of underage drinking, job hunting, applying to UCAS and trying to cram a year’s worth of studying into one night in a desperate attempt to pass our final exams. And so now it all begins again. We’re going from being some of the oldest and wisest (I use the word “wise” lightly) to some of the youngest and most clueless.

This time around, I’m not so worried about mythical torture from older students but more so about: getting lost, being late for classes, missing lectures, not being able to cling on to childhood friends from my last school, making new friends (because I think I’ve actually forgotten how to) and pushing myself to the standard of work expected at university. However, as a pleasant surprise, the induction day silenced most of the niggling, anxious voices in my head.

The first part of our induction and welcoming into the University of Strathclyde was a Unismart lecture. The whole room was in stitches as a very excitable Lee Evans type Ozzy bloke, who appeared to under the influence of some kind of colourful narcotic, ran around the room telling jokes and funny stories about sex, drugs and of course getting “mad wae it”. The talk was also interspersed with more serious issues and worries we might be having, as well as information about all the support and services the university offers us. The session firmly reassured us all that we’re just starting university, the world isn’t ending. It was a reminder of what we’ve been told since we got our acceptance letters, that “everyone is in the same boat” but this time the message felt more sincere. We just need to keep reminding ourselves that we have gotten into university, which means we have already demonstrated our academic ability and with a little hard work (along with paracetamol and Irn Bru for when we’re studying hung-over in the library), we can do it.

So I’ll stop rambling and get back to frantically trying to figure out where and when my next lectures are, setting up my timetable, repetitively scanning clothes and continuing to be polite to rather rude and unsavoury customers at work. While in between all that: trying to pass my driving test, have some kind of a social life, studying to hopefully get a degree at the end of it all and generally tearing my hair out in a stress induced rampage. Wish me luck!

FRESHERS WEEK!

And so it begins! This week was Freshers Week at the University of Strathclyde and at uni's across Glasgow/the West Coast. Most of my time was spent: stumbling confused through different levels of the unions being squashed between what seemed like millions of people in an attempt to find the clubs/societies I wanted to sign up to and of course to blag my way into getting some free pizza without having to send the promotion text in order to do so. 

I went a big crazy with signing up to the mailing lists during the Freshers Fair as I put my name done for: Women's Rugby, Pool and Snooker, Basketball, Re-Act (the acting group which I'm especially excited about), Boxing, the Debate Club, the Yes Campaign (which I'm not ever sure if I support or not) and finally the Strathclyde Telegraph of course. 

I always managed to wangle myself FREE pizza, popcorn, sweets, pens, keyrings, bottle openers, shot glasses and a hoodie! Not a bad weeks work, especially with SAAS coming through today, yass! 

The two groups I'm most looking forward to are Re-Act and being involved in the uni newspaper. I haven't done any acting in a few years since my school wouldn't offer Drama at Higher for 5th years but I did get an A for my intermediate 2 exam which consisted of a play where I portrayed a troubled, alcoholic teenager from a broken home who got into the wrong crowd, progressed to becoming a heroin addict and died of an overdose in the final scene. Very cheerful. But hopefully my experience, little as it may be, will help me out. It seems like a good way to make new friends too. 

Naturally I can't wait to get involved in the Strathclyde Telegraph as well. Any experience I can get with a publication is obviously going to be good for my CV and give me some more experience in writing quality pieces. The features and news sections look like the best ones for me to try to get involved with. 

I thought I'd show you guys a picture if SOME of the leaflets, offers, cards and flyers I accumulated through the week.  

I attacked my wall with them for something to do. 

In other news, I got a job! I have my induction at Primark tomorrow morning so hopefully all goes well. Everything is happening all at once! I'm definitely going to be very busy, stressed and tearing my hair out but I'm strangely looking forward to it. 

I got into uni, yay!

Hello!

I'm aware that I haven't posted anything in a couple of months. This is due to a couple of things including forgetting my Google password (I really should write these things down), being out with friends at parties/days out in Glasgow, getting my exam results, driving lessons and so on. I shouldn't worry too much about regularly posting anyway since I'm sure nobody follows this blog religiously, or at all for that matter. haha

So in recent news, I got my exams results (the final ones I'll receive from the SQA, thank goodness) and I got the grades that I needed to meet my university condition so as of September 2013, I will officially be a Full-Time Undergraduate English, Creative Writing & Journalism and History Student at the University of Strathclyde. Quite a mouthful I'll admit but yay! I'm so excited, nervous, daunted, doubtful, anxious, apprehensive and happy all at the same time. More than anything I'm just relieved to finally know what I'll be doing for the rest of the recent future.

I'm really looking forward to Freshers Week for obvious reasons (cheap booze and loads of fun events/parties) and to just throw myself into a new, unfamiliar environment and see if I can remember how to make new friends. I'm really looking forward to start studying too. I'm quite nervous for the first day since I'll be going from being among the oldest at secondary school to the babies again at university and I'll probably stumble about like a lost puppy trying to find the right lecture theatre, but I just need to keep reminding myself that no matter how cool some people may act, we're all in the same boat.

Since I am the first in my family to have gotten into university, I was treated to a giant cupcake (which my mum ate most of), congratulations cards from family which was really nice and a satchel from my great aunt. :)

I'm going to be so busy for the next couple of weeks because I have my driving theory test very soon, which I've been studying constantly for yet still only just missing the pass mark which has me on the verge of tearing my hair out. Then the day after my theory, I have a job interview at Primark - finally! After only about a year of applying for jobs everywhere and anywhere and hearing nothing back I finally have an interview, hooray! It's just a weekend job but it would be a good opportunity to earn some extra pocket money while I'm at uni so I really hope I get it. THEN the day after my interview, I jet off to Gran Canaria for a week! Then when I come home from that I imagine I'll be busy getting ready for starting uni.

I'm planning on (maybe and hopefully) buying an iPad and/or an SLR camera which will encourage me to update on here more often so I'll keep updating about that.

New Reading Material

Hey everyone!

I've recently started buying and reading http://www.independent.co.uk/i/.

I thought it would be a good idea to start reading more quality newspapers since I'll be starting university at the end of the summer and should start picking up some hints and tips on writing pieces of journalism. I really like the i paper because it is a condensed, concise version of the usual broad sheet newspapers. I read an interesting, sophisticated article by Rebecca Armstrong which brought up an idea I had never really gave much thought before but I've realised now that subconsciously, we all do it. Definitely worth a read!

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/you-know-um-id-kind-of-like-to-talk-about-filler-words-8641211.html?origin=internalSearch

I'd love to have a column in a newspaper and write articles like this. One day maybe...

I also thought that since I don't have much news or updates for today's post, I'd share the poem that is part of my Advanced Higher English folio that I am impatiently awaiting the results for.

Still Motion

Clouds of musky scented dust cling to the diffusing light,

The glow is projected heavily, dank

almost through invisible water.

The picture appears jarringly and shudders to life.

The footage snaps and crackles fuzzily,

You flicker and glide along the screen ghostly.

 

I blush as you smile at me, present in the room.

I recite your wilting letters from war times, over and over.

I imagine what you would say to me now as I watch you.

Still moving but frozen in time; you are captured just for me,

Forever to reply repeatedly when I please.

 

Resurrected in greyscale film strip,

Through this medium you’ll always live.

I jump in and join you on screen, far back in time.

I remember that night amongst the fog in my brain,

My hair was perfectly curled and

red lipstick applied thoroughly, all for you.

We embrace and pose playfully for the extended lens,

our faces glowing with youth and

new love before the dance.

 

But I feel you fading through my porous senses.

The tape spins, slows and chatters,

Smoke oozes from the reel to my alarm.

Zooming out quickly, our faces distorts and melt away.

The flames lick each square devilishly,

erasing your existence without mercy.

I clumsily try to extinguish the blaze in vain.

 

Now you only play back in my ever forgetful mind,

With accelerating speed you slip through my wrinkled fingers.

Now you are only a fond memory; but I can barely remember you.



It has been slightly tweaked this I wrote this version. I hope you guys like it. I welcome any feedback!

Summer Antics

Hey guys!

As I predicted, I completely forgot to update this as often as I should so here is a long over due brainstorm of everything that's been happening.

I have now officially left secondary school, which I'm excited and glad about on one hand because I get to have long lies in (yaay, no early starts for a while!) and a little nervous and apprehensive on the other hand as now I'm setting off into the big bad world of work and university.

These are some (I'll admit not so good) pictures of myself and some friends on our last day of school.

 

 

So job hunting has been going horribly as usual. I'm starting to think I really am unemployable. Someone give me some work please?!

However I will have something to fill my time with as I am going to the University of Glasgow's Summer School programme soon which I'm really excited/nervous about. I'm so happy that I'll have something to occupy myself with and I'll be able to gain valuable experience of what its like to study in a university. I'm also glad that I'm doing summer school because usually after being off for around 7 weeks and then returning to school again, I find that I've forgotten how to write. haha. So at least this will keep me being productive, busy and creative. I've chosen English Literature, Film & TV Studies and Psychology to study at summer school and I can't wait to get started.

I'm also excited to go to the Glasgow Uni Summer School for one of the reasons that attracts a lot of other people as well, that being that it does have a striking resemblance to Hogwarts, the setting of the Harry Potter franchise, to which I was raised on.

 

We also get free access to the sports facilities which I usually wouldn't be too bothered about, but I'm glad because now I have a great opportunity to hit the gym for free and get into shape for my holiday to Gran Canaria in August, for which I am counting down the days! I'm also planning on going there again next summer for my first holiday with my friends and without my parents since we'll all be big grown ups earning money by then (well, we'll see...)





I'm so excited to finally be getting some sun and heat, which fellow natives of my beautiful but rainy home will tell you is pretty alien to us. I think its going to be quite a shock to my peely wally (official translation: pale, pasty; off colour or ill -looking), almost translucent skin though, so I'll be sure to take plenty of suncream. haha.

Another event that I cannot wait for this summer (as Barney Stinson would say, wait for it...) is... T in the Park!! It'll be my second year going to Scotland's biggest and best music festival and I'm basically counting down the hours until it starts! If you haven't been before, I would highly recommend you stick it on your bucket list at least. It's a brilliant weekend and us Scots, contrary to popular belief, are pretty friendly once you get to know us.



In other news, I'll be having my gran coming to live with me for 10 days as my mum and dad are going on holiday on Thursday. Since I'm not being trusted to have the house to myself since they know me all too well and realise that the house would probably be in an unrecognisable state scattered with my hungover friends when they returned, its probably for the best that my gran is coming to stay. Maybe I'll be mature, responsible and trusted one day but I don't see that happening any time soon.

I'll try my best to remember to keep you guys up to date. I hope you all have a brilliant summer!

P.S. Song Of The Day is...(drumroll) Velvet Elvis - Alex Winston!!

twitter - @__soooophie
instagram - @sophieee__xo
tumblr - http://sooooophiemcnaughton.tumblr.com/

Love Sophie! x

Correspondence

Hello everyone!

I ordered The Perks of Being a Wallflower the other day and the book arrived today. I haven't read it before or seen the film so I hope its as great as everyone says! I'll be honest - the main reason I wanted to buy it was to see what all the fuss is about of course but also because I love the front cover! I also wanted to include my little journal in the picture because the cover is covered with cats and I thought it was cute. 

Instead of taking pictures though I should probably being tidying up this mess...

I'm back at school now and I've been tying up a few loose ends in English. My dissertation is completely finished and as of today has been sent to the SQA to be marked. Its worth 40% of my final grade so here's hoping I've done a good job!

I'm sending a copy of my dissertation to my great aunt Marion who lives in Arran ( http://www.visitarran.net/ ) since she has always encouraged me with English and all my other subjects.

 

If you're bored, which you probably are if you're reading this, then have a look at my tumblr - http://sooooophiemcnaughton.tumblr.com/ or my instagram - http://instagram.com/sophieee__xo 

 

Sophie x

 

The Sunday Blues

Hi everyone!

So my schools been off for two weeks for the Easter holidays and we go back tomorrow. I'm excited to go back to see everyone and I'm getting quite bored of being off anyway but I'm also dreading it because I have a mountain of homework to tackle and an early start tomorrow. So I've been getting those all too familiar Sunday Blues and being constantly reminded of the crushing knowledge that tomorrow is Monday. I hate Mondays.

So in preparation for going back to school, I've been taking pictures for my photography project, which is visual elements within food...

I've photographed Harbio Starmix sweets...

and pancakes with golden syrup, hmmm! 
























I have a few more shoots which I'll hopefully get done and dusted today.


And of course I've been procrastinating as much as humanly possible on Tumblr...

http://sooooophiemcnaughton.tumblr.com/
http://sooooophiemcnaughton.tumblr.com/
http://sooooophiemcnaughton.tumblr.com/

As well as watching the Addams Family...

 

 

I have my photography work and a lot of biology homework to get through today so I'll be locked away in my room until its all finished. I always leave everything until the last minute, I don't think I'll ever learn. Probably not the best attitude since I'll (hopefully) be studying at university soon. Oops.

Back to school tomorrow but only for around 13 days I think, then secondary school is over for good. Its getting a bit scary now...

Sophie x

Paramore!

Hey guys!

I'm so happy because Paramore's new album is finally out and I finally have a copy! I went to see Paramore when they played in Glasgow at the SECC in 2009 and I've been (quite impatiently) waiting for a new album since then. They're early stuff brings back a lot of memories from 5/6 years ago and its hitting home now that the school chapter of my life will be over soon. Paramore were my favourite band when I started secondary school and songs like Fences and That's What You Get bring back so memories from the summer after my first year at secondary. So I'm reverting back to my 12/13 year old self and fangirling a little bit that I have 17 new songs to listen to.



This is a picture from the video for Still Into You, which is probably one of my favourite of their music videos. I love the boat floating amongst balloons and Hayley's styling! I also love Hayley's tights in this picture, does anyone know where I can get a similar pair?

I'll admit this post has been just me fangirling but I highly recommend the new album, in fact all their albums! Give them a listen if you haven't already. :)

Sophie x

 

To Do List!

Hey guys!

Well that's one thing off the to do list, my dissertation for adv. higher English is officially finished! Yaaay!

My dissertation was on how successfully Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde convey Gothic characteristics to portray the complexities of human nature, a bit of a mouth full.
It was good studying the texts and writing the dissertation but I am so happy and relieved to have it all done! In English now I can just concentrate on getting my essays up to the highest grades I can get in time for the exam and work on my creative writing folio.

The rest of the things on my to do list in time for going back to school next week after the Easter holidays are:

• Finish my shoots for photography
• Fix my research plan for photography
• Tape down and annotate the pictures I already have in my folio book for photography
• Reply to my choices on UCAS... which I'll be leaving until the very last minute since I still can't decide what response I'm giving to each university yet - oops, a bit unorganised I know.

Now I'm just sitting waiting for my dinner and watching sponge bob with my cat. You're never too old for sponge bob, well in my opinion anyway.

Sophie x

UCAS Headache!

Hey guys!

I haven't posted since November last year but I've changed the blog a bit and I'm going to try and post a lot more regularly and use this as an outlet for writing (rambling) when I start uni in September.

Its only just hit home that a lot of things are going to be changing soon as I only have two weeks of secondary school left before I finish my exams and leave for good. In a way, I'm so excited to be leaving and I can't wait to meet new people and to be studying full time what I love rather than having four different subjects crammed into one day. I'm also so excited to be going to Glasgow every day (I'm saying that now but I'll be crying when I have to get up at six in the morning). I'm excited for fresher's week and I'm even for the little things like getting a student card and being able to wear what I want instead of a uniform every day.

But on the other hand, I'm also panicking. I'm panicking because I feel to an extent that I'm a little to young to be making decisions that could potentially affect the rest of my life. I'm scared of leaving school, a place that's been a familiar and comfortable place full of friendly faces for so long, and never going back. I'm worried that I'll lose touch with my friends and that we'll all be living miles away from each other and eventually drift apart. I'm scared that I won't be capable of the workload and the standard required at university and as I have one unconditional and three conditional offers, I'm also scared that I won't even get in to my first choice uni in the first place. I'm also desperately avoiding ucas like the plague since I'm still unsure what reply to select for each of my offers.

I'm starting to get nervous because almost every aspect of my life is going to be dramatically changing soon - but its good scared (if there's such a thing). I'm looking forward to being thrown in to the chaos and confusion of being a new undergraduate who knows no-one in a huge, fairly strange city and starting a new chapter.

I realise this has been more of a rant than an interesting blog worth reading but I promise I'll improve! I'll keep you guys updated on whether things fall apart or fall into place.
Love Sophie x