Nostalgia Of School

Hi guys! On Friday, I visited my old secondary school to watch the Jazz Café (which was INSANE, as usual! [Shoutout to Beth, Ellie, Katie, Big Hair Joe, Toby, and David, as well as Simon+Veale+Clayton]) - a concert of old-school Jazz music as well as contemporary music played/sung in a Jazz style. When I went to the school, I was a part of the Jazz Café for 5 years, and this year’s was the first since year 7 that I didn’t perform in it. Watching the current students and seeing my old teachers again got me thinking about what life was like at secondary school, and who I used to be there. Therefore, today’s post will be a short (and hopefully sweet) little piece of my past.

What do I miss about school?

1. I miss only having 1 hour long lessons. (At college, they’re 1.5 hours each!) 
2. I miss my Music teacher and lessons. (<3 u Simon.)
3. I miss knowing who everyone in my year was. (210 pupils/year at school, over 3,000 students at my college.)
4. I miss performing in the concerts. (I don’t have the chance to at college; my timetable always clashes.)
5. I miss wearing a uniform. (Yes, really! It was so much less hassle to not think about what to wear every morning!)

But…

1. Having 1.5 hour long lessons gives me a chance to focus more and go into more detail with each subject. I actually find that by then end of the lesson I’m craving more knowledge, more detail, because I’m so immersed in said topic.
2. Because I no longer do such a range of subjects (used to do 12, now only do 4) I have more time to focus deeper on the subjects that interest me. There’s absolutely no way that anyone could do 5 A Levels in as much detail as you need, let alone 12! Although I still don’t have a solution for missing my Music teacher :(.
3. There are so many more people in college than school, which is great because that means there’s so many more potential friends! You can get to know such a range of diverse people from all around the area, broadening your knowledge and friendship group. Plus, there’s always at least one person on a free at the same time as you. Bonus. 
4. Even if I did have the chance to perform nowadays, I wouldn’t have the time. Revision and general life take up a lot of my personal timetable, not including the time already spent at college. In addition to the time-taking-up, the extra stress wouldn’t be good for me. Always see the good within the seemingly ‘bad’. 
5. Being able to wear my own clothes may be a time constraint, but it’s also a great way of expressing yourself and it’s another symbol of choosing your own path in life. Now that I’m older, I find it nicely symbolic that I have the opportunity to decide what I wear, because now I have to decide what I do, as well. AND; no more ties! I definitely don’t miss the peanutting of ties. 

Seeing the Jazz Café made me nostalgic and slightly sad, but it also made me think about how much I’ve grown and matured since school ended. And I’m extremely glad for that.

Choices: How To Live

Happy Wednesday, guys! I'm actually on time today (shocker), so I hope you're all having a lovely half term if you're on it, or a lovely week if not!

Today's Choices post is more general than the past few; it covers a large area of life. I'll be focussing in on a couple of areas, but the gist of this post is that you have the freedom to choose your own path, so you should exploit that choice!

One major choice I've made is to know God. Nobody in my family has any faith at all, so religion seemed very foreign to me as a child. That is, until I realised that I could choose for myself what and who I believed in, and what that meant for me. No matter if you've been raised with or without faith, I'm of the opinion that you should choose for yourself what you really think. Question everything! Btw, that doesn't mean be unfaithful just because you can, but don't have blind faith; do your research (both in books/the internet and within yourself) and make an active choice to get to know yourself. To me, questioning faith actually ends up making it a whole lot stronger.

Another huge choice in my life was to be vegan. Again, this life choice is different from the rest of my family, so it was totally down to me that I became a vegan. Now, I'm not telling you all to go vegan (although you totally should), but I'm advising you to think about what you're eating, and maybe try it out! Also, being vegan has taught me to cook (really well, in my opinion), which is such an important life skill, and means that when I go to uni I won't be completely baffled by seeing a saucepan.

Other ways you can decide your own life as a teenager young adult or even as a regular adult, are as follows:

• How you treat people. It doesn't matter how you've been raised to treat others, you can always improve it! If you feel horrible when your parents don't tip at  restaurant, then tip them yourself! You're a strong, confident young person - act like it!
• Reading - do you? If you want to read more than you used to, just do it! I always have book recommendations, and so does the internet! It's such a simple way to change your life for the better.
• Your friendship group. If you don't like it, move on. It's tough, granted, but you may just find that you enjoy life a whole lot more with different people around you.
• Your attitude, and outlook on life. Be confident, be kind, be thankful, be appreciative of the things around you. These are literal choices that you can make, and they improve life not only for you, but for everybody who you meet!

... And so many more! Remember, it's cheesy as h@ck, but you really do control your own life. Act like it.