Monday 29 February 2016

February Favourites


Personal Planner
I love this thing, I ordered it nearly a year ago, and it is one of the best planners I've ever used. You can personalise every single aspect of it, and I would forget basically everything if I didn't have this.

Animal Page Markers
This is kind of a random one, but I was given these for Christmas, and I love them. They're brilliant. As an English student, I use page markers for everything and these ones are just a bit more interesting than regular ones.

Rimmel London Lipstick
Lipstick is my thing. I spend far too much money on it, and I've spent ages looking for a neutral colour that I can wear everyday. And I've finally found it! The colour is 180 - Vintage Pink and for me it is the perfect neutral colour.

Lush Eyeshadow Cream
Again, this was a Christmas present and I wasn't sure about it at first, but I've used it everyday since then and I love it. It's a beautiful bronze colour and it makes the perfect base for my regular eyeshadow. It also makes off-days easier, all I've got to do is sweep some of this across my eyelid and I'm good for the day.

What have you been loving this month?

Sunday 21 February 2016

Why University Isn't For Everyone

As I write this, I'm sat in my bedroom here at university, bored out of my mind and trying to occupy myself in the long hours between done-with-work-for-the-night and acceptable-time-to-get-into-bed.
I'm currently in my second year of university studying English Literature, and while I know that I made the right decision in coming to uni, I also know that it's not for everyone.

I've gone back and forth about whether I want to be here, and I've considered dropping out more often then I would care to admit. Ultimately, the only one who can decide whether university is the right option, is you. But nevertheless, here's five reasons why university isn't for everyone:

1) It's expensive
No one can deny that university is damn expensive, particularly here in the UK. The current cost of a year's tuition is anywhere between £8500 and £9000. Plus, on top of that, the majority of students apply for a maintenance loan in order to pay for basic living costs: food, rent, bills, etc. All of this money has to be paid back at the end of the degree. Some students used to be able to get 'free' money in terms of a maintenance grant that doesn't have to be paid back, however this scheme has recently been scrapped by the UK government. The result of this is that fewer and fewer students are going to be able to afford to go to university in the first place.

2) Being away from home is hard
This is obviously going to effect some people more than others, but being away from home is really hard. Particularly if university is the first time that you're living away from home, which it probably will be for the majority of people. But remember, everyone will be in the same situation you are, your family is only a phone or Skype call away, and you will not be at university forever. The situation is only temporary, and there are always ways to make yourself feel better.

3) Independent study involves a lot of commitment
Studying at university is very different from being in school. There is no one breathing down your neck to do your work, no one will nag you to take notes in lectures, and there will be no teacher to keep reminding you that your deadlines are coming up. If you forget to set your alarm and oversleep, there's no one to blame for that but you. With a little bit of organisation however, this really won't be too much of an issue.

4) The pressures of student living
Again, this depends on the type of person you are, but as someone who doesn't really drink, the pressure to get completely trashed is extremely high. If this is the type of person you are, then no problem, but if it's not, just remember you don't have to do anything you don't want to do - including downing the dirty pint in the centre of your ring of fire. If nothing else, I promise you this: you will make friends with like-minded people and you'll get on just fine.

5) Sometimes it literally isn't the right choice
Depending on the job you want to do, university might not even be the right answer for you at all. There are many other options besides university, and unless you definitely know what you want to study or that you need the degree for the job you want to do, it's probably not worth the money.

As I said earlier, the only person that can make the decision about whether university is right for you or not is you. If you do decide to go, I promise you'll have a good time. And if you don't, then that's fine too.

What are your experiences at university?

Monday 15 February 2016

Why Writing is Good For The Soul


I've always loved writing. So much so that I've kept a diary since July 2008, and written in it everyday since then. I love looking back on them and seeing how much has changed over the last eight years, and I believe that the process of keeping a diary is part of what's helped to keep me sane over the years.

I'm a huge advocate of writing things down for several reasons:
It helps to clear your head and organise your thoughts. Writing my diary is the last thing I do before I go to bed, and doing this allows me to just ramble about the day and get all my thoughts on paper. I also have a habit of writing a to-do list for the next day right before I go to bed, and this allows me to just get everything out of my head and onto a piece of paper. This will also help you to sleep better, because once everything is written down, you no longer have to worry about it, and you can sleep easy.

If you're a person who likes remembering things, keeping a diary is also a great way of keeping a record of events that happen. Many people keep diaries just for certain events, such as holidays, and this is a great way to help remember all the wonderful things that happen.

I personally find writing to be very therapeutic. If you find yourself stressed or in a rut, find a piece of paper and just write. Anything that comes into your head, and keep writing until you don't feel stressed anymore. Once you're done, you can either burn the piece of paper, or keep it for future reference. Either way, writing things down really helps to figure out how you're feeling or what you want. It can help you deal with things that maybe you don't want to talk about, or help someone else to explain a situation that they're dealing with. I also love the flexibility of writing. Basically all phones have a 'notes' section now, and therefore you can write anywhere and everywhere, and you never know when you may become inspired to write.

What kind of things do you write on a regular basis?