Christmas is Coming.

It is now December.

Winter is here, and Christmas is coming.

But along with that, everyone is moaning for different reasons because of Winter and Christmas.

It's the norm in England, or at least in my household.

 

Every December I start moaning about the cold weather, and the fact I don't want it to snow. I basically become a scrooge when it comes to snow or ice. It just doesn't take my fancy, and I wish it wouldn't fall on the floor. It can snow when I'm not at school, but when school does come it needs to rain. My mother will moan about not having enough food, or having too much food, and she'll also worry about having spent too much money which makes my dad moan to my mother about the fact that she shouldn't worry about it. Above all of the moaning during December, it's usually a very fun month. We spend time with family, play games, laugh with each other, and stuff our faces until the button pops on our jeans. I love Christmas for all of those reasons. Except for the button popping, that's annoying and untrue. 

 

The only thing that is disappointing about December, is that fact that we are still sat at school working our butts off. I am counting down the days until I can leave school for Christmas, because I cannot wait to have like a 10 hour lie in. Ok, I'm exaggerating. A 5 hour lie in. Trust me, I need one of those. School is so stressful and tiring that we're all getting through each week with no energy. I have a photography deadline at the end of this week, so I'm currently stressed about that. I like counting down to Christmas and the break, but I also dislike it due to the deadlines that need to be met during the next three weeks. Also I have a university interview this week which I am so nervous for, so counting down for the break doesn't fill me with ease. Although I have a lot of work to do and a lot of stress to get over, I personally cannot wait for Christmas.

 

I hope you have been enjoying my December photo challenge so far. 8 days in and I'm still going strong. Give me time and I'll forget sooner or later. Trust me. Two more weeks and then I'm off for the Christmas holidays. I will be posting more posts whenever I can about Christmas and stuff - so keep your eyes peeled.

Can you wait for Christmas?

I know I can't. 

:)

University.

University. 

YES or NO?

This is the question that has been circling around mine and others in my year groups head for the past year. It's a pain in the backside. 

During the last few years at school (11-13) you have to make some of the biggest decisions of your life. Well. They may not be the biggest in the long run, but in the present day they certainly seem like it. 

Year 11 - You have to decide whether you want to go to college for further education or go to sixth form (either in your own school or another). 

Year 12 - You have to think about what type of career you want in the future, and you have to decide what courses you want to look at for apprenticeships and/or uni's. 

Year 13 - You have to finalize the courses at apprenticeships and/or uni and apply. But you also have the dreaded decision. 

Go to uni?

Not go to uni?

That is the question.

Literally. 

As a child I always thought I would go to secondary school, go to sixth form and then go to uni. Well that was my second thought. My first one, well, that's another story. 

But this thought changed when it actually came to making the decision of whether I wanted to go to uni or not.

When your young you don't realize how many courses and uni's there are in the world, until they send things to your house with your name on it - which makes me feel bad since I didn't know they existed but they knew I did. 

I have had a mountain of leaflets, booklets and letters come through my door from different uni's around the world offering different courses and inviting me to their open days. It's so strange. I feel wanted. But then I realize that pretty much everyone I know my age has had the same paperwork come through their doors. Which makes me feel one of many. Which I suppose isn't a bad thing. 

When making decisions I always think back to what my siblings decided to do. Not so I could copy them. Just so I could get some inspiration and some ideas. 

My brother chose to go to uni, after attending his schools sixth form, to do a degree in IT I think. I'm not sure. I just know that he went or I should say goes to uni. He chose a 4 year course. First 2 years at uni, 1 year in industry and the last year back at uni. He's currently on his last year and I think he enjoys it. It has opened him up to different opportunities and skills that makes him who he is today. 

My sister chose to go to college instead of sixth form and do a childcare course. This was over a period of 2 years and after education she found a job at a day nursery through one of her placements. She decided to stick with the job and not go to uni. Every so often she'll think about uni, but whether she goes or not is another thing.

I am currently attending my schools sixth form and hoping to get into uni. I literally sent off my application a few days ago. I followed my thoughts as a young girl of going to uni and I applied. 

As I said before I had always thought about going to uni, but that hasn't always been the case. I went through a stage in my life where I didn't know what I wanted to do. I wanted to music, cause I love performing. But it's such a hard industry to get into and also to get in any of the courses that do music you need a grade in an instrument or singing. I don't have a grade as I never had any singing exams. After wanting to do music I was stuck. I had planned out that I was going to go to uni to do music and then work my way into the industry. But that failed. So I had to think again. I went through a stage where I said to my friend that I just want to be a mother. I want to get married, get a house, start a family and be a stay at home mum. My friend didn't like that idea. She told me, I can be all of that but I can also have a career. If I wanted to get anywhere in life I need to make good decisions. And just being a mother wasn't one of them. Yes I will be a mother in the future, but first I need to get a job. What that job is yet, I'm not sure. 

So after the stage of 'wanting to be a mother' I decided that I wanted to do English at uni. I was set on it. I looked at loads of English courses and went to open days for them. The only reason why I wanted to do an English degree was so I could get into a media career. I still wasn't sure what type of career in media. I just knew I wanted to work in media.

After getting my as level results, I decided that I wanted to keep looking at courses. But delve more into media. I had received better grades in media than I did in English. Which is why I kept looking. Until I found it. The course for me. 

Television Production. 

Yep. That course has got my name written all over it. We went to an open day for it and I fell in love. Well, metaphorically I fell in love. I've applied and hopefully I'll get accepted. I just keep refreshing my emails. 

And that was my deciding on uni story. 

So, are you deciding on uni or not?

My advice to you before you make your decision is to look at all the options that are being offered to you. 

Do you want to take a gap year?

Do you want to do an apprenticeship?

Do you want to go to uni? 

It's completely up to you. Don't let anyone influence your decision. It's your life and you're the one who will be living it. 

 

University. 

YES or NO?

:)

Concerts.

I've only been to a few concerts in my life - Demi Lovato, McBusted & Steps.
I know, I'm so cool for going to a Steps concert.
 But having to a perform at a concert, even if only a few people do turn up is quite terrifying. But also quite enjoyable.

So, for two of my A-Level Music units I have had to organize and perform at a concert attended by family and friends. At first my class were happy because we love to perform, but as the date got closer we were dreading it.
We organized the first concert in June/July time as one of the units was the class organizing the concert and performing at it. We were rubbish organizers. Our teacher basically told us what to, how to do, and sometimes he would do it for us.
I should probably clear up that my music class only has like 4 people in it. So it's a small but nice class. However, when we started organizing this unit's concert we had 5 people, but she left a few weeks before the concert - she still performed at the concert so it wasn't much of a problem.

For the first concert we all decided to perform 2 solos each and perform 2 ensembles songs together. We didn't want the concert to be to long as we didn't really want the audience to get bored and walk out half way through it. I know professionals perform more songs at their concerts, but we definitely aren't professionals - and it wasn't that kind of concert.
As well as us 5 performing we invited our Glee club at school, that we had been running for like a term, to perform one of their songs after the interval. They sung their rendition of 'Rolling In The Deep' by Adele, and they did really well. 

For the concert I sung 'Wide Open Spaces' by Dixie Chicks to show my Country roots...not that I really have any. I just love Country music, and I loved the song.
I also sung 'Strong' by London Grammar who are recently becoming well-known to the public. I must admit, I had never heard of them before I performed their song. My music teacher showed me the song, and at first I wasn't really feeling it, but I decided it was out of my comfort zone and I should give it a shoot. That, and my teacher practically forced me to sing it.
I didn't have a choice.

Here is the video of me performing the song at the first concert that was put together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l46qqrKpi90&list=UUUkalk_p75EeEbfCkfgOlKA

For another unit we started at the start of this term at school, we didn't have to organize a concert but we did have to perform 3 solo songs and at least 1 ensemble song. We decided we would do 2 ensemble songs that were technically challenging, as well as performing 3 technically challenging solo songs.
My teacher would always stress that the songs HAD to be technically challenging. This meant it took us a while to find songs that were classed as 'technically challenging'.

For this concert I sang 'Hollywood' by Michael Buble.
TECHNICALLY CHALLENGING - It was very VERY low.
'When The Right One Comes Along' by Clare Bowen - from the TV series 'Nashville'.
TECHNICALLY CHALLENGING - The timings were hard and the harmonies that I previously recorded were also very difficult.
And 'On My Own' from the west end show 'Les Miserables'.
TECHNICALLY CHALLENGING - The song is just generally difficult. High notes. Difficult timings. Emotional.
It was a very difficult song to sing, but I think/I hope I did it justice.

Give it a listen and tell me what you think.

Even though both of these concerts can't really be classed as 'concerts', they were still really fun and I can't wait to perform at out next one.
If there is a next one.

:)

Sixth Form.

 Sixth Form.

The most stressful source of education.

When you are attending school you have to balance out your time nicely so you have a fair amount of time for homework, family time, friend time, hobby time and time for yourself. 

However, things are little different when you are attending sixth form. You have to make time for your homework, your revision, your research on different university's or apprenticeships, filling out your UCAS profile and completing your personal statement to go onto your UCAS profile.

This means you have no time for family, friends, hobbies or yourself.

Having a social life is completely out of the question if you don't want to fail.

I laugh at all of the year 11's who think sixth form is great because really it is a big load of stress.

I have put together some statements that year 11's might say (or year 11 Becca might say) about sixth form, and corrected the statements.

Sixth Form

You get free periods to chill on your phones and hang out with friends.

No. You get study periods. Not free periods. This means you do work during those periods. Chilling, going on your phone or hanging out with friends are definitely out of the question.

You are studying your favourite subjects and not the ones you hate.

Give it a week and you'll start hating your favourite subjects too. Trust me.

You get to leave school whenever you want.

No you don't. You get to leave school once a week. For an hour. During the first hour of school or the last hour. But not during school hours. Don't be silly.

We're basically the top of the school so no one can be rude to us.

Ha. Try telling that to the younger years. They don't care who you are. They'll still be as rude and disrespectful to you as they are to everyone.

We get to wear our own clothes. 

 Ha. Not anymore. (My school have changed the clothing of the sixth form from casual to business wear)

We'll be treated as adults by all the teachers.

Ha.

 Welcome to Sixth Form Year 11's...welcome to Sixth Form.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Even though sixth form is really stressful and a lot of hard work, it is very helpful. It's helpful when applying to university but it's also helpful by boosting your confidence and discovering new skills that you probably didn't even know you had.

If you are currently deciding whether to attend sixth form or college, I would definitely choose sixth form. Especially if you don't know what you want to do with your life. I think college is for people who know what they want to do as a career, where as sixth form is for people who don't know what they want as a career and it helps you decide.

If you are joining sixth form in September you need to know that it's not easy. The transition between year 11 and year 12 is harsh. But you'll get over that in a years time. Time goes so quickly so you have to use your time wisely. Don't slack, don't be annoying, work as hard as you can, and do what is expected of you. If you follow this advice I'm sure you won't fail, and you'll enjoy yourself a little more. Just a little. Not a lot.

:)

I'm Back?!

Hello.

I guess you could say I'm back. But probably not for very long. I'm not very good at this blogging thing. I'm that person that will start something and get bored and never finish it. But I am making a change...lets hope this is a permanent change.

So, where have I been?

Somewhere nice? No.
Somewhere fun? No.
Somewhere relaxing? 100% no.

I've been at school, and at home. So the last time I posted a blog was in April and since then I have turned 17, I have taken my AS Level exams, I have finished Year 12 and moved onto Year 13, I have been on my summer holidays and I have recently received my results back from my AS exams.
So It's fair to say I've been quite busy (and stressed).

I wanted to start this blog up again, but I always struggle with thinking of new interesting content.

I just wanted to inform you of what I've been doing and just letting you all know that I am still alive and well

I'm probably going to be posting a lot about results and sixth form, so if you are becoming a Year 12 student, look out for those posts. I'm still on my summer holidays so hopefully I will be posting more regularly than I have been.

I'm going to go.

See you soon.

 

:)

My Nan's Birthday Meal.

It's my Nan's 70th birthday today, and I can honestly say she looks great for a 70 year old.

I would show you a picture but I don't know whether she would appreciate me doing that...so I won't.

Yesterday, my mum's side of the family went out to dinner to celebrate Nan turning 70.

Me, my parents and my siblings attended. My uncle and auntie and my cousins attended. My other uncle and his girlfriend attended. And of course, my grandparents attended.

We went to a beefeater restaurant called the Malta Inn, which is in Maidstone.  We've been there before for some family meals and we have never had a problem with the place. And this time we still didn't have any problems. The waitress that served us was very friendly, and was very grateful for the tip we gave her. Or I should say my grandad and my dad gave her.

I played it safe and had some garlic bread for starter, I had rump steak for main meal, for dessert I had a rocky road sundae and for drink I had some WKD. I am allowed it. I'm 16 - 17 in a week - and there were adults there. I was allowed a glass of WKD. Blue WKD to be specific.

For my Grandads 70th Birthday last year, we went out for a meal and gave him a little book full of memories and pictures. Me, the siblings and the cousins wrote little memories of Grandad over the years and add them to the book. Well we did a similar thing for Nan this year. Instead of giving her a memory book, we gave her a memory box. My Auntie had us all write little memories of Nan over the years and she placed them in the box along with a few photos.

I thought it was a great idea to do a memory box or a memory book for people on their birthday as it isn't expensive to do if you do it yourself, and also it's nice to reminisce on old memories.

This little idea made me realise how many amazing memories we have all had together. It's always great to laugh back on old memories with friends, but personally, I think it's better to laugh back on old memories with family.

I had a great time at the meal.

Still stuffed after the great food that I consumed.

I hope that my friends/family make me a memory book or box for my 70th birthday.

I would be internally grateful if they did.

But I've got a while to go yet.

:)

Games Night.

I love playing games. 

Whether it be board games, computer games, electronic games, thinking games, physical games etc.

I love them all. 

During the weekend I attended a games night hosted by brother. A bunch of friends turned up and it was great to catch up and just have fun with them. I played Dobble - which is an awesome card game that involves a lot of thinking - Mario Kart Wii - I win all the time except when I play with my brother - Twister - my bones suffered - Table Tennis and Charades. Oh, and there was also food. Can't forget that!

What was the best part about the games night?
Well, to be honest, I think the company. I loved playing the games and having fun, but the parts that I enjoyed the most was the socializing with people I hadn't seen in ages.
Everyone had someone to talk to or play a game with. No one was on their own. Me and my two friends ended up sitting down by the food - not intentional - after playing some games and just talked for the rest of the night. We talked about what we had been up to, how each of us were, and everything else girls talk about.
It was nice just to look around and see everyone either socializing through playing a game or socializing through actual talking.

I didn't get many pictures from the games night but I did happen to get this one of me and my friend Micaiah taking bathroom selfies. I'm on the right and Micaiah is on the left.

Don't judge. We weren't being serious. My hand also looks demented. Oh well.

I enjoyed the games night, and I think everyone else did too.
It was nice to catch up on how everyone was and what they had been doing.
I hope to attend more events like this one.

:)

Spring Holidays.

Today was the first day of freedom.

Well, the first day of the spring holidays over here in England.

 

Yesterday morning at school the sixth formers were told that we didn't have to come into school. The only people that did were the ones that had an assessment or the ones who had to hand in coursework. I was lucky. I didn't have to go in. The rest of the school had to go in, except for us sixth formers. Oh, how I love being in the sixth form.

 

So, how did I spend my first day of the spring holidays?

Well, I did what any normal teenager would do. Have a lie in. Firstly I woke up at 10 to 8 but then I went back to bed and woke up at half past 8. Not the longest lie in, but still a lie in nevertheless, considering I usually wake up at 7. Then I got up, had breakfast and watched 'The Little Mermaid 2'. Yes, I know, it's a great film. Once the film was over I got ready for the day and walked to the shops with my Mother. We had some mother-daughter bonding time. I wanted to buy a few things for my birthday. Well I wanted my mum to buy a few things that she could give me on my birthday as presents. Basically we were buying my birthday presents from my parents. Then when we got back I just watched some TV and did some Media work. Oh, and I started this blog.

 

Spring break in America is completely different to the Spring holidays here in England. The stereotypical Spring break in America is going to the beach, attending a lot of parties, possibly getting drunk, hooking up with boys etc. Whereas the realistic Spring holidays in England is going to bed early, going to the beach in long shorts and a jacket, catching up on TV and also doing homework. You can never get away from school can you? My Spring holiday is quite packed actually, but I assure you I will definitely have some days when I just lounge around in my Pyjamas and do nothing. Hopefully on those days I can write a few blog posts and upload them.

 

I'd say my first day of freedom, uh I mean first day of my spring holidays, has been a very successful and productive day. Lets hope everyday can be as a productive as this one. It probably won't be, but we'll wait and see.

 

:)

Hello.

Hi, I'm Becca and this is my blog...obviously.

I'm 16 years old but I'm turning 17 in 10 days.

I'm starting this blog because I just want a place where I can rant, moan and tell little stories without having to worry about people listening or not. This is just my own little place where I can express myself without getting criticized or judged.

I'm basically going to be posting random things onto this blog for my own enjoyment, and if other people enjoy it then great.

Ok.

Well..

I'm going to go.

See you in my next post.

Bye.