The end of 2012.....

Last New Years Eve, I remember writing a somewhat pessimistic post on the coming of the New Year. At the beginning of 2012, I could not see that any changes were going to be made from one year to the next. However, 2013, I know, will be different. I am feeling much more optimistic.

2012, was a fantastic year for the small but great country that is, aptly, Great Britain. We hosted the 2012 Olympic games, did quite well, celebrated  the Diamond Jubilee of our monarch and showed the rest of the world that every now and again, when the occasion arises, we can let go of our stiff up lip, let our hair down and celebrate.
However, 2012 was a hard year for me. This does not necessarily make it a bad year, it was just, in parts, a testing year with many ups, many downs and an extremely steep learning curve.
It was the year, in which I learnt more about myself as a person than I ever imagined was possible. I learnt that I am not, as I had always imagined, a city person, that I am most definitely a country girl - I love the friendly nature, the sense of community, the greenery, the scenery and the animals. I learnt that I am not ready yet to venture into the big open world and the expensive and challenging (in a good way) experience of University and that I need to become more independent and confident before I can embark on that journey and get the most out of it along the way.

Maybe most importantly I learnt that, when fully confident in your feelings, whatever decisions you make and whatever information and feelings you choose to divulge to certain individuals, the outcome will almost always turn out alright. You may not receive the response you were hoping for but that experience of putting your feelings out there and being open and able to handle the response allows your confidence, self-esteem and faith that there are mature, nice, caring, respectful  people (guys) out there to grow in leaps and bounds. You may or may not know who you are, if you do; thank you.

I want to take this opportunity to thank every person in my life and everyone who has ever read any part of this blog for helping to make 2012 such an experience, helping me to get through the hard times and helping me to celebrate the good times and making them that so much more special.

Much love to all and may 2013 be a wonderful year for us all. Happy New Year!

An unselfish race?…

I am often astounded by people who are indifferent to animals. Animals, in so many ways, are superior to our race. Humans are selfish beings. We are always hankering over things that we think we think we need but actually only want. Animals do not think in this way. They may be selfish in the context of wanting to survive and therefore needing to play detriment to another's chances of survival. However, humans are also guilty of this. Animals only take what is necessary and nothing else, they do not take more than is needed and when they do it usually results in a benefit for someone else in the wonderful world of nature. Rhinos are often plagued with a parasite that makes them extremely uncomfortable and irritable. Luckily for them there is a type of bird who relies on this parasite as its staple food. A friendship and alliance is forged and both species live harmoniously side by side. This system of mutual and equal benefits for all involved in human society is, in my opinion, extremely rare. If we can buy whatever gadget we are dreaming of for the cheapest possible price then that is what we will choose. The majority of us will make the decision without sparing a thought for the poor exploited workers in China or India who are making these products, which we then buy for hundreds of pounds, for a pay salary that can barely buy enough food for one meal. Why do we allow this to continue? Because we are selfish!

Apart from this fundamental difference between animals and us, there is another reason why animals are better. They don't complain. They don't complain if the weather isn't very nice, they don't complain if they receive a gazelle for their dinner instead of the wilder beast that they had spotted on the way, they don't complain if their house isn't quite as big as the one next door. They are thankful for what they have and we should really learn to be more like them in that respect.

Most of all I have a huge love for animals because they don't judge. They don't care if your black, white, fat, thin, rich, poor, boy, girl, disabled - the list could go on forever. All they care about is having someone who loves them and having someone who they can love in return. All they ask for is love and kindness.

I am not by any means saying that I am the perfect human being and everybody else are the bad guys. What I am saying is that we are all, in our different ways, the bad guys and if we really just thought for a minute about whether we really needed that extra piece of electrical equipment, that when used is contributing to the destruction of the Ozone Layer, or if we could afford to buy the t-shirt for £2 more expensive than it is in Primark so that the people in China, India and other poorer countries can afford their evening meal then the world could be a much nicer much more harmonious place to live.

The power of escapism…

Music videos, films, TV shows, songs and books create, for us, another world; an alternate reality that we can use to escape our own realities and pretend that everything we dream of or wish for will come true.
However, sad this may make the human race seem I genuinely believe that without this form of positive escapism individuals would not be able to cope. Melodramatic though it seems, everyday life is demanding, challenging, overwhelming and stressful for the most part and without this release of escapism where we are free to imagine a world in which we can achieve everything we strive for both in ambition and in general life then individuals really wouldn't be able to cope.
Please don't misunderstand, I am not implying that we can't achieve, in actual reality, everything and anything we want out of life. What I am saying, however is that in escapism we can achieve these things without the hassle, embarrassment, hard work and other obstacles that occur within real
life.
This is why I am addicted to anything with a happy, slightly soppy ending and a storyline that runs on the basis that boy meets girl, there is one slightly rocky patch, they realise that they are made for each other, there's a happy ending and roll credits. Predictable and cheesy but they give me hope.

But, really the questions are why has this idea of escapism become such an integral part of our coping mechanisms? Does everyone need a form of escapism or am I generalising to much? And how does such a wide range of 'escapism genres' come about? How does escapism created by the popular genre of horror work? Are we just kidding and distracting ourselves? Are we, by spending so much time in escapism ignoring the fact that we could actually be creating our own film, TV storyline, song or book because actually escapist conclusions do have a place and could exist in the real world?

Disappointment, decisions and considerations

So as many of you will know there has been many tales of disappointment regarding the results of many of the AS exams. I know that we got our results quite a while back but I needed time to digest and consider before writing this post.

I am quite angry with the outcome of the results as I imagine quite a lot of us are and because of this there is a high probability that this will become more of a rant than an observation of society. Sorry for that.

It seems to me to be grossly unfair that the majority of us put our hearts, souls and a hell of a lot of effort into revising for the exams just to open that horribly terrifying brown envelope and be faced with, in my case, the potential of 4 retakes.

I feel as though a mixture of the exam boards and the school have, for want of a better phrase, 'screwed us over' and we are having to pick up the pieces of our hopes and piece then together again on retake forms and open AS folders which, incidentally, we were hoping we would never have to open again.

How is this fair?

To top it all off, Michael Gove has decided that modules exams are to easy and that they should be scrapped for "all in one go" exams. When I heard that I laughed so sarcastically I surprised myself. These politicians really do not have a clue do they. Has he failed to notice the results of this year? Is in trying to hugely reduce the number of university applicants - first the £9000 tuition fee and now this -what's next tie us to our schools and only release us if we can recite the entire Latin dictionary backwards?

The conservative party are so laughably removed from the real world. They were fine in the good old days when exams were hard because they could call on their private tutor to help them revise a difficult question. Or they could buy themselves an A by putting the family name of the doorway of the 'Gove Building' and this in turn would ensure that they received the best possible teaching.

The rest of us 'plebs' - the words of Andrew Mitchelle not me - have to work hard for months to get to the next step on our educational career to then receive bad grades and have the education secretary tell us that exams are to easy.

As I said at the beginning of this post I am sorry that this really has turned out to be nothing more than an angry and frustrated rant. However I am sure that there are other people out there who feel just the same as I and to be perfectly honest I feel that it had to be said.

Is it really that mad?

So, yesterday I was watching the Channel 4 program; Ruby Wax's Mad Confessions. Sadly I only got to watch the first part but it made quite an impression on me in that first half and hour.
The first thing that struck me is that we are living in a society that openly accepts (almost) all religions, homosexuality and, to some point, disability and works with them and yet mental illness is still "a big taboo". How can this be? Why is Mental Illness looked upon with such a stigma that very highly successful business men and women feel the need to hide it from their colleagues and their employees? Very rarely does it impinge on their daily working life, so why are they so scared that they may loose their jobs, and, what right does anyone have to make them feel like that in the first place?

In my opinion, and coming from the view point of some one with a disability that means I have to use a wheelchair for most of the time mental illness is just another disability. This may sound harsh and I really don't mean it to. If someone with a disability wants a job then the employer cannot turn them down purely on the fact that they have some kind of disability. They can turn them down on the basis that they are not suitable for the job and if I went for a job that involved climbing scaffolding then yes, I would expect to be turned down because it is obviously beyond my physical capability. Also I would, if I knew that the job was beyond me because of the disability, probably feel rather stupid for going for it in the first place.

What I am trying to say, in a rather convoluted manner, is that even if someone does suffer from a mental illness be it Depression, OCD or one of the many others they should not live in fear of being discriminated against for being open about it.

However, if the illness/disability does or will impinge drastically on their ability to work and their working performance then you can see why they might find it harder to get a job. But, it is not in the rights of the employer to decide this simply on face value.

I am a great believer in Human Potential; anyone who is given the correct tools and the opportunity to shine will shine. If society allows the taboo of mental illness to continue and doesn't embrace and become open about it then those people who have a mental illness may never be able to show society and the people around them what they are able to achieve, do and bring and this would be very, very wrong of us!

The youth of today really aren't that bad....

So, despite the continuing negative media coverage that the youth of today seem to unrelentlessly receive there are examples of people who contradict this negative image.
I am aware that there are many examples of good deeds that performed by young adults and that they do sometimes be covered by the media. However, this example struck me and stuck with me.
On the way back from Colchester university on Sunday we, unfortunately, had to pull over onto the hard shoulder of the M25 and wait for mums car to cool down (this is as technical as I can get.) Also on the hard shoulder was an elderly couple who's car had broken down on the middle lane. However, it was a very hot day and they were obviously hot, slight distressed and a bit fed up with the whole situation.
Just as we pulled onto the hard shoulder a car pulled up beside the other car whist still on the travelling lane - there was a lot of traffic all travelling at about 5 miles an hour - and handed the elderly couple two unopened bottles of water.
The couple were obviously very grateful and offered to pay them back for it, the boys refused payment and everyone continued to go about their business.

Sorry, if this post seems a bit pointless and convoluted but I thought it was a charming story that for once shed a positive light.

Royal opinions...

So, as you may have noticed there have been celebrations and parties popping up all around the country to mark the 60 year reign of Queen Elizabeth II. This has been a huge event for England and . for many other countries, especially those who are part of the Commonwealth. I, although I didn't really take part in the celebrations, like the Royal Family, what they stand for and don't really understand why there is so much resentment towards them.

They provide a sense of unity between countries that otherwise would not be associated with them, i don't mean politically I mean within public opinion. The Royal Family besides providing a huge a profitable tourist attraction for the country provides a central focus of unity and peace all around the world. They help us to remember the traditions that England used to be so proud of and remind us of our heritage.

If they were really as bad as so many people make them out to be then the turn out to the street parties, village celebrations, honouree concerts and so many more really wouldn't have been so high and if nothing else remember that the Royal Family has provided us with more extended weekends and excuses to celebrate.

Apologies for the neglect

I am just posting a quick post to apologise for the fact that I have badly neglected this blog for far to long. I am very grateful for all 197 of you who have read/visited this blog. Although intentionally I wrote this simply as a way of getting my thoughts into a more organised fashion and with no real intention of 'publishing' it in a sense. However, I am very happy that so many of you have decided to take the time and trouble to visit this site and click on this blog's title, or, if you are a user of social networking, clicked on the relevant link.

Once again, Thank You all so much, continue to visit and more posts will be arriving soon
.... Watch this space ....

Reasons why and the snowball effect...

So, a couple of days ago I read a book that might have just changed my outlook on life, society and the people around me. This book is called 13 reasons why... and without wanting to give to much it is about a teenage girl who commits suicide and leaves tapes to people on 'the list' explaining why and how they played a contributing factor to her decision. I recommend you read it. Anyway with the fear that this could turn into a review if I don't I want to explain why this has had such a profound affect on me.
For starters it really showed me that every action, decision and word that we say, even if we don't know, will affect the people around us and that change in them will in turn will affect even more people. This is the Butterfly or Snowball affect.
Secondly it really made me realise that life is precious and should be cherished as it can be snuffed out like a candle at any point by any one person or by a group of people.
It also reminded me that life is not just the physical aspects of life but also the emotional. If you don't feel, love and hurt sometimes then you are not truly living and that is a sad state of affairs. Everyone has feelings and even if they don't wear the 'correct' clothes or makeup that doesn't mean that everyone else is superior and has the right to judge. Judging someone before you get to know them, just on the  but so was the impact that this book had on me and, be perfectly honest if you had been on 'the list' and looking back knew that you could have done something to stop it, would you have wished that someone had warned you of the damage that you can/ could potentially cause?

Politics, politicians and trust...

So, first I think I ought to apologise for not blogging sooner, it has been really quite hectic with Saturday courses and exams. But that is all done now so back to the important business of blogging.

Today, in our politics lesson we had an MP from the Liberal Democrats. She started her talk by telling us the reason why politicians were not trusted by the people who elected them, their electorate. She then proceeded to give us, convoluted answers to our questions, unnecessary information that scooted around the information that we really needed or wanted to know. And she wonders why politicians, in the majority (because some politicians can be trusted, yes, I know...) are not trusted by the people they rely on the most. they want power and a position of relative authority and they are prepared to do anything they need to get to this position. This I think is admirable, if you want something that bad, then you should be willing o do whatever is needed to get there. particularly in a position like that of an MP. However, what I find very disturbing is that they want to take positions, that affect us and our lives, which to be perfectly honest are  extremely precious. Yet, once they have used us to get to their wanted position, they feel that they can completely and utterly throw us, our lives, thoughts and opinions by the way side just as a way of bettering their position and their party. We are the people who provide them with the job opportunity in the first place. I wonder whether now she knows why politicians are not trusted and will probably never be?

Happy New Year?...

Its belated, I know. However, there is a reason behind this; I wanted to give the New Year a chance before I started this post which, to be honest, is likely to be less than positive.
Don't get me wrong I enjoy the celebration and anticipation about the arrival of the New Year, I am just not convinced about the fresh start franchise that seems to go with it. Clearly everything that you wish you had said, hadn't said, had done and hadn't done is not going to disappear on the 1st of January. It is always going to be there. Sorry to be so blunt.
I understand why people may be drawn into the idea. The idea that anything is possible, that this year could be the year that everything could change for the better (or the worse) and finally the world may just go right for you. Of course this is possible but I am almost 100% certain that it isn't due to the fact that we are now writing a different date at the top of work or using a different calender. It is much more likely to just be coincedence and the consequence of something that had happened peviously.
Yes, maybe you have decided that this year you are going to loose weight or put more effort into your work. Yes, maybe you have always wanted to do this and the New Year seems like a good place to start, of course it does. I am the same, I hate trying something new in the middle of the week. Monday seems like the most logical place to start. Why? Because it is the start of a New week and I like to start a New week with something new. New Years is just the same. There is something psychological that tells us that because it is dubbed as being the New year it will replace the old Year and all that was in it and that we should replace our 'old' selves as well. Of course, no-one is perfect and therefore maybe changes could be made but why on New Years? and why replace our 'old' selves when simple changes and new horizons may be all that we need? After all without our original selves how can we know who we are, where we have come from and where we are going?