Buying your first car can be very stressful. I was looking with my mum who is hopelessly clueless about cars, so I had to learn some stuff. I figured I could have done with a literal step by step (or at least a list) of things to know, so I thought hey! I’ll do that. Obviously, it’s different for everyone so I’ve tried to generalise this as best as I can.
These are just a few key things I have learnt - if you have a family member who knows loads about cars, they can be massively helpful. It may take a while to find the car perfect for you but it’s worth a long search. Equally, it’s important that your first car is meant to be a bit crap. It’ll get scratched up and probably dented quite a bit. You may want to even have a car in mind for your second vehicle that’ll be more expensive - for example, my absolute dream car is a Ford Mustang but they are ridiculous in every sense of the word. It’s also important to remember that every situation is different for everyone. If I look in my college car park, there’s every kind of car from 1998 Peugots to brand new Fiat 500s. An old car that has four wheels and a working engine does the exact same thing as a brand new car so go with what you can get, and what is best for you, without looking at what everyone else. Lastly - don’t feel any pressure to buy a car straight away. It may be your financial situation or the fact you just don’t want to drive, but like I said before, it’s different for everyone. For example, my best friend isn’t learning to drive because she knows she’s going to London next year and will be using the tubes more than anything. So, in short - go with what you can afford and what you like, don’t compare your car/driving situation to anyone else’s and only do it if you feel ready.
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I’ve found myself in a rut recently. I haven’t had the inspiration to write at all; I’ve questioned all my possible novel ideas, and for the first time, I faced the issue of not knowing what to put in a article for this month. I’ve never had that problem before because my brain would normally spit up something for me to grow from a title to an entire article. But this month? I had nothing, and that scared me quite a lot. So, I figured - why not write about that? Surely, I figured, I am not the only struggling writer out there.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always identified myself a writer. If someone asks what I do in my spare time, I’d say write. If they ask what I plan on doing in the future, I’d say write. For a long time, this rung true. I wrote literally every spare second I got - my imagination was a fire, and I had to put the words on paper or I’d end up going mad. Over the last few years, between college and life’s endless tangle of crazy happenings, I lost that. I haven’t lost my love for writing and I still intend to go into a writing related career, but that part of me that was so full of ideas has gone somewhere, and I can’t seem to find it. I feel like I can’t call myself a writer anymore; I still write for TWE and I have the odd fan fiction here and there but I can’t seem to get past the first chapter of anything. I always thought I’ll be a writer, no problem; but then came the realisation that in order to be a writer, one has to write. And that’s effort - not that it’s effort I don’t want to put it, but it’s just effort that I can’t find within myself no matter how much I want to. I know becoming a successful writer is a long and hard journey, but now I’m actually approaching that road, I think the reality disheartened me. So what is the problem? I’d put a large part of it down to depression. A major part of my depression is losing motivation; for college, for writing, for exercise. It’s a bloody struggle - staring at a blank document and waiting for the words to come to me. I’ve done everything from writing prompts to taking requests on Tumblr. Another part of it for me is the self criticism; a writer’s work is their art. When I write something from my heart, I pour everything I feel, everything I think, into that. And to go and show someone? It’s terrifying. It’s a moment of vulnerability; something you’ve spent so much time on. So, you begin to question. Is the character consistent? Should I have done it in first person? Is the structure any good? I also found that knowing so many other aspiring writers made me quite insecure; I knew that some of us might be successful, some of us might end up dropping the dream, and some of us might end up discouraged and disheartened. And which one of those categories do I fall in? For all I know, it could be none of those things. Putting myself in a box and becoming a self fulfiling prophecy is a stupid idea. I know that - and I still do it. It’s a classic Jazz thing, really. And the solution? Currently, I can’t find one. That’s why I’m writing this - because I feel this intense need to write. Hold onto that; that’s what makes you a writer, at the end of the day. That feeling of loss when you can’t structure an idea, or that desperation to get to a computer or notebook and spit out some words. Even the biggest names in the writing industry don’t write 24/7. Even just grabbing a piece of paper and scrawling something down can be enough. It doesn’t have to be a story; just something. Maybe about how you’re feeling, or how your day went. I found that writing a list of my sources of stress was a good catharsis. Ironically, inability to produce substantial writing was at the top. Joining TWE is a way to write, too; a bit of shameless promotion right here. When you’ve made an agreement that you’re going to write something, you have motivation to do something you love. There’s also the side where you help people; that’s one hell of a good reason to get typing. It’s a reason to write. Writing prompts can be good too; so far, they haven’t given me any groundbreaking ideas that pave my way to being the next Stephen King. But what have they done? They’ve got me writing, and that is definitely something Stephen King does. Even if it’s just a short story that will only gather dust in the dark depths of my horrifically unorganised Google Drive, it’s still writing. The thing about writing is that there’s no official definition of what it constitutes to be. That’s both a blessing and a curse; a blessing because it means you can set your own standards, but a curse because you then beat yourself for not meeting set standards. I use to think that not writing everyday meant I couldn’t call myself a writer. I’ve realised that writers don’t always writer. Writers do all kinds of things that aren’t writing. They come up with endless ideas, but use none of them. They sit, staring blankly at a screen, and wait for the words to appear (a bit like Spongebob and his boating school essay). They cry over not being able to write. Sometimes, writers do everything but write. I’ve kind of realised that between starting this article and closing it - the half an hour that I’ve been manically typing for has been quite a journey. All of these words are what I call word puke.It just kind of came up, unplanned (not the best analogy!). This article could be an exact example of the solution. Open a book, or a document, and just type. Get your thoughts out. You don’t have to organise them - just let it out. You might find an idea in there, or even a tiny, tiny thing that could grow into something much more. JK Rowling, for example, found that a story idea crept it’s way into her mind one day when her trained was delayed. That idea became Harry Potter. That doesn’t mean you should go and stand on a train platform and wait for something similar, but you should definitely wait. Wait for that idea, that tiny seed, and don’t force it. If your brain is anything like mine, it’s probably working overtime to come up with ideas for novels. One day, it will spit out something, and it will be a eureka moment. Jaz Stage fright - nervousness before or during an appearance before an audience.
That’s how Siri defined it when I asked, but for me, it feels like so much more. It used to get in the way of the things I love doing most; acting and singing. Whilst I’ve grown as a person and those two things are now of less significance, I remember that at the time, it would cause me so much grief. I loved the idea of being on stage and performing, but as soon as I was stood in the wings of the stage, my heart would try to escape from my chest and my lungs would simply not work. I didn’t understand how some people could just go out there and sing. I remember seeing Paramore at the 02 last January, and Hayley Williams yelled ‘hey London!’ - despite the fact I was rows and rows away from her, I still found myself yelling back at her like she was an old friend on the other side of a busy room. She had this kind of connection with every last person in the room and she did it so effortlessly. I knew I had to do something - singing is a massive part of my life and I wanted to share it with other people. I knew I had a long journey ahead of me, so I figured the best place to start was within a group. My senior school had a choir; it was very church like, and they took iconic songs and turned them into hymn like versions. I found my stage fright buggered off entirely once the spotlight wasn’t solely on me. It was also here that I discovered I don’t work well in groups - that can be a major thing for people. If, like me, you’re more of a soloist, working in groups can actually increase your stage fright, I remember every performance thinking no, I’m not proud of this and is this really me at my full potential? - that’s not how a performance should go. Stage fright and a dislike for groups can be two very juxtaposing things, but I had to work through one or the other. I realised I’d rather get over the stage fright than keeping falling out with my fellow singers over who got to sing David Bowie’s part in Under Pressure, or whether or not we were butchering a song. So that was the first two milestones in my journey towards getting over stage fright - doing group performances, and then realising I hated it. That’s not me slating choirs and groups, because for some people, it’s better. I just discovered that sometimes, you can’t make compromises on doing the things you love. The next step was small audiences. I got a group of five or six of my friends and announced I was going to sing. Admittedly, they were quite surprised to be spending a free period watching my rendition of a Panic! Song, but I found forcing myself to do it a on whim was better than overthinking it. I knew this wouldn’t work with actual performances, because after all, artists don’t turn up at the 02 and say ‘right, time for a spontaneous gig!’ But, it was still progress. I especially found that the audience being my friends helped. So, my next realisation was that I felt more comfortable when I knew the audience. This encouraged me to sign up to do a contest at my college - I knew about 70% of the people in the audience. That didn’t stop my nerves, and I definitely still had a swarm of butterflies making home in my stomach, but it was bigger than anything I’d done before and another milestone. If you imagine stage fright as a mountain to climb, I was a solid way up to the peak. There still a long way to go to the top, and then even further to climb back down, but every tiny step mattered. So, I did a whole bunch of gigs at college. By maybe the fifth or sixth one, I didn’t feel any stagefright for the thirty or so people I was performing to. A huge part of that laid with getting used to it; some of the audience were familiar faces, but others weren’t. Every cheer, every clap and every applause was a boost up that mountain. Kind of like a ‘hey, maybe I’m not totally crap after all.’ Obviously, I still had doubts, the thoughts that they were just being polite or clapping out of pity. But so what if they were? I’d had fun, no one had chucked any food at me during my performance and I came off with more experience and less stagefright. My last point is simple; don’t be too hard on yourself. I think I played This Is Gospel on piano a solid thirty or fourty times before I even felt a tiny bit ready. They say that practice makes perfect, but I disagree. I know that no matter how much a performer bleeds to the knuckle on their instrument or sings themselves raw, they’ll always find something they could have done differently. And that’s fine - you’ll never learn if you don’t make mistakes in the first place, but that doesn’t mean you have to go hard on yourself for it. Referring back to that Paramore concert, I remember the audience had to sing part of a verse because Hayley forgot it. And did it matter? No. In fact, I would have thought it was just a yell and response thing if she hadn’t said out loud that she’d blanked. You’re always learning and you’re always growing as a performer. No show will ever be perfect, but that shouldn’t stop you. I was originally going to write this article on instructions as to how to get over stage fright, but I realised that might be simply not possible. I remember watching a video where Queen’s guitarist said they felt nervous before performing at Live Aid in 1986 - and that show went down as one of the singular greatest performances in musical history. Even the greats get nervous. Jazz Recently, in sociology, we looked at a study of gay men in the sixties. The researcher found that heterosexuality had almost no influence on a straight person’s identity whilst homosexuality had a massive impact on a gay man’s view of himself. Fifty years later, I still think the study is relevant. My bisexuality is a massive part of my identity. I know I’d probably still be the same person without it, but it’s still important to me.
The same goes for a lot of other LGBTQ+ teens that I know - whether it be that they’re gay, transgender, genderfluid or pansexual. The rainbow flag is part of who they are. It’s part of who I am. I have a big ass flag hung above my desk and thanks to the many mirrors hung around my room (I’m quite vain, I suppose), you can see it from every angle. I think this works as a metaphor for life - being LGBTQ+ can influence every aspect of your life. For example; employment. I remember filling out application after application and one of the questions that appeared in all of them was the sexuality one. Sometimes, there was just the two options - gay and straight. There was also a notice that referenced the Equality Act, and it made me wonder; do they purposefully employ gay people for diversity? Obviously, it’s a strong question and I have no study to back it up, but surely, my sexuality is not relevant to how well I can stack shelves or serve food? It affects my education too. I study sociology and politics, so sexuality comes up a lot. We were looking at identity in the aforementioned and I mentioned I was bisexual. Immediately, people began asking questions, from the perfectly interested ‘how did you know?’ to the presumptuous ‘are you more likely to cheat?’ - I don't want to be know just for being bisexual. But, somehow and to some people, that is the most interesting part about me. It’s stuck with me since September. The sense of identity, pride and community that the group of gay men from the study accumulated 50 years ago has stood the test of time. People often ask ‘why is it that they have to have a community?’ - and my theory is that it was the judgemental, anti-homosexual majority of society that gave it to them. Because being gay wasn’t the norm, it became their most significant label. They were lumped together as a group, known only as a singular word. Gay. And since people’s identities have grown and evolved, so has that label. It’s no longer just gay - there’s lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, genderfluid, agender, transgender. Or, there’s the umbrella term of LGBTQ+ (along with alternatives such as the reclaimed slur of queer, but for some this is not a comfortable option). I am a member of the community but I also fit labels outside - I’m cisgender, for example. Some of my friends are not and as a result, I’ve been educated on the different identities. So, to conclude - it’s a part of our everyday lives because it affects near enough everything. There’s the history of the label, and how others might view it. We’ve come a long way in five decades but there are people who aren’t quite as forward thinking. Some people still believed that the human idea is being born one gender, and being attracted to the opposite. But that’s not how the world works, and I am thankful. I am thankful to be part of a diverse community with accepting, lovely people. It’s a community that welcomes people with open arms. It helps people who have been alienated feel welcome. And that’s why the label is important to me. Jazz x I've found, as a cis girl, that people find it weird for me to talk about my sexuality. I don't just mean my bisexuality, but people have actually frowned upon me using the word 'masturbation' in public. Equally, I've seen my male friends talk in some explicit detail about things they've done, and no-one batted an eyelid. So why is it weird for girls to talk about it? It's not like women - in fact, because gender is a spectrum - it's not like people who possess vaginas (I googled alternative words and believe me that was by far the most pleasant) don't experience sexual feelings.
My mother isn't traditional or anti-sex - she gave me the birds & the bees conversation ('or the bees and the bees, if that's what you're into' she also said). She also talked to me about consent and all that stuff, but she never delved into the idea of masturbation. In fact, I first discovered what that word meant by reading a Wattpad book. That says a lot, doesn't it? And I thought it was weird. I'd never heard another girl talk about the idea of masturbation. It wasn't until a sleepover that one of my friends, a no filter, very open friend, suddenly brought it up. It was quickly shut down. Meanwhile, some of my male friends - from as young as fourteen - were openly talking about watching porn and reading magazines they'd found in their older brother's room. It wasn't until I was about fifteen that I actually began to push aside the idea that it was weird - It's not like anyone will find out, I thought. It was definitely a milestone for me in terms of maturing. In fact, it's likely a milestone for a lot of people. The legal age where I live is sixteen, so for a lot of people being fifteen is only a few months off becoming sexually active with other people. I've learned a lot of my likes and dislikes from my me-time and I imagine that it'll help me out a lot in the future with partners. Even as I'm writing this article, I'm wondering if it's TMI. But why? Just today, one of my friends was telling me very openly about his sex life with his boyfriend. So again, I ask, why is it so weird for girls to talk about it? People with biologically female parts feel the same kind of hormonal things that people with male parts do, with the exception of ace people. I try to include advice in my articles - obviously, when it comes down to sexuality everyone has different likes and dislike so I can't promise 100% success rates, but there are a few things I've learned. 1) Don't be embarrassed. Teenagers feel ten million different things and sex hormones are probably about a million of those things. Chances are, most people you know have whacked one out at one point or another. It's a totally natural thing. 2) You'll discover a lot of things. Sexuality is such a vast spectrum and you might find things out about yourself, such as turn ons and turn offs. Some people embrace these, and other people push them aside and find their own thing. That's totally fine. Go with whatever feels right for you. 3) It's different for everyone. Some people might start to feel sexual attraction younger than others - puberty works at different rates. One of my friends, who didn't start her period till she was 17, didn't actually feel sexual attraction to her boyfriend until a few months after they'd had sex the first time. (She actually offered that piece of information for this article, I'm not just typing up all the tea on my friends.) 4) Be careful. Some people like to watch videos or read things of a sexual nature whilst they masturbate, but a lot of websites can have viruses or dodgy adverts. This wouldn't really be an article for teenagers unless it had a piece of advice on cyber safety, would it? 5) Don't feel pressure to do anything. Some people might feel nothing at all and you shouldn't read this and think 'Jazz masturbates, so should I.' I'm a very open book when it comes to sexuality but some aren't. Only do what feels right and natural for you. As I said, everyone's experiences are different. Some people could easily read this and think 'she didn't start till she was fifteen?!' while a twenty year old might read this never having masturbated at all. My advice is very general but might not apply to everyone. Sexuality is a thing that cannot be forced. It feels weird to sign this article off with good luck. I think a better alternative is 'have fun.' Don't hold back - embrace what you feel and for what must be the tenth time, don't force anything. That is probably the most important thing to take from this article. ~Jazz Depression and A-Levels - not two words you’d expect to go hand in hand. And at first, for me, they definitely did not go well together. Why would they? It’s a disorder that creates lack of motivation paired with qualifications that need commitment. It’s definitely not an easy thing and, at first, the temptation to drop out and pick up my job full time was quite overwhelming.
So yes - it’s scary, and it seems daunting. That probably applies to other courses as well; GCSEs, mock exams, coursework subjects. But it’s not the end of the world. Off the bat, you’ll question how you can possibly deal with depression and academics, and it’s not something that everyone can work out. Some people might be able to come up with a plan and a step by step guide of how they’ll deal with the two. I couldn’t do that - yet, I still pulled through. You’ll adjust, probably without even realising. It might take a month or two, maybe more, but before you realise, you’ll learn to juggle it. That doesn’t sound like a fun metaphor, I know, but refer back to the adjustment. I know it took me a little while to find a good balance between focusing on my depression and coping, and revision and homework. I found that writing down to do lists was almost essential - prioritizing the most important stuff, and making sure it’s done. Keeping your workload to the bare minimum may sound as though it won’t get much done, but do only the essentials. Extra credit is important, but your main focus should be core homework and classwork. It looks better to have good grades on your everyday work, than bad grades on them as well as extra credit stuff. If you feel ready to do extra work, then by all means do but not unless you’re completely certain. With that said, you might find it easy to detach from college and A-Levels, and you might feel dropping out is the best decision for you. College, at the end of the day, isn’t everything and you have plenty of other options. A part-time job or apprenticeship that doesn’t require revision or coursework is a perfectly good option. Some apprenticeships even pay. Equally, online courses can be very helpful. My mother, for example, got a psychology degree via the Open University and is now a lecturer at a college. Alternatively, if you have family members or friends who work in a career you’re interested in, talking to them may be hugely helpful. If college is the only route for you to go down, most places will have a counsellor or some kind of support system for students who need extra help. For example, my college has drop in sessions or assigned weekly ones, where they can discuss coping methods and techniques. Obviously, each college will be different but it’s a requirement that colleges have some kind of help system and it’s definitely worth checking out the options. If not, you could look at other options too. Friends can be an amazing support system; getting them to help you, or remind you of work can help you get stuff done. I also find that studying in groups is super helpful, because you can motivate one another. Some subjects may offer study groups teach, like once a week during lunch. College stereotypically lasts two years, but there is also the option for staying on for three or four if one year is particularly rough. Most colleges and sixth forms either have an age limit of around 20, whilst others may not have one at all. This means you can resit a year, or start again entirely. No teacher or college employee would judge you for staying on for extra time - if anything, they’ll admire you for persistently trying. However, if you do choose to stay in college, there are ways to find a balance. I found that getting as much work as possible done when I was feeling okay and motivated really minimised the workload for the bad days. Rewards are also a good way of motivating yourself (I covered this in article titled Keeping A Good Work Ethic - it’s one of my earlier articles but it pretty much covers the whole how to do work when you’re feeling crap thing). Lastly, and probably most importantly - your health comes first. Don’t overwork yourself on bad days, and even the good days. It can result in tiredness, headaches and irritation that definitely do not coincide well with the things that depression brings. I let my college know that I’d been diagnosed, and although my teachers don’t give me special treatment, they understand the situation. You don’t have to open up, but making them aware can adjust the environment around to make it an overall, more supportive place for when you feel bad. If you’re not comfortable talking to your teachers, there’s also the option to email them. I didn’t feel comfortable telling them directly, so I spoke to my tutor, who passed on the messages. If you don’t feel comfortable talking to any teachers or tutors full stop, you can also get your parents to call them, or your doctor to write a letter. To conclude; explore other options, and understand that it’s new circumstances for everyone. Without sounding blunt - your teachers aren’t going to know about your situation unless you tell them. It might not be easy to tell them, but it’s important that you find a way you’re comfortable with. When people around you know what’s going on, they can support you. It’s not a solution to depression, but it’s tiny little things like that that can help you. The patience and understanding of the people around you can feel like a godsend when things are tough. It doesn’t mean that my teachers are a shoulder to cry on, but a simple extension on homework or a ‘well done’ when you’re in a depressive episode can be the tiny little bits of motivation that can, in the end, help you pull through. Many of us at TWE have dealt with depression or other mental health related struggles during school and college. We have an education section on the website with school and exam articles that may have other useful information, or if you want a more immediate and direct response, you can contact us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat or via email. Jazz I recently left senior school and began my A-Levels. I’m taking politics, law and sociology and as you can probably imagine, it’s a heck ton of work compared to my GCSE’s. With that said though, the transition wasn’t completely awful and unbearable. I learnt a few things that might be able to help you if you’re either struggling with the change or if you’re starting A-Levels next year.
I hope this will help people who are having a difficult time settling down. Sixth form can be a scary place - I’ve just moved from a school of 500 pupils to a college with 4000 students. It can take a while to adjust, but you will eventually. Remember how you felt at the beginning of senior school? It’s a little like that. With that said, if you’re still struggling by Christmas, it might be worth talking to your tutor, parents or school guidance person. They can help you look at the problem areas and find the best way to tackle it. The great thing about higher education is that there’s a lot of different options for you. I remember hating school and feeling powerless to move or make a change - it’s not like that anymore. Don’t force yourself to do lessons/subjects that you don’t want to. I have written quite a few articles about my experience with OCD. I’ve had it since I was 10 and over the years have been up and down and all over the place, but because of this have been able to discover ways to cope and deal with the disorder.
In my experience, it’s not something that you can get over quickly like a cold or the flu. It’s been all over the place for me, and there’s been weeks where it’s very low key and other weeks where I can’t leave the house without checking things multiple times. It can be difficult, and if you’re struggling with ways to deal with it, there are a couple. The first one I found very useful was recommended to me by a friend, who incidentally had no experience with OCD and thought it would just be helpful, and that is to take pictures of the things you feel the need to check before you leave the house. For example, when I leave the house in the morning, I take a picture of my hair straighteners plug to show that they’re definitely not in the outlet. If I get uncomfortable or itchy throughout the day, I can simply look at the picture and be reminded that I have definitely done it. Secondly, lists are very helpful! One of my OCD things (for lack of a better term) is that I can’t sleep without checking my alarms have been set multiple times and that my phone is definitely charging, etc. But, if I write a checklist of these things and tick the items off when I’ve done it, I know for certain everything is dealt with and I can get some sleep. It’s easy to glance at and check, rather than going through the whole process of actually double (and triple, and more) checking everything. Another way is to get someone else to watch you when you do things compulsively. This sounds strange straight off the bat, but if you turn around to go and double check something, they can remind you that you’ve already done it. This is helpful if the two previous methods aren’t working for you and you find another person more reliable than your own photo or checklist. Lastly, keep yourself distracted. This probably seems like the useless piece of advice that someone will tell you with no prior experience of OCD, but I find on my bad days that watching TV, listening to music or writing can help my thought track stay in it’s own lane and not verge onto the itch in the back of my mind. These are just a few things that worked for me personally, and I cannot guarantee that they will help everyone given that no person’s OCD is the same as the next. But at the same time, I hope you do find these somewhat helpful! Being bullied is, without a doubt, one of the most difficult experiences I have dealt with thus far in my life - I dealt with it for longer than I should have because I didn’t have the courage to tell somebody. I was nervous - constantly asking myself is this really bullying? What if they’re just messing around? What if I’m making a mountain out of a molehill and blowing it out of proportion?
I dealt with it for two years and by the time it was sorted, I was so badly affected that I’m still not completely over it to this day. If I’d spoken up earlier it might have not been the case. Speaking up is extremely important, and I cannot encourage you to do it enough. It will seem scary at first - I was terrified about what the bullies would do if they found out I was telling someone. The thing is, once their name is taken down and the school are aware, the process of sorting it out will be effective immediately. Their will be very minimal time between you telling the school and the bully being called in/dealt with, and chances are they won’t get a chance to say anything. You also might feel like your case isn’t serious enough to be considered proper bullying. I didn’t actually tell anyone until one of my teachers told me it was bullying. The definition of bullying - according to the UK government website - is; defined as behaviour that is:
I also remember feeling really worried about the whole process - what would happen? What would they do to stop it? In my scenario, I was moved from the classes which the perpetrator and a notice was sent out to the members of staff to keep an eye on interactions between us and to not put us in the same groups or in adjacent seats. It might mean that some things in your day-to-day life change like the aforementioned, but it’ll be for the best and for a positive outcome. But what about the actual talking part? The bit where you actually have to explain and going into detail about what’s going on? I found that writing down a list of specific incidents beforehand was very helpful, and that having a close friend sat with me also gave me extra confidence. It will seem scary, but it’ll be worth it. Sometimes we need to do things out of our comfort zones in order to solve problems, but it will be much better in the long run. Applying to Colleges and Internships
For me recently, school has been a whirlwind of mock exams, revision and applying to colleges. It feels surreal because I’ve never actually thought about the fact I’m leaving school very soon and won’t ever have to go back. With that aside, I am looking forward to leaving and getting a fresh start, but I can’t do that until I’ve actually chosen a college and courses. It probably seems really scary. I remember being eleven years old and going up to senior school, and it seemed like a huge step. Then I chose my GCSE’s which was a pretty big thing for me - but now I’m faced with choices about what I want to do for the first part of my adult life. First things first, you should choose whether you would like to go to college or apply for an internship. There’s pros and cons to both - For example, college is part-time and and you may take more than one subject, but you can get equal experience from a internship and secure a career for yourself at the age of sixteen. Weigh out the positives and negatives of each and if you’re struggling, there are usually teachers around who are more than willing to help you decide which is better for you. Once you’ve decided, you can begin looking at the specifics. If it’s a college, you’ll want to find one you like. You might decide based off proximity it your home or how easy it is to get there, and if you’re going for an apprenticeship you may want to look at the people who work there and what sort of jobs they offer. After that comes the choosing your courses, A-levels or job. If you’re choosing to go to college, I strongly suggest going to open days and finding out what requirements they have. If you’re going down the apprenticeship route, you may want to speak to the people who you’ll be working with or look at different factors of the jobs such as wages (since some internships do offer payments) and working hours. In your application, try not to talk negatively about yourself. Everybody has weaknesses but you can always trump them with your strengths. Focus on your positive attributes and what you’re best at. You may be asked questions about what you feel your weaknesses are, and when this happens, always use the word ‘but’. For example, ‘I feel I am not best at working independently, but I thrive in groups.’ If you try your best and focus on what you truly want, you can achieve it. |
JazzI really hope this helped, message me if you need further advice and have a good day! Categories
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