Back From The Dead

Hey,

So I haven’t been posting about the last few months because an extortionate amount of things have happened recently. I felt so overwhelmed by everything – good and bad that I didn’t find time to also blog about it!

So, what has happened recently?

1. I am consistently getting Bs and even As in some of my classes in tests! I know this sounds silly but considering how awful my results were, it cheers me up somewhat to know I might be able to fix it.
2. My UCAS application has officially been sent off! I might hear from universities in the new year and the prospect of that is both exciting and terrifying at the same time. Like what do I do if I don’t get an offer from any university?! What do I do if I do?! It’s all this bit daunting future that makes me crave my younger years rather a lot. Seems safer in a way but more boring too.
3. We’re getting a puppy! That’s right, December 21st the Stapleton-Bray household are receiving a small pomeranian cross puppy called Comet. In a way it’s rather my fault we’re getting him as a result of some bad stuff that i’ll talk about further on. My Mum started looking at puppy photos to send me to cheer me up and ended up with her looking at actual puppies… and that’s how Comet living with us came to be! We’re very excited and the owner even gave us an advent calendar with ‘Count down to Comet’ written on it, which I think is super sweet.
4. I got work experience in a neonatal baby unit! In October I got to work in the Trevor Mann Baby Unit in Brighton as part of my health and social course work. The entire work was entirely observational as i’m not qualified really to do any serious work (although I did get to hold a baby’s head as she was having a brain scan!) and the staff were lovely too! I learnt so much from the experience such as what causes Jaundice, what the different symbols on the monitors mean and how to treat different diseases. It was easily a highlight of my whole year and definitely went on my personal statement.
5. I saw Danisnotonfire and AmazingPhil live in Brighton! On Halloween a friend and I went to go see their tour while we were dressed up as zombies. It was an amazing experience filled with singing, nerdy references and serious laughs. I wish I could relive that whole night again!
6. I also got a Christmas Job! I had an interview on the phone with a lovely lady about a job as a stock room assistant at Debenhams in Worthing. I passed that interview, had an interview in person and have currently have had five shifts and loved all of it! It’s actually quite fun to do ‘picks’ and ‘access’ and the staff are also nice too (even if I got told the children’s section was haunted and that I managed to faceplant in front of customers today!)
7. Comic Con was a thing that happened! In October, he and I went to London Mcm Comic Con and spent the day buying merchandise, meeting cool people such as Tomska and his creators and we saw a ton of cosplayers. I bought many weird and wonderful things from Pop Vinyl’s to a plushie blue alpaca. However, the ride home was less fun as He had a panic attack causing us to miss many trains (not that i’m blaming him!) This caused our parents to think we’d died as we didn’t message straight away and caused this mass hysteria. Luckily, it was resolved pretty quickly.
8. We decorated the house for Christmas! Everything is covered in tinsel and covered in tacky Christmas stuff and I love it. Makes me feel so festive. I even made Christmas cookies with my little sister today in the shape of festive jumpers and bells. The music is also a constant in this house too! Yes, I also have bought presents and given out Christmas cards too.
9. I was nominated for a psychology award! Despite not doing too well in one of the psych exams, my college has decided that I am worthy of an award for it! I’m actually really happy as i’ve been putting in a ton of work recently. We got a new teacher recently as the last one left on maternity leave and he seems to be having a positive effect on our whole class… hopefully it continues!
10. That brings me onto the less great news…. the same day I passed my phone interview I was ecstatic and decided to celebrate by changing into PJs and watching a happy movie. However, this was cut short after He arrived at my house and broke up with me seemingly out of the blue. I mean, I had an inkling it would happen after accidentally reading some unsavoury messages he’d written to friends about another girl and myself… it was this huge mess that caused me to cry myself to sleep. It was awful – everyone was so kind and considerate but I was in serious pain. My Mother being the sweetheart she is, went out and bought me a ton of white chocolate, a milkshake and flowers as if it was her fault. That helped somewhat. Within a few hours of the breakup I started getting messages from Him asking to talk and that he was sorry… It was this huge mess I couldn’t deal with. Talking to him helped but also didn’t. However, I heard him out and decided to forgive him and give him another change (against the advice of practically everyone, ranging from my Mother to random boys at college. In a twisted way, it’s kind of fun to think about). Things are hard at the moment and he’s still talking to the other girl but i’m doing my best to try and let it go and fix things. It’s tough work and i’ve had 0 sleep but on the bright side, i’ve not cried recently. We’ll see how it goes – my friends are adamant i’m going to regret saying yes to him once again but who knows, maybe it’ll work out for the better.

Well, those are the main things that has happened to me recently!

Until next time,

Megan Stapleton

The Dreaded PSHCE Day

Hey,

So every year at my school we have this really rather dull PSHCE day. The actual objective of this day is to try and assertain what career you want to aim for, to help you write CVs… and to play boring board games in a room full of people that don’t want to be there – teacher included. It was like this every year since I first started at the Academy!

However, as I am now in sixth form I was off timetable. We had our own roles and goals for the day than the rest of the school.

My timetable was fairly simple really: Turn up, go to assembly and have a girls only revision session, break, have a guest speaker, ‘This Girl Can’, Lunch and then a session on healthy relationships. If you can’t tell, it was a very gender segregated day.

The start to the day wasn’t the most pleasant. People within my household seemed to find reason after reason to scream and yell at each other from the moment we all woke up. This then put everyone in an even worse mood. Eventually I arrived at school (ridiculously early  as always) and sat and read my book for a bit until my friends arrived.

Eventually we were all led through to the theatre and were subjected to a rather dull assembly. It was full of ‘motivational’ quotes and animal pictures that were meant to be relatable but nobody seemed to find it that way. The girls and boys were then separated from this point, where I was led to a room where I could partake in fifty minutes of revision. However, this didn’t go too well as one of my friends kept disrupting me everytime I tried to work. I eventually gave up and chatted with them.

After break, we had a guest speaker come in and talk to us about apprenticeships in engineering, graphic art and mechanics – something nobody in our sixth form was interested in. The girls and boys were also in the same room again.  This led to the poor woman giving the talk trying to engage us through a series of ‘games’ such as would you rather that very few partook in. I felt rather sorry for her really.

However after this talk the guys remained in the theatre whereas girls took part in ‘this girl can’. For those who don’t know what this is, it’s an initiative my sixth form is running to try and get girls to engage more in exercise. But by making it fun. This session was set up as a circuit. We had to pick  partner. While one partner was doing the exercise, the other had to run outside all the circuits until the time was up, then swap over. This went on for easily half an hour. I have to say, as fun as it was my thighs felt like jelly by the end of it! I definitely needed the drink I went and got after the session. Everyone that arrived seemed to find it fun too which created a rather happy atmosphere.

After lunch, we then had a session on healthy relationships. This talk was led by Ms Scott, well known for her red lipstick, heels and feminist attitude. I knew as soon as she said ‘it’s not a sex talk… but it’s a sex talk’ that the session was going to be interesting. We learnt about Freud’s theories on men and women, that women in the early nineteenth century used to sit in circles on chairs with mirrors and look at their… areas (we were then encouraged to do this too), we had some sheets to fill in about rape scenarios, we talked about what makes a healthy relationship, what consent truly means… and we talked about feminism. In great detail. I mean, I was already a feminist but this discussion easily went on for over twenty minutes about what it means to be a feminist. The talk was then deemed ‘traumatizing’ by Ms Scott just so we could all go home twenty minutes earlier than everyone else. That was actually pretty cool of her.

So, in the end the ‘dreaded PSHCE day’ wasn’t actually that bad. Sure, the assembly was kind of boring and my thighs STILL hurt, 48 hours later but it was fairly fun.

Also, as I am sure you are all very aware, tomorrow is Valentines day. Our school ran a charity even where you can pay £1.50 and send a rose to someone else. The money then went to a children’s charity. A lot of my younger friends had just gotten out of bad relationships so I spent about £6 buying roses for them all just to get a smile out of them. They all seemed to appreciate it. I even got a rose back from my ‘Wife’ whom is also called Megan! That made my day to be honest.

I also won an award! I have won an award for being ‘student of year 12’. This basically means that I am a pupil that (apparently) stood out to the teachers and made a positive contribution in some way. I’ll be honest, I was completely surprised as I didn’t feel I made any sort of impact to the sixth form.

Now we’ve broken up for half term, I have just over a week to take a break but also to try and get at least an hours worth of work done each day. It should be fairly easy as I have next to no plans for this next half term. In fact, all my plans are after the break such as getting my hair recut and going to a meet up! How typical.

Until next time,

Megan Stapleton

Award evening

Hey,

So this evening I went to an award evening at my sixth form college, where I was awarded a certificate for achievement in Film and Media in year 11, and a Waterstones voucher. Anybody who truly knows me knows i’m more excited at the prospect of new books, even with the increasing quantity of books I have to read under my bed.

The awards evening itself was… okay? The set up was pretty, the music, while dull at times was well done and the food was pretty decent.However, our head teacher talked on for what felt like hours at the start and end of the evening, I was shunned by someone i thought was my friend in favour of another person and none of my friends or family turned up to my award evening, so I was somewhat crestfallen the entire evening. Things are more fun when you have someone to share them with. So after the actual awards I wandered around by myself for a bit, trying to look social, until I gave up and went home. It wasn’t the worst evening I could have had but it wasn’t exactly the best either.

Also, guess who is going back to the University of Sussex for the fourth time in two years? Me! I have decided I don’t want to go to the university as it doesn’t do the course I want to do. However, I was chosen for a Study Experience that lasts all year. It’s one day most months I go up and do something relating the course i’ve been chosen to do – English for me. I don’t understand how I got in. I wrote a poor reasoning to get in and doodled all over the actual form.

Oh well. It’s no NCS but it’s something to occupy a bit of my time.

I have a sleepover with some old friends from high school after what is technically my second day at work this weekend and i’m excited! It should be fun. I haven’t seen them in a while and it will be an opportunity to relax in onesies, watch movies and eat pizza. What more could a girl want from an evening?

Through various bake sales and cinema showing i’ve officially raised over £60 for the charity i’m donating my hair to, Locks of Love! I’m really happy. I should have a more official total next week but that’s more than I ever expected to raise. I couldn’t have done it without the help of my Tutor for helping me in sales and motivating me to raise even more money, my mother for buying the ingredients and my fellow students for helping buy the cakes.

It makes me happy.

However, there are some things that do not make me happy. Do you ever get the feeling that even though you’re surrounded by people, you’re entirely alone? I do. Frequently. I also feel like I still don’t really have any friends i’m close with besides my boyfriend or online friends but it still isn’t the same as having someone (that you aren’t dating) to tell all your secrets, gossiping with, having you support them and vise versa and just someone you can talk to at any time of day. I want that. I want a best friend.

I just feel lonely a lot of the time and I wish I didn’t. I don’t understand why I am but I do and I hate it.

Ah,

Until next time,

-Megan Stapleton

How to kill a phone and get given the wrong certificate within a day of each other

Hey,

So I killed my phone. I have quite a talent for doing this, but I was always somewhat proud of the fact that i’d never dropped a phone in water. However I had: lost it in snow, dropped it, thrown it, lost it and nearly cooked it. This record was broken. I was home alone with my 2 year old sister (my mother had gone to go pick my brother up from an enrichment course). She was being especially grumpy that day and had bitten me, pulled my hair, scratched it, screamed and cried. I was getting to the point where I was quite upset and wanted nothing more than my mum to come home so I could go upstairs and calm down. I decided I was going to let her calm down, and sat her down in front of an episode of Elmo, gave her a drink and a biscuit and went to go do the washing up. I even locked the stair gate on the kitchen to make sure she didn’t get in so I could get some peace for a bit. 

He then called me and was in floods of tears. I promised myself I would finish washing up a plate and would then sit down and try to calm him down. However, I did not hear my little sister quietly open the stair gate (which I was not aware she could do), creep over to me and shout as loud as possible ‘boo!’  and burst in to a fit of giggles. I freaked out and… dropped my phone into the water. He was still crying. I felt so awful that I actually started crying once mum came home. 

So i’m going to go to Tesco today and see if I can get another phone. Or get them to look at it and see if they think it can be saved. 

So school has finished now until January 7th. It feels like ages away, but it really isn’t. Afterwards, the most stressful 6 months of my entire life will apparently ensue – fun times. Oh well.

On the bright side, I finished school on Thursday with a half day. We essentially came in for our registration in tutor time, went to first lesson (I had film studies so we just watched Kick Ass 2), went back to our tutor until five to twelve and then had a really long assembly.

Just before film studies, I was asked to have my picture taken with a box of old clothes and tons of canned food that was to be donated to a homeless shelter. I’m not sure why ‘I’ had my picture taken though as it was nothing to do with me. But, I didn’t mind. I also had to help carry it back to owner of the homeless shelter’s car. 

Film studies was pretty fun. I’d never seen the movie so it was just a chill out lesson. 

Break time had been extended by an extra ten minutes so everyone could eat their lunch, and I have never seen so many people be really excitable all at once. It was really fun. I was technically meant to be on Prefect Duty as that is my duty day, but as it was a half day and it was Christmas, I was told that it was up to me whether I go on duty or not. 

Tutor time was also pretty fun. We did secret santa (everyone got chocolate), listened to music and just chilled out.

The assembly also wasn’t as bad as Christmas assemblies usually are. However, it did run over. In the assembly, I was nominated for two awards. I was nominated for a sociology award and a film studies award. However, as I was leaving the assembly hall, I noticed one of the certificates I was given didn’t actually have my name on it. It was someone called Emma. So naturally I try to find the person in charge of awards and they essentially said they could not be bothered and they will get another one in the new year. That wasn’t helpful.

I did manage to give the girls whose certificate I had, hers back. However she did not have mine and instead gave me Bradley something’s certificate. 

After twenty minutes of running around, He and I gave up and we just went home. However, not until we made a little pit stop at a teachers office. This teacher sat us next to each other in a graphics lesson, which actually led to us becoming friends and eventually dating. He went up and said thank you. It was actually really sweet.

Yesterday I went to a Chinese restaurant with some family and family friends. We got there at 8pm and we left at midnight after a very heavy five course meal. I was so tired by the end of the evening that I just wanted to curl up into a ball and fall asleep there. It was a fun evening though.

It’s four days until Christmas! I’m so excited!

Until next time!

-Megan

Science Award and Nemo

Hey,

So recently I was nominated for a KS3 Science Curriculum Award. And on Wednesday… I was given it!

Wednesday was a busy day. First a mock exam first period, then the rest of the school day, then after school I was invited by my Sociology teacher to join in her Masterclass (it’s meant to be A level debating with a specific question in mind, that is used in all the humanities. Our question was ‘should feminism be replaces with masculinism?’. Each subject was oriented around that, and it was a lot of fun. I had a lot of free food too!), home for dinner, and then the awards ceremony.

The actual ceremony was fairly painless. I was sat in a seat at the front with the rest of the nominees. The audience were in chairs facing this massive stage that contained a table full of certificates and trophy’s. The person giving out the awards was Alison Lapper, a local disabled artist who paints with her mouth and feet. She was really nice and friendly.

However, my baby sister was especially noisy that night, and it actually got to the point where mum, my brother and my baby sister had to leave and go home as she was getting grumpy – and I hadn’t even been given my award yet. It was pretty boring after that as I didn’t even have anyone there to watch me get it.

The actual award was a certificate and a Waterstones voucher… perfect prize if you ask me. Most of the people that were given prizes didn’t even like reading, so I found that oddly funny.

In other news, one of my cats, Nemo, was put to sleep on Thursday. I was at school. I didn’t even know. 

My cat was suffering from quite a lot. The poor thing was 10 years old, had diabetes, was depressed and anorexic. It wasn’t a good time for him. But it still hurt. I’m going to miss the little guy a lot. We still have his sister but it isn’t the same.

Oh well.

Until next time. 

School is taking over my life

Hey,

So recently i’ve been doing really well at school. On Thursday I had parents evening and I was told I just need to keep doing what i’m doing and i’ll do well! (All I do is sleep and read but apparently it works!) 

I also was given back the my total grade for a controlled assessment I did in history. It was three different essays based on the ‘swinging sixties’ with three-four sources…. And my overall grade was an A! I am super pleased with this and it is so reassuring that I already have 25% of my GCSE at an A already. Plus, I was only two marks off of an A*, so even better. I also did an ISA in physics. I got a C! Considering I hadn’t a clue what I was actually on about and that physics is my worst science, I think that is really good.

Tomorrow the Christmas tree is going up! Well, technically it was put up on Friday but the lights didn’t work so Mum suggested we wait until we have working lights, and then decorate the tree. I’m really looking forward to it, I love decorating the tree! It’s so much fun. 

As i’m a prefect at school, I have certain obligations I need to fulfill. Every Thursday me and my Partner (Natasha) go and ‘Patrol’ the school. We tell people to tuck in their shirts, not to eat in the coridoor and to not go upstairs during break. (Yeah, i’m that kid.) However sometimes being a prefect means I have to help out with school events. All the prefects in the Dickens chapter (While i’m in Dickens, there are other chapters too. There is Dickens, Mandela, Nightingale, Lapper and Curie – all named after famous people who achieved something great) have to help plan a disco for year 7 in my school. The theme is Christmas, and we’ve got to plan it, set it all up, set up a play list, sell tickets and actually host the thing… and i’ve gotta help. It’s gonna be exhausting, I can already tell.

Speaking of Prefect responsibilities, our school has an award ceremony at 7pm on the 11th of December. Every prefect has to help set it up, and put it away. However, i’ve been nominated for an award (for science in year 10 and 11. SCIENCE, of all the subjects!) so I also get to collect an award from my school for it. I’m actually really excited as i’ve never been nominated for an award at school before.

Next Friday is my Worthing college interview. I’m so nervous! I’m also really looking forward to it though, too. He has an interview on the Monday, so i’m gonna ask him what questions they ask!

I’ve nearly finished my Christmas shopping – hurray for me! I only need to get a few little bits for some people and i’m completely done. It isn’t even December yet! 

Until next time.

-Megan

Wooden turtles

Hey,

So my mum dragged me to a garden centre earlier, and the majority of it was very dull – the highlight of my day is that I got bought a wooden turtle! For those of you who don’t know, I have a very, very slight obsession with turtles for no real reason. They’re just cool.

Speaking of obsessions, another new obsession of mine is Doctor Who. That’s right. I am a ‘Whovian’ as the Doctor Who fans call themselves. I started on series three, i’m on series five now.

The snow has all melted now, and it being English weather, means that the weather is now utter chaos and doesn’t seem to know what to do with itself. One moment it’s raining, then the next it’s sunny.

I’ve got an English assessment tomorrow, that i’m really dreading. I hate standing in front of crowds and my confidence goes down the drain when i’m being graded on the worst speech ever… yaaaaaay.

I got an award in school the other day for working hard. I was really happy and proud I actually WON something. I never usually win anything. The prize was one of those really posh pens with my school chapter logo on it. I found it really funny that it had a warranty, and a guide on how to best use the pen. What the heck. I told my mum I won something, and she said that she was uber proud (her actual words) so she was going to buy me a Jack Frost hoodie from Rise Of The Guardians, my new favorite movie; and was going to give me ten pound to spend on Amazon on whatever I like (spent on books, naturally) I’m so happy! I’ve been wanting one of these hoodies so badly, and I had run out of things to read. YAY.

It’s our ten months tomorrow, i’m so happy :3 It has gone past really quickly, and i’ve loved every moment, good or bad. He has genuinely changed my life for the better.

Well.. that’s all for now

-Megan