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

A Busy July

Hey,

So a lot has happened recently! July has been such a busy month I haven’t been able to post as much as usual so i’ll do it all in one big update post!

I had a health and social care summer school at the start of this month, where I spent three days exploring different health and social care professions, eating far too much food and getting to know the different Brighton University campuses. I had a blast and have decided I am definitely applying to Brighton Uni – I loved the campus, the food was great and the teachers were interesting and engaging! Highlights of my time at the summer school included a game of rounders up in the downs, a quiz complete with lots of food and friends, a medical simulation with a robot who had diabetes who hadn’t taken their meds and a trip into Brighton where we had a meal at Donatello’s with friends. The entire experience was interesting and engaging and even included activities such as student finance sessions and personal statement writing lectures. We graduates wearing actual graduation gowns from the uni and holding our certificates.

The next big activity that’s happened this month was Activities Week. This happened last week and was five days filled with activities designed to ‘encourage the interaction of different year groups and help the community’. One of the activities we took part in was tyre painting. The tyres would then be filled with soil and flowers planted in them, so they could decorate our college. However, the tyres had been left all the way down three flights of stairs and naturally the department that needed them was on the top floor. Myself and several other sixth formers had to be ‘trained’ to lift tyres so we could assist in the transporting the tyres. Another day we took part in litter picking at our local beach – although beneficial to our community it was rather boring and cold. However, i’m glad I took part as the beach looked significantly more clean after we had visited. On Wednesday we took part in a nine mile walk along the Downs to fundraise for a new basketball court with our entire chapter. The actual walk was super fun as I made friends with different year groups and had a hilarious conversation with some younger years about dogs. However, my legs were killing by the end of the day and my skin was seriously sunburnt. On Thursday we took part in ‘International day’ where we spent the day learning about immigration, human rights and about a trip to Uganda and how different cultures live. It was a hugely interesting day and highly engaging with races, trying African foods and learning about new cultures. The Friday was spent at Lancing College, where we visited the working farm there and met the animals, watched a ram escape it’s cage, had a picnic, had a treasure hunt and spent the rest of the day relaxing in the sun. All in all, activities week was chock full of things to do that benefited both the pupils and the community – however, it wasn’t half exhausting though!

This last week was the last day at college before breaking up for summer and included PSHCE day where we spent the day creating UCAS applications and reworking our personal statements and Sports Day, where the sixth form mostly just spectated. Wednesday, however was my birthday.

My birthday started early – my sister was stomping around on a form of war path at around 6:30. I couldn’t get back to sleep so I spent the next half an hour in bed reading Harry Potter and being all snuggled up in bed. I finally got out of bed at 7am, where I came downstairs to boiled egg and dib dibs (our way of saying boiled eggs and soldiers) which is one of my favourite breakfasts. After eating, I opened all my cards and opened two little presents. The presents were two Lush products – a face mask that smells like cupcakes and a sea salt body scrub! Both smell amazing and I couldn’t wait to use them both. After I ran upstairs to get ready, we headed to school for my half day. I had some smaller presents from friends – mainly chocolate at college. One friend even turned up at break despite going to a different college to print me Dominoes cookies and a book as presents. Like, how sweet is that? I was even awarded a five pound Amazon gift voucher for having over 100 green cards (our reward system) which I plan to use to cut my book spending bill! The rest of the school day was a blur of small parties, laughing at an inflated dinosaur and a leaving assembly full of music and many speeches.

I stayed behind after the assembly to say goodbye to my tutor, who has now left. My tutor has supported me hugely the past three years and I even felt myself getting teary at her leaving. It’s really sad that she has left but hopefully now I have an opportunity to build new relationships with other teachers.

After college, I got a lift back to my house, where I was promptly informed I could not open any of my presents until six O’clock as we’re going to do that after our party food dinner at home. I have to admit, I got a bit grumpy at this and headed up to my room where I tried to kill time by reading books, tidying my room and playing on my 3DS. I started to feel desperately bored – He wasn’t even going to be able to come over as his parents had him doing chores all day and he couldn’t get away. Mum suddenly told me that plans had changed and that instead of party food we were going over to my Nan’s house for a barbecue and presents. This cheered me up as I love my Nan’s house, however time still dragged on.

Six O’clock finally arrived and we all grabbed our things, then hopped into the car. I felt excited as finally I could see all my family and celebrate my birthday properly! However, Mum then slowed the car in Worthing and said we had to make a slight detour as she had to make a quick delivery. We all hopped out the car and she grabbed a white box and indicated where we all needed to head. We walked slowly to the destination and the only thing was when food was going to be ready as I was hungry. I was so distracted by internal struggle for food and not wanting to seem ungrateful that I didn’t notice my Aunt, Uncle and Him crossing the road quickly just ahead of us.

We stopped outside a mexican restaurant called Tex Mex where I was promptly informed that ‘You are the delivery!’ and my family and Him were all revealed to me! There was a lot of hugging and yelling ‘surprise!’ that I was completely blown away. We finally headed into the venue, where we were seated at a ten seater table and told to sit still while our waitress grabs menus. There is no other way to describe it – Tex Mex was busy! The walls were covered in glass bottle clocks, odd posters and paintings, lizards stuck to the wall and even a chalk board with ‘Happy birthday Megan!’ written on it. I was completely over stimulated and a bit in shock still. My Nan arrived just before the waitress appeared and did the obligatory happy birthday comment. We ordered drinks and suddenly my Dad arrived, looking a bit wind swept and sat next to me. Turns out he’d driven for three hours to come see me on my birthday! That’s adorable.

With everyone here, we ordered starters and drinks – I had a Havana Banana (non alcoholic cocktail that tasted more like a fancy banana milkshake to be honest), nachos as my starter and a spicy chicken burrito. Oh my gosh, the food was delicious! There was so much spice in the food that your nose burned every time the waitress brought more food through and it was all so filling! In between eating and chatting with everyone, I opened my presents. The highlights included MCM October Comic Con tickets, pretty jewellry and lots of books i’d been after!

After food had been eaten and our plates were taken away, a waitress gave us the dessert menu. My Mum quickly grabbed them all back and handed them back to her, then whispering something to her. I didn’t think much of this at the time as I was too busy telling the story about the inflatable dinosaur at my college. Moments later, a huge cake is carried through by the members of staff, with the whole restaurant singing ‘Happy birthday’ to me. I started laughing so much from a mixture of shock and embarrassment that I started crying (how ridiculous, right?). The cake was shaped like a huge book, with a miniature version of myself sat on top of it, leaning against a mug of green tea. I blew out the candles and a chorus of whistles and ‘Yaaaay’s echoed throughout the restaurant.

We then all dug in and honestly, it was delicious. However, I was too full from all the food i’d eaten that day to truly appreciate my slice of cake, so I couldn’t finish it.

A final surprise for the evening was that He was sleeping over! We paid our bill and carried all the presents into the back of my Dad’s car and spent the evening cuddled up in PJs and watching Guardians of the Galaxy. I was so exhausted by the end of the evening that I crashed almost instantly once I was comfortable. My whole birthday was amazing – I was spoiled rotten by my family and friends and got to see everyone who was important to me!

The morning after, He and I spent our time eating Macarons, chilling out in bed and chatting. It was really a nice way to wake up in the morning – no big rush until about 1 where I had a BBQ with a bunch of friends. Once he’d been dropped off back at his house, Mum and I stopped off into Onestop to grab some food for dinner and to contribute to the BBQ and then headed on our way.

However, then a car came out of nowhere and we crashed. It was rather terrifying – we could have been badly hurt considering the speed the other car was going! Luckily, besides my Mum’s hurt shoulder nobody was seriously injured. Even the cars weren’t too badly damaged – just a few dents and scratches on both parties. Once the issue of the crash was sorted and the insurance details were sorted, I was dropped off at my friend’s house.

I arrived at her house with hands full of two bags of Doritos and shaking slightly, however I got over it pretty quickly once i’d sat down and relaxed. I was given some more presents-  two bars of Cadbury’s chocolate, a time turner necklace and a hot air balloon model, which was really sweet! We then spent the afternoon eating food, playing dorky board games involving Logos, Charades and modelling with clay and relaxing in the sun. It was a really fun afternoon!

Just before we were going to start the next game, a few of my friends whom I hadn’t even realised had run off had reappeared, carrying a giant Jammy Dodger cake/biscuit. She didn’t have any proper candles so was just holding a smaller candle which I blew out. I was once again, blown away. The Jammy Dodger was delicious and totally filling – i’m stuffed beyond belief and don’t think i’ll need to be eating for a while now!

All in all, this month so far has been hugely positive. I’ve made new friends, helped the community, had a surprise party with all my family and then even got another meet up with some of my closest friends! It sounds cheesy, but i’ve really learnt how truly spoilt I am for friends and amazing people now. Hopefully, the rest of this month is just as positive!

Well, i’m dying my hair blue tomorrow, and I start volunteering next week! Busy as ever…

Until next time!

-Megan

Parents evening is such a hassle

Hey there,

As you can probably guess from the title, I had parents evening yesterday! Everything was good and I got told i’m expected to get B’s in most of my GCSE’s, no pressure or anything since i’m only thirteen…

I don’t really see the point of parents evening, if i’m honest. They send out our once-a-term report months before parents evening, so our parents know how we’re doing at school, just to be dragged up after hours to talk to teachers who are dressed up in suits and formal dresses to tell us what we already know. It’s quite funny to watch really.

It’s my brothers birthday tomorrow! He’s gonna be twelve. The only problem is that the dog we had owned for fifteen years (obviously my brother, sister and I weren’t born when my parents got her!), Molly,  died around this time of the year, so everyone is really depressed; yet happy. It’s really confusing.

I can eat food properly!  I’m finally used to my braces and can eat food like a normal person… more or less. Caramel and food like that is off limits – not that I mind, I HATE really chewy food like caramel anyway!

ICT exam retake…. done, and probably failed again! Half the stuff on the exam wasn’t taught to us by our ICT teacher, so we couldn’t do it. There is this one really brainy computer-addicted kid in our class… let’s call him… Josh. When Josh failed the exam, we all knew the rest of us were doomed.

MCM COMIC CON IS SOON! I have my wig, my costume, the hair clips I needed and now all I need is shoes! I’m so excited :3

In RS, (Religious Studies, for those who don’t know!) we had to do this design a revision poster thing with the stuff we’d covered in the last couple of months (Religion & Science). Two people could win. Whoever the two people who won were, would win a box of chocolate each (decent ones too, not those crappy little ones that cost something like 10p and taste like cardboard!), and have their poster photocopied and put up in all of the RS classes. Mine, and another boy’s posters won!

Hey…is it wrong to feel jealous?

I gotta go, bye!

– Megan

 

I wonder if he likes braces

Hello the one person who reads this (XD),

I’m very, very happy! I’ve been told by my mum that I can go to ExCeL Comic Con in May, and i’ll get to meet the publishers and journalists of my favourite magazine Neo, and my all-time favourite shop; Tokyo Toys and staff.

I’ve been to the Earls Court Comic Con before (my first one) so I know kind of what to expect from a con. With my first con it was all so new and fun, so many nice people, bright costumes, dark costumes, stalls EVERYWHERE, author signing stations and tons of other stuff! On my first Con I was bought a blue wig that came down to my waist just for the occasion, and this time i’m getting a Kagamine Rin costume to go with it. (from Tokyo Toys obviously!) The idea is that i’m one character (Hatsune Miku) cosplaying another character. (Rin) Cosplayception I guess!

Life in general is awesome ‘he’ and I are getting close :3 I know i’m only 13 but I still feel really happy…

I’m going to the London History Museum with my school on Monday, which’ll be fun! I’m also having an orthodontist appointment on Tuesday to have braces fitted…

-Megan