Top 15 Moments of 2015

Hi,

This is a list compiling the top 15 moments of this year for me personally! This year was a mix of good and bad things and I think it’s always better to try and remember the good moments! Not all of these were blogged about, but they all influenced me hugely this year.

1. Donating my hair – So a pretty big thing I did the start of this year was donate the majority of my hair to a charity that makes wigs for children. This charity was specifically chosen because of the wigs being made for children with cancer, trichotillomania or alopecia as I felt these were important groups to help. I also raised over £100 pounds and donated it to the charity to help fund future work. Although this isn’t a life saving charity and what I did won’t change lives, it might make a young boy or girl smile and feel better about themselves. I didn’t do it to get praise or to boast about it to friends but instead wanted to genuinely help people. This is why it was my top moment in 2015.
2. Work experience at the Royal Sussex County Hospital – My health and social care teacher managed to get me onto a neonatal unit for an observational placement. Although it was purely observational, I learnt a lot about the NHS and neonatal units in general. Everyone was super friendly and answered all my questions. This was such a big moment for me not just because of the experience but because I was the first person in my college history to ever manage to secure this placement – previously, students had been rejected. I not only got into the placement, apparently they enjoyed having me there so much they’ve opened the placement up for one student per year for the foreseeable future (their words, not mine!)
3. Getting an A in Sociology – Sociology is one of my favourite topics. It fascinates me to no end. I’ve been studying the topic since I was fifteen years old and loved it instantly. I’d been predicted As in this topic throughout GCSE but never managed to pull it off, with me being several marks off an A and instead scoring a B. However, when I opened my results this year for my AS Levels, I was gobsmacked to find I’d pulled off an A! Not only that, I was 27 marks exactly out of getting full marks total for both papers! This was really a highlight and has motivated me to work harder.
4. Michael Mcintyre – As a late birthday present, my Mum and I went to go see Michael Mcintyre live in Brighton. We went out for a meal, got some shopping done and then went and watched my all time favourite comedian in person doing his routine. It was a hilarious and fun-filled evening that had us in stitches! I enjoyed every moment and was pleasantly surprised to find he was better in person than on the TV!
5. Saw the Bootleg Beatles live in Brighton – Surprisingly, I was invited to go see the Bootleg Beatles perform live by His parents back in July. I’ll be honest – i’d never really listened to the Beatles and hadn’t even really gotten round to listening to more than 3 of their songs before we had gone out. However, once I was at the venue the costumes, the music and the crowd completely changed my preconceived views on the Beatles. I had a thoroughly enjoyable evening that ended with a night time beach walk that was actually quite romantic!
6. I Saw the Amazing Tour Is Not On Fire- On Halloween, a friend and I dressed up as Zombies, got on the train to Brighton and saw The Amazing Tour is Not On Fire. For those who don’t know, this was a tour done by Amazingphil and Danisnotonfire, two Youtubers. The entire evening was hilarious and thoroughly enjoyable. It consisted of the whole crowd singing along to emo songs, laughing hysterically at the show and making friends.
7. Mcm Comic Con – in October He and I went to London by ourselves to go visit Comic Con! Despite getting horrendously lost in London and having a mild argument, the whole day was a lot of fun. We met a lot of cool people, from Tomska to Ashens. We bought a lot of nerdy merchandise such as Pop! Vinyls and a plushie blue alpaca, ate far too much food and admired costumes. The actual venue was enormous and although we didn’t get to do everything we wanted to do due to time constrictions or other factors, I still thoroughly enjoyed myself.
8. We got a puppy– In the last month or so, my family got a puppy! He is a Pomeranian-chihuahua mix called Comet. He’s such a funny and adorable puppy. Despite only being 9 weeks old, he fits right into our hectic family life style and I honestly can’t figure out how we lived without him! He loves our house and despite being tiny, hasn’t quite figured out that trying to assert dominance over our much older cat is never gonna work (he will eventually figure this out). He’s already getting the basics of commands such as ‘sit’ and ‘lay down’ with only minor incorrect motions and even has started house training already!
9. Surprise birthday party– After a rather dull birthday at college, I came home to a rather disappointing birthday. My boyfriend couldn’t meet up, I couldn’t open my presents until we went to my Nans later that evening and the event we’d planned to do originally got cancelled. However, I was thoroughly surprised by a surprise birthday party at Tex Mex, a mexican food restaurant in Brighton. I was surrounded by my parents, my siblings, my Mum’s partner, my Aunt, Uncle, Nan and Him. Honestly, it made me tear up. The staff had written ‘Happy birthday Megan!’ on a sign on the wall, we had fake alcoholic drinks and I had an amazing birthday cake. The end of the day finished with a surprise sleepover with my boyfriend, which just completed the whole day. It changed my mood entirely and I enjoyed the day thoroughly.
10. First ‘proper’ party- In August, I attended my first ‘real’ party, complete with alcohol, music and guys. It was a fun evening and despite getting mildly drunk, I still have a perfect memory of the whole evening. I enjoyed myself thoroughly, met some new people and met up with some older friends. In hindsight however, maybe having my phone on me the whole evening and drunk texting friends wasn’t my greatest move.
11. Health and Social Summer School – In July, I attended a Health and Social Care Summer School for a week, run by Brighton University. The whole week we were based at one Brighton university campus and spent the week learning about different health care professions and how they work. This was set up with interactive sessions that made the whole event fun. This also included segments on personal statement writing and student finance which I believe really helped me in fine-tuning my personal statement. From this, I realised I definitely want to attend this university and that I enjoyed the teaching style. It wasn’t all hard work though – our time was split up with events such as a trip into Brighton to have a meal, a quiz night complete with lots of food and even a game of Rounders in the forest. I met some interesting people and i’m glad I attended.
12. Got a Christmas job- In November I got my first ‘proper’ job. By this, I mean I had to complete several interviews and an application to complete the job. Although I was only a temporary member of the team at Debenhams, I thoroughly enjoyed my time. The staff were all super friendly, I enjoyed my work and we even managed to have a laugh in between getting our job done. I’m honestly sad to have finished my work at Debenhams and definitely wouldn’t mind another job there in the future.
13. We visited natural history museum – At the start of the year, my family and I visited the Natural History Museum in London. Or, as my then three year old sister called it ‘The Dinosaur Museum’. She loved the experience hugely – from the train to the actual museum. I enjoyed looking around the more human anatomy exhibits the best. However, it was still an enjoyable day out with my family (even if it was a slightly hectic one with trains not being too dependable!)
14. Became Deputy Head Girl – This year, I decided to step up to more leadership based roles within my college, and applied for head girl. I planned a presentation and executed it to the best of my ability. Although I didn’t get the position I wanted, I got the lower leadership role of deputy head girl. This means I can still develop my leadership skills, but I also have more time to enjoy myself and also to study. Therefore, maybe it was a blessing in disguise that I didn’t get the role?
15. Visited family in Cornwall– During the summer holidays, my Dad, brother and I took our motor home all the way up to Cornwall for several days with family. This time consisted of drinking, playing cards against humanity, visiting family and having barbecues! We got to do some shopping and explore Cornwall, but it was also nice to spend some time with family I see the least often.

Well, those were my top moments. Here is to a whole host of new ones in the new year!

Until next time,

Megan Stapleton

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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

”You Are Like a Priest’s Daughter”

Hey,

So I ended my Easter holidays meeting up with some old friends I hadn’t seen since Results Day last year – August. I slept round the house of a really old friend and we spent the day reminiscing, taking photos and playing with her dogs (at one point she had three huskies and one smaller dog in her house). It was actually really fun! We even waited until 6:30 just for the ice cream van and then ordered pizza for dinner later on. Then another person turns up – someone i’ve also known for a long time. He friendly enough and settles in, chats with us about his new job and whatnot and the evening goes on.

Finally it starts getting late. We all head inside and one of the things the latecomer said to me was ”You are like a priest’s daughter!”, then laughed it off. There are two major flaws in this comment 1) I’m not religious 2) my father isn’t a priest and also isn’t religious. When I inquired why he said that, he said something along the lines of ”because you’re so innocent and good! You never do anything bad.. you’re such a goody-two-shoes.”

Something about this struck a chord with me, and the comment was still stuck in my head the following morning. Am I really, as he put it, a goody-two-shoes? And why did he say the comment like it was such a bad thing?

Then I realised something. Teenagers are stereotyped so heavily for being ‘bad’ and ‘lazy’. All teenagers are seen as ‘Hoodies’ whom are rebellious and who go off the rails. This stereotype is featured so heavily in the media that even fellow teenagers see it as strange that a person doesn’t drink a lot of alcohol or take drugs. The news seldom ever mentions the good that young people can do like help charity, invent some amazing technology… things like that.

This creates a moral panic that has led to this unfortunate label that my generation can’t seem to shake off no matter what we do. In my experience it’s actually the elderly that overall seem to be the crueler generation – but that’s just my opinion. There are naturally quite a few exceptions to the this rule.. because we wouldn’t want to generalise a whole generation now, would we?

All i’m saying is that maybe it’s time that the stereotype of teenagers is changed. Sure, we’re all hormone ridden young people who aren’t exactly sure what they want to do with their lives, but we’re people too. So what if i’m not uber rebellious, have never sworn at my parents or slammed a door intentionally? Maybe i’m doing this whole ‘teenager’ thing wrong.. or maybe it’s time people get with the times.

Or maybe i’m just over thinking things too much. I’m not meant to do that, i’m a teenager after all.

Until next time,

Megan

Top 15 Moments of 2014

Hi,

As a very busy year finally draws to a close, I thought a nice way to end the year would be to do my top ten fifteen moments from 2014!

15. Good Wood Festival of Speed – He and I went to the Festival of Speed at the end of June – mainly due to His father getting free tickets for us! It was a fun day spent eating at The Real Burger Kitchen, eating an extortionate amount of sweets, showing Him what Chichester is like and all the little shops as we waited for the Good Wood bus to arrive. Neither of us are that interested in cars or motor sports. We were more interested in the ‘stalls’ (more like buildings!) that were designed to be fun, such as the slide, the weather simulator and trying out the Occulus Rift to design our ideal car. It was a great impromptu date and coupled with the hot weather, it was a nice day.

14. Braces Taken Off – Very early on in the year, I finally had my braces removed after having them on for roughly a year and a half, and boy was I glad! My braces, while I am glad I opted to have them done, were not the most comfortable things. Or attractive, for that matter. They were difficult to clean, broke on more than one occasion and it was not fun having them tightened. However, like I said I love my straight teeth and now I am actually proud of my smile, therefore meaning it has a place in the top fifteen moments! I will always remember walking into my physics class, beaming because I love my smile and some boy shouting ‘Oh my God Megan your teeth are huge’ – serves me right really.

13. Caro Emerald – In October, my Mother took me and her boyfriend with her to the Brighton Center where we saw the legend Caro Emerald live in action! It was an amazing show that led to my Mother and I physically standing up and dancing down at the bottom of the seats along with a whole other gaggle of people. She was even better live than she is on her CDs. It was a great evening spent eating expensive food, dancing ridiculously and loving the music. It’s one concert i’ll certainly remember for a long time.

11. Bar Mock Trial – In November I was dragged to what I thought would actually be a really boring day in a stuffy old court room arguing with strangers from other colleges. What actually happened however was my team losing the case we were supposed to win and winning the case we were supposed to fail at, befriending the enemy, having a selfie with a judge in my full court gear and being hit by a metal detector. It was a great day and I am glad my head of sixth form managed to convince me to take part in the event. I even made some new friends on my own team with some of the younger years!

10. Getting into College – Okay, originally I was pleased I got accepted into Worthing College. I loved the college, the atmosphere, the classes… everything seemed great. However, on the enrolment day it just didn’t seem right. I didn’t seem to be fitting in with everyone, half the teachers never turned up and I was constantly getting lost around the college. However, I still had my place at The Sir Robert Woodard Academy sixth form which I ended up going to. Looking back on it, I think I made the right choice of colleges. I have friends, I have good teachers, challenging work and a constantly evolving wacky school life thanks to various teachers and people within the school. It keeps things interesting!  I don’t think i’d enjoy college as much as I do currently if I didn’t go to SRWA. This therefore means it deserves a spot in the top 10 moments.

9. 2 years – On March 28th this year, He and I had our two year anniversary. It really didn’t (and still doesn’t) feel like it has been that long at all. Sure our presents were great (I gave him 365 reasons why I love you on separate coloured pieces of paper in a Maison jar and he used his tablet to draw me a poster with many of my favourite things on it) but the day was, as christened, our ‘Failiversary’ due to arguing. However, we made it up the day after by going into town to have lunch at Interwok, exploring the shops, messing around on the beach and then going off to go see The Lego Movie (Which was actually much better than I thought it’d be!) I think the anniversary deserves a spot in the top ten as although the actual day was ruined it was very quickly saved by an amazing day out.

8. Graduation – So in June-July I graduated high school forever. Forever. That doesn’t feel right. Like, at all. We were led to a very glittery school theatre and watched a video that summed up our journey from year 7 to year 11 with many embarrassing clips and funny stories. It was, I think, the only assembly that had nobody messing around in… ever. Many people were crying. It makes me so nostalgic to think about now. Many people were given out awards like ‘most red cards’ or most likely to be a teacher’ (He got that, was not very amused as he doesn’t want to be a teacher!) Yet, it doesn’t feel like that long ago. And looking at the year book I got that day only makes my nostalgia worse.

7 Halloween – On Halloween, I had my first ever sleepover with a guy (We were in separate beds). It was a scary idea but the actual day went really well (minus setting microwave popcorn on fire by accident and feeling sick towards the end of the evening due to sweets). We watched all of the Alien films and several episodes of The Walking Dead and carved pumpkins. It was certainly the most interesting sleep over i’ve ever had. It was a fun day and I honestly wish I could relive it sometimes. The day after my Mother, brother, little sister and I all went and had a really fun day out at Tulley’s farm. The highlights included an actually scary haunted house and a ‘spooky hay ride’.

16th birthday – So for my 16th birthday, I decided to go into Brighton with my friends for the day. We got their by train, had lunch in KFC, waited at the beach to see if Pewdiepie would turn up as we messaged him asking to see if he would (he didn’t), gave up and goofed off in the arcade. We also explored many shops, ate far too many sweets and bought some new things. Later on in the day I went over to my Nan’s for an ‘afternoon tea’ style dinner with many family members and him around. The food was great, my favourite songs were playing, the decor was beautiful… minus the crying on my birthday it was a great day.

5 Getting a job – So I got a job! My first job! Sure, it’s only working as a monthly cinema attendant at my sixth form and it took forever to actually be paid, but a job is a job! It’s a pretty fun job too. My trial day went perfectly and my most recent day of work went even better (we did a showing of Frozen. There were so many small children). I can see myself working this for at least a few more months but I plan on it being longer.

4 Wicked – So in November I went to go see Wicked live with my Nan, Aunt and Mum! It was an amazing late birthday gift and the day went perfectly. Sure, the weather wasn’t great. But Yo! Sushi for lunch (we ate so much), exploring the local shopping centre and messing about with different outfits, perfumes and books. When we got to the theatre we were given even more sweets by my aunt. The actual show itself was beautiful – the acting was spot on, the singing was amazing and the set designs were breath-taking. It’s definitely the best musical i’ve been to thus far. This is why it was in the top 5!

3 GCSE results day – So on the 21st of August, I hopped into the car with my father and got a lift to my school – we did make a minor detour to pick Him up though! The first song that played when we turned on the radio was the chorus to Tragedy by Steps, which did mildly terrify me at the time but I now look on with a sense of amusement and an appreciation for timing of the song. With new shoes, parents and a boyfriend in tow we all marched down to the school to get our results. Some people already had their results and most people seemed to be happy, which calmed me down a bit. He and I opened our results at the same time and… I passed maths! The single subject i’ve struggled with most in my life… I passed! I was so happy. I still AM so happy. Even though maths was my lowest grade at a C, I was so happy with it. My teacher even gave me a hug. My results in total were 2 A*s, 3As, 5Bs and a C. It was a great day well spent eating icecream with Him (I got a tub of ben and jerrys for every A) This was such a big day for me, which is why it goes into the top 3!

2 Prom – So in July I went to prom. Even with the hecticness of getting my hair done a few hours before prom, having to pick up Him already ready and having to get all my makeup on and getting into my dress… it turned out perfectly. Sure, my hair wasn’t curly by the end of the evening and my makeup smudged from laughing so much. But the food was great, I danced with all of my friends, I got some photos taken of many of my favourite people and in general it was  great night. Everyone looked amazing, the venue was amazing… he looked amazing. I’m surprised his tie matched so well considering he was only told the colour of the dress, not the shade or anything.

1 NCS – The National Citizens Service. When I signed up for the programme early on in the year, I didn’t expect much from this. Maybe some okay weeks away and maybe raising 100 pounds for a charity, but nothing spectacular. But boy, I was wrong. Right from the moment I met these people and we decided to spend £150 pounds of ‘bonding’ money on a picnic and a water fight, I knew I was with the right people. The activities themselves were so fun – the giant swing, going to the cinema, getting free time in Brighton, an awfully designed disco, a game of capture the flag and raft building were just a few of the many highlights that NCS brought. I made some amazing friends that i’m still in contact with even now, we raised quite a bit of money and we really helped out a charity. I’m so glad I signed up to NCS and I got to do all of these wonderful things.

What a busy year.

Well, I hope this next year brings many more happy memories!

Until Next time,

-Megan Stapleton

Lots has happened!

Hey,

I have been told I need maths intervention. I’m so awful at maths I need extra help. Oh well, i’m not too fussed about the help. I’ll go and try to work hard. It’s the only lesson i’m not doing well in. So, I know what I have to revise. He has offered to help though, which is good. I’m slightly sceptical as to how much work we’d actually both end up doing. By past experiences, we’d revise for half an hour and then just mess around. Who knows though, right?

So recently a lot of things have happened. On the 18th I went round His house all day. We spent the day relaxing together, watching movies and tickling each other. It was a fun day. It was my second time round his his house ever and he actually tidied up more this time than he did the first time I went round!

I’ve decided on the type of prom dress I want! I want it to be a long, red dress with straps. However as i’m short, I have to try them on before I can buy them. So i’ve gotta save up to go out into town with mum. I’ll probably start saving up the most after His birthday as most of my money is going towards that at the moment. I had a really good idea as to what to get him, but apparently his friend is giving him the game to him for free. Now I have to come up with three new decent presents and order them by mid February. Aaaah. 

I got my exam time table last week! For my REAL LIFE GCSEs! I’ve already done two GCSEs but they were easy – I didn’t have to go through SIXTEEN exams for them though! So nervous about it all though. It’s scary. This effects my future! My earliest exam is in May – so not even that far away. My final exam is the 25th of June. I also got my Mock exam results – I got A*-C in everything except Maths, where I got an E. 

On the 19th, i went into Brighton for a girl’s day out with five other girls. We got the train there and were in town until four pm.

On the train, one of my friends pressed the button to shut the train door just as a man walked through it. He got trapped but quickly got through. My friend was so embarrassed she was a laughing pile on the floor. 

We eventually got off the train and after a slight trek, found a KFC to have our lunch in. After this we explored all the weird and wonderful shops Brighton has to offer such as Cyber Candy, Snoopers Paradise and New Feel it. We didn’t buy stuff at a lot of the shops but they were fun to poke around in. I definitely would go again! After a slight detour to Waterstones where I bought To Kill a Mockingbird, we went to the pier and chilled out there. We ended up unintentionally splitting up into two groups. One group with the most money went to the arcade  and the other split off to get icecream.  

After trying to find each other, we regrouped and walked back to the train station to catch the train back. However one of my friends had been feeling ill all day and had thrown up in public. After a quick tidy up, we were on our way. 

The train ride back was fairly uneventful, besides some smoking 13 year olds freaking out when my friend started blowing bubbles. That was… interesting.

Until next time!

-Megan

Back to school!

Hey

So, sadly my Christmas holidays has come to an end, and we have started a new year. My new years was fairly uneventful.  I feel like considering it’s only been a week since the year has started, i’ve achieved a bit already! 

I had my ears re pierced on the 2nd of January. (I had them pierced when I was seven at Claire’s but they closed up years ago!). I’m really pleased with them and love the look of them! They’re only plain, silver balls as the studs by they’re still amazing. I had them pierced at a proper piercing place instead of a flouncy accessories shop – Flux. The staff were lovely, the actual re piercing was very simple and the lady who pierced my ears went through each step before she did them, so I was comfortable. 

On the 3rd of January I went into town with a group of friends to celebrate my friends birthday. Three people didn’t turn up but we all still went anyway. 

The people that didn’t turn up wanted us to walk all the way into town which would have taken us a good hour and half! So as a group decision, we decided to screw that idea and walked to the train station instead (only 15 minutes) and got the train instead. He wasn’t with us. He lives in town already so we decided to meet him there near an Iceland shop. Although we originally planned to meet on the Pier, the freaky sea and crazy weather meant we kind of had to abandon that plan and decided to shelter until he appeared. Once he appeared, we grabbed a bite to eat at the local bakery/sandwich shop. We spent the rest of the day eating sweets from CandyLove, shopping for books (We went into Waterstones twice! I got two books.), drinking hot drinks, looking at DVDs and CDs and sheltering from the rain.

We were dragging the two boys with us (there were two boys and six girls. They were sort of overrun) and window shopping. We did drag the boys into a few girly shops such as New Look and even though they got a bit narky and bored, they didn’t seem to mind too much. 

At the end of the day, we went our seperate ways and He and I got onto the bus to go to my house. Although the original plan was for him to get on the bus with me to make sure I got there safe, then get onto another bus home after, the insane weather meant the bus was late and we headed over to mine, soaked from head-to-toe. 

My mum chucked his jeans into the tumble dryer and he changed into my pe trousers until they were dried. We then just chilled out until he had to go, two hours later. 

We also met up the day after at my house and just chatted the entire time.

I went back to school today – the day was delightfully dull and uneventful. I actually missed school so i’m glad to get back into a routine of sorts. I also missed seeing my friends every day. 

Hopefully this year will be just as good – or better than last year! I have so much happening in the next few months..

Good luck to me. I’ll probably need it. 

-Megan

Work experience.. I didn’t think i’d enjoy it this much!

Hey,

So this week I was at work experience at a special school named Herons Dale. I can honestly say I really enjoyed it. The kids were friendly and intelligent, the staff were also friendly and very helpful, and the lessons were interesting. You never knew what was going to happen each day, and I loved it. 

Monday – In the morning, my friend and I were dropped outside of the school at 8am. We signed in and found the head teacher. She talked us through what our job would be at the school (basically a TA) and told us some information about the school. She gave us a tour around the school and dropped us off at our designated classes. I was in the Monkey class. I met the teacher and the other TA, who talked to me about the sort of students they have in the class, and further explained what I would be doing in class. Finally the bell rang and the children filled the room (there weren’t many children, so it was a small class). The teacher started the day by signing good morning to each of the children, sending one student to find out what was for lunch, and getting another student to do the register. After the children were all back in the room and seated, the teacher asked if any of them noticed something different. Hands shot up straight away and one boy said ‘there is a strange girl in our class,’. The teacher then explained who I was and what I was doing here in the Monkey class. They seemed to take it pretty well, and soon we started our first lesson of the day – English. The teacher got me to spray a small blob of shaving foam in front of each child at the table and she said random shapes or letters that she wanted the kids to draw. It actually was pretty fun. The second half of the lesson was getting the kids to read simple books to us. After lunch, we had swimming practice. I sort of sat at the side and watched the children get changed. (One teacher mistook me for a seven year old student and told me to get changed even though I wasn’t in uniform. I mean, I know i’m short, but seriously?

The day was fun, and I seemed to make friends with some of the students.

Tuesday – Today I was in the Giraffe class, which was much smaller. There were only four students. The first lesson was science, which was all about the differences between rocks, pebbles and boulders. We got the kids to describe it to us, and then to draw them. After break, we had English, which was story writing. We all picked a picture out of a bag and placed them on pieces of paper with ‘beginning’ ‘middle’ and ‘end’ written on it. They had to base the story off of the pictures. After lunch, two of the best behaved children did some cooking and made fairy cakes. The other two stayed behind and we had an art lesson that involved lots of drawings.

Wednesday – by Wednesday I knew most of the children’s names, I knew my way around the school pretty well and I knew most of the staff. I was back in the Monkey’s class today. In the morning, we played some math board games. The kids all beat me, without me trying to lose on purpose, which was sort of embarrassing, but fun nonetheless. After break we played with some play doh and made different shapes. This helps the children develop their motor skills. After lunch we did another English lesson that was about developing handwriting and drawing certain letters. Every child that drew at least one letter well got a dinosaur in a pot with their name labelled on it (it’s their reward system – surprisingly effective. For punishments, they put a dot next to a child’s name every time they misbehave.) We had a PE lesson outside on the hottest day of the year so far. There were at least four classes outside, and the children were split up into teams that did different activities, that included running, jumping over hurdles, beanbag throwing and tag rugby. After Pe we had a singing assembly. This is basically where all the kids in the school are in one room with all of the teachers, singing along to child-friendly upbeat music. You had to also sign the words you were singing. It helped that a lot of the signs were on the interactive whiteboard. It was actually really fun. 

Thursday – This was my last day, as the school had an inset day on Friday. I will be honest, I was surprisingly sad. I really enjoyed my time at the school. 

In the morning we had Religious Studies. This involved a field trip up to the local church, where the kids got to walk around a grave yard, meet the head priest, ring the church bell and watch a fake christening with a teddy bear. They all loved it – especially when they were allowed to ring the bell. 

When we got back, it was actually lunch. So I went into the staff room and ate my lunch, then went and ‘watched’ the children to make sure everybody was playing nicely (basically I played with the kids too, and joined in on their games. Every break and lunch time I would be chased around by at least one child, which was quite fun.) After lunch, we had a dancing assembly. This is similar to the singing assembly, except instead of being sat down and singing along, you had to get up and dance while being filmed by on of the teachers (for a video they wanted to put on the school site or something similar). There was one little girl who I had never met before in my life, who just sort of clung to me, whom I ended up dancing with the whole assembly. She was really friendly and cute, but sort of clingy. Not that I minded. After the assembly, we headed back to class and had a birthday party for one of the girls in the class, ate cake and watched the end of Wreck It Ralph. It was easily one of the best days of the week. 

Friday – As it was an inset day at the school, I had to go to my normal school and work with a year seven class. Not too bad, but it certainly didn’t compare to Herons Dale. 

All in all, I loved every day. It’s going to be weird going back to school and doing normal lessons. I miss it already.

Has it changed what I want to do? No. Well, maybe. It’s made me think about possibly working with special children in the future, and has given me a greater understanding of special children in general. 

My favourite moment? My favourite moment is easily on the coach ride back to the school from the church. One little girl with Downs Syndrome started singing Baa Baa Black Sheep. If it was a normal school, in the most likely situation, she would of been laughed at by her peers. At the special school? Everybody actually joined in. Nobody teased her. We all sang together. It was really lovely. 

This next week is full of Mock exams (joy) and my University trip (which I leave for on Sunday, I believe!) 

Until next time!

-Megan. 

Happy days

Hi

(Yes I know this is my second post in a day, shh)

Somebody told me that i’ve seemed really depressing lately, and I realized they were right. So now, my goal for 2013 is to be as cheerful and happy as I can, and to get over 100 stars in my pot. (I make a star everytime something good happens and put it in a jar, it’s simple, but the idea is to try and get you to see the positives) I’m doing pretty well so far, I have twenty so far:3

So look forward to happier blogs filled with randomness!

Hopefully my Valentines blog should be a lot happier too, this will be the happiest day ever for me, i’ve never had a valentine so this is a new experience :3

-Megan

I feel like I can’t talk to anybody

Hey,

This blog is basically what is in the title… I feel like I can’t talk to anybody. Not family, friends or Him. I don’t know why, honestly speaking. But I used to just be able to say how I felt without wondering if i’m going to have it thrown back in my face, or laughed at. So I don’t tell anybody.

Whenever I want to tell somebody, especially Him how I feel about something… I just… can’t? It takes a supreme effort to say it, and it’s usually ignored by the person i’m talking to anyway, who will usually just change topic or act like I didn’t say anything… So why bother?

Like recently, when walking home, I was trying to talk to him about something… I can’t even remember what it is now, but he just changed the topic and ignored me completely, and started going on about something he watched on Youtube…

I feel like I can’t talk to him anymore since i’ll just get ignored. So what’s the point in even trying? I’m used to only being talked to when i’m needed.

I feel really alone. My ‘friends’ basically ignore me now, too. I mean, they have slowly been starting to ignore me, but now it’s worse than ever.

I don’t even know what the heck is going on with me right now, i’m so confused.

So i’ll just pretend i’m fine, that’s what I always do.

Ugh.

This sucks.

-Megan