3....2.....1....BLAST OFF!!!

A couple of weeks ago, an event happened which sparked a train of thought, which became a blog post idea, and which then got filed away into a far corner of my mind until I had the time to sit and write it. This morning, I switched on my laptop, with the intention of finally writing what I wanted to write, but firstly decided to read some of the new posts from the blogs I follow.

And I saw that one of my good friends and fellow bloggers Holly's latest post was, in many ways, similar to what I want to say. She was talking about the future, the pressures of having to decide what we, as young people, want to do with our lives and how she's been getting help to make her mind up! So please check out her blog www.hollymaae.blogspot.com , and then come back and read what I have to say haha, because, while we're obviously both thinking along the same lines, our trains of though are quite different...

Holly was really positive about what she'd like to do with her future and, for the most part, I am too.

But now and then it just hits me that 'the future' is never really that far away and my future seems to
be hurtling towards me at rocket speed.

The event I mentioned right at the beginning was my driving test which I sat (AND PASSED, 1ST TIME!!) a fortnight ago. Knowing that I can now legally drive, just like my mum or my dad or my grandparents is so bizarre.

And then there's been loads of talk about Uni and my 18th birthday party and all of these things are things that always seemed so far away that they were barely worth mentioning. But now they're a matter of weeks and months away and it seems like I've jumped on a rollercoaster ride of life and the stops are too brief!

 

 

 

 

"I'm on a rollercoaster that only goes up, my friend"

 

~ Augustus Waters

The Fault in Our Stars (John Green) ~

 

 

 

 

 



As TFIOS indicates, maybe being on that rollercoaster isn't such a bad thing? I know I'm ready to leave school, for a start. I'm ready for a new adventure and I'm ready to try new things and passing my driving test not only boosts my confidence for jumping into the unknown but also opens up opportunities to be whatever and whoever I want to be in the future. Yes, it's a little scary (ok, A LOT scary) but I just need to enjoy right now and not fear next week, or the week after, or the weeks after that....

 

So yes, at times I feel like Buzz from Toystory, zooming off. But I'd much rather that than for time to stand still. And I'm very lucky to have a future worth being excited for.

 

So, for the moment, I want to do as much as I can with what remains of 2014... but when 2015 arrives

(which at this rate won't be long!), I'll know that there's nothing to do but to be happy with resigning myself to opening my eyes wide and saying, with confidence, "3....2....1....BLAST OFF!!!"

 

 

The Liebster Award

Ok folks.. A couple of months ago I was nominated by the wonderful 'Don't Burst My bubble' (Check out her blog here) to do the Liebster Award. Not 100% sure what it is but it seems like a really cool way of appreciating each other's blogs so I thought I'd finally do it as an extra post this rainy Monday morning!


So here are the rules :

1.  Post the award on your blog
2. Thank the blogger who presented you with the award and link back to their blog
3. Write 11 random facts about yourself.
4. Nominate 11 bloggers who you feel deserve this award and who have less than 500 followers.
5. Answer 11 questions posted by the presenter and ask your nominees 11 questions.

 

 

Ok, 11 facts about myself....

 

1) My top talent is probably procrastination

2) I have lived in 6 different houses since I was born

3) When I was little I had a Peter Rabbit themed bedroom

4) As a kid, I has super straight hair and always wanted curly hair.. Now my hair's curly and I often straighten it!

5) My favourite season is winter, and I love the build up to Christmas equally as much/more than actual Christmas day

7) I am someone who adores re-watching films and re-reading books which is why I am never caught up on the latest books/films 

8) I have played violin for 10 years.. holy moly

9) I bought a guitar 4 months ago and am yet to play it..

10) I am a hopeless romantic for the most part and love cheesy musicals and rom-coms

11) My parents changed my name from Catrina to Catriona when I was little, have originally left out the 'o' because they thought it was too confusing and later changing their mind!

 

DontBurstMyBubble's Questions

 

1. Where is the one place you want to go ? New York, at Christmas or New Year!
2. How do you define love ? Feeling so happy around a person that they make you feel like yourself.. whether that's a relative, friend, or girlfriend/boyfriend!
3. What's your favourite thing about blogging ? Being able to put into words little trains of thought in my mind and see them published as a proper piece of writing, sort of...
4. What's your favourite shop ? Erm, I don't know! Waterstones, maybe! Or Primark!! Haha
5. Who's your fictional crush and why ? Oooh good one! The first one I think of is Jam from Sophie McKenzie's 'Girl Missing' because he just seems like the ideal boy best friend turns boyfriend kinda guy...
6. If you could be a Disney princess or prince who would it be ? Not being the most Disney-minded person this is hard, but I'd have to say that being Elsa from Frozen would be cool, but mostly because, in the end, she's accepted for being her. But I wouldn't want *SPOILER ALERT!!!!* my parents to die. That would be the most horrific thing ever.  
7. What are three things you like about yourself ? I like my kindness, intelligence and creativity
8. If you could have one magic power would it be ? Oooh another tough one! I'd love all the cliché ones like being to fly.. or maybe being able to speak any language in the world without any effort would be good, if that counts?!
9. Where are you happiest ? At home, in my living room with my family around me and horrible winter weather outside, watching TV or playing a board game
10. What do you want to do with your life ? Have a successful career as a journalist/author and also meet a great guy and have a family
11. What's your favourite quote ? It's a quote from a song, if that's ok? "I could have been someone, well so could anyone." from Fairytale of New York because it just reminds me that ifs and buts won't get me anywhere and if I want to be someone, I have to do something about it.

My Questions!

1) What's your favourite flavour of ice-cream?
2) If you could spend the day with anyone in the world, who would it be?
3) If you could only listen to one song for a month, what would it be and why?
4) Do you play any instrument(s). If so what?  
5) Team Edward or Team Jacob (or neither.. I may forgive you!)
6) Team Peeta or Team Gale? (or neither, I suppose!)
7) Guilty pleasure?
8) Favourite quotation from a book?
9) Chocolate or crisps?
10) Who is your idol/who inspires you?
11) Favourite place in the world?


My Nominations!

1) Lou's World

2) Holly Mae

3) Katie Cup of Tea

4) Books n Biscuits

5) Kim Jade Louise

6) EyeZedZedWhy

7) The Halfway Point

8) Teenage Londoner

9) Professional Daydreamer

10) The House of Rambles

11) imogengracee.



All of these are blogs that I like to follow/read or that I think have really good potential, so I hope you'll check them out!

I'll probably write some more really soon, especially if this awful weather keeps up! Please feel free to comment what you'd like me to talk about!

Catriona xxx

 

 

Grampian Children's Book Award 2014/15

At school, I do a period a week of what is called 'peer support' which is basically just helping out in a junior class. I help in a first year English class who have been selected by our librarian to take part in something I used to love doing when I was in 1st and 2nd year: The Grampian Children's Book Award (GCBA).



Basically, it's a local award which comprises a long list of books, has this whittled down to a shortlist y  asking young people to vote, and then gets as many young people to read as many of the 6 shortlisted books as possible, before announcing the winner in May next year.

The first year I ever took part, Sophie McKenzie won with 'Blood Ties'. She couldn't make it to the
event, but that was what began my love for her books.

Anyway, the books are aimed at a much younger audience than me, because only juniors participate, but, in an attempt at motivating the kids in the class to give reading a good go, I promised to read the books too.

So I'd run my opinions on the books as a sort of 'series' on this blog. Might be interesting since I never voted for the shortlist, so have absolutely no say in what I'm going to read! So the books are quite likely to be ones I wouldn't normally choose, particularly in terms of difficulty!

I look forward to getting started reading them now!

"Thank my Lucky Stars".... For what?

I've noticed that, in my blog, I often refer to hard work. I think the reason for this is because I like to think that, in my writing, I express the very best side of me for the most part, more for my own benefit that in an attempt to hide my faults. When people are just getting to know me, I'd rather they knew what I am good at that what I'm not, and by being positive and encouraging, I provide inspiration to my own mind too!

But, I don't want this post to become another hard-work ramble, so I will try very hard to make sure it's not.

I do a morning paper round, and that hour that I'm walking on my own is my main thinking time. I think things over that are worrying me and try and reason them out in my head, I make up little stories (which I always subsequently forget to record and later forget!) and fantasies and I think about school things and mentally revise or practice something in my head. But I also mull over things that interest me, or make me curious or confused. And, one morning last week, I was thinking about the concept of luck- what it is and where it comes from?

When things happen to me, or don't, and I take a moment to appreciate how lucky I am, sometimes I think I was deserving of luck and sometimes I think I was just, well, lucky! And I wonder if there's


some being who decided that my "wish" will be granted, or if the power always lies with me and my actions.

There are some things which we would all argue lie purely with luck. For example, there is nothing in the world you can do, no act of goodness big enough, which will give you a greater chance of winning the lottery than anyone else with the same number of tickets, is there? But sometimes things that are lucky happen just as you need them too, making them particularly lucky, and I reckon this is coincidence but I'm not sure.

When people say "Thank my lucky Stars" what do they mean? Is life a game of luck in which we all have little pockets of luck and its just luck who's luck is lucky for them? Wow my head is spinning now...

Or do we "make our own luck", another common phrase? Is that possible?  Or is that not luck at all, is that just a way of saying that positive actions can achieve positive results?

I'll be honest, I do feel lucky in life. I have people who love me, and more luxuries than I deserve. But when I make mistakes, there are consequences and I pay for that, and I don't feel so lucky anymore. Does that mean that my luck lasts as long as I deserve it? Or that I'm still lucky when I don't feel lucky but the fact that I don't deserve the luck is what makes me feel less lucky?

I'm going to quit the questions now because if you've got this far and are still following then I applaud you. My posts tend to be quite advice based, but this shows you that, in actual fact, I have very little clue and an annoying habit of questioning things which I would, before now, have just accepted (and will probably just go back to doing so!).

So I wish you all good luck in what ever you're doing today and continue to sit here, waiting for enlightenment on whether my wish for your luck, and mine, will ever make a difference.

~ I'd love to here everyone's thoughts on luck in the comments below~

Catriona xx

Breaking Barriers

I'd like to start this post by apologising for my absence from BlogSpot over the last couple of months. It's true that I have been really busy but, in all honesty, my reason for not posting is simply that I have not had the motivation to do so, or the creativity to choose what to write about. Sometimes, I go through periods where I suddenly have a mental block and no idea what to put on the page. I have watched 3 great films over this time ('Belle', 'If I Stay' and 'The Rewrite' if anyone's interested!) and read two fab books ('One Million Lovely Letters' and 'Great Expectations') but, despite attempting reviews on several occasions, the words have been refusing to form. I guess that's what they call 'writer's block'. Ah well, the title of this post fits nicely into the situation anyway, as forcing myself to put my phone down and my writing head on is not only good for me, but also a classic example of breaking through a barrier...

The main inspiration behind this post is an event which happened last week. Since starting my final year at school, I have begun my own appeal for a charity called 'The Anaphylaxis Campaign' who provide support for people like me with severe allergies (maybe I'll go into more detail about that in another post!). Any way, as part of the appeal, I decided to do a sponsored swim to raise funds for this amazing charity's work, and chose to swim the distance of the English channel in my local pool over a week. Well, in 6 days I managed all 22 miles which is 1416 lengths! I was proud and I was relieved.

However, it wasn't just the fact that I completed the swim that struck a chord with me, but the fact that I believed that I could do it and the fact that I didn't allow obstacles I faced to deter me from my path. It seemed like a daunting challenge and, recently, I've had some difficulty with self esteem and self belief but somewhere inside me I knew I could do this and so I did. It also caused me a lot of physical pain, particularly as my skin reacted badly to the chlorine and I felt a mess. But I picked myself up from that low point and completed the swim, because people were relying on me doing so.

My swim has reminded me that it is possible to break barriers in life, whether those barriers are cause by yourself, your peers or society. If you truly want to do something, I'm not saying that means it will just happen and all be dandy, because that's not the case. But, with an apology for this paragraph seeming cliché, hard work totally pays off and the vast majority of goals are achievable if you're willing to make sacrifices. I've had a lot of self-doubt about whether or not I am capable of passing my driving test next week, for example, but knowing that I have proven that I have the capability to break barriers injects a little extra confidence in me.

So, amongst my rambling I hope you find some advice! If anyone would like to check out my charity appeal Facebook page and give it a like and share that would mean a lot! Just click here!

And if anyone would like to make a sponsorship donation (even just £1!) that would put a massive smile on my face! Just visit my Justgiving page: www.justgiving.com/catriona-aitken


I promise (mostly to myself!) to post again soon. All comments appreciated below.

Catriona xx

Positive Dilemmas

I've never been a very good decision maker. Although, I've never been very good at letting other people make my decisions either, always arguing with their suggestions!

I often allow decisions which I have to make stress me out, and I always feel 100% happier AFTER a decision is made. I'm not naïve enough to think that I'm the only one that feels that way, but it does seem to be one of the main triggers of my 'panic mode'!

It's not until the past couple of weeks that I've realised that when a decision is difficult to make, it's often because both options are either very (in best case!) or equally (in worst case!) desirable.

One example of this is that, about 3 weeks ago, I was informed that I would no longer have a job at the Coffee House where I've been working. It had nothing to do with my quality of work at all, but there are many changes happening and that includes a change of owners, and so they were unable to keep me on.

This came as quite a shock to me and I was quite upset. But I was proactive and started getting my CVs out to other businesses. I was offered trials at 2 places within a week.

I should have been happy, and I was! My CV had I pressed 2 business owners in the space of a few days and I had the option of two new places of employment!

But I hated the idea of choosing, constantly feeling bad for the other, foolishly thinking that both needed me, I realise now that finding another 17 year old lassie wouldn't be too difficult!

I chose another café btw, so the work's similar!

Then came a mini mid-week meltdown about University options! I'm in the process of applying to UCAS just now and I'm in the very fortunate position of meeting the entry requirements for all the courses that interest me.... now it's just about picking what and where and that's a little bit frightening!

What I need to keep reminding myself, and what maybe everyone else knows but maybe they don't is that it's a good sort of frightening! To be in my position is something that so many people I know would kill for! So It's a positive dilemma, not a reason for tars!

I feel like I can relate this latest Eureka to matters outwith my own personal world too.

Last week, I attended The Big Big Debate in Glasgow, a debate on the Scottish Referendum. Over the past 6 months, I've kept this blog fairly politics free, but I actually have an avid interest for the subject. Between that event, and our local referendum debate at the Town Hall last night, I have been left with many questions and points to consider.

Both a Yes and  No result would bring challenges, but both would bring Scotland positive outcomes of some kind. The question to settle in the next couple of days is, which brings more positive than the other!

So there you have it, my thoughts on positive dilemmas, turning stressful decision making into a good thing, and a little for my readers outwith Scotland regarding the much-talked about Referendum (maybe more on that another time?)

Please comment with your opinions, or some dilemmas you've had to face recently!

Catriona xx

Summer Put Simply

Ok, so recently I've been kinda busy (again!)

I've had some new ideas for my blog, which basically consist or rebalancing it slightly so that it's similar, but there's more blogs with actual topics, and less random gabble about my life! Haha!

Therefore, in future, I'm going to try and not worry if something important-ish happens in my life, or I go and see a movie or read a book and I don't document it! Because it's far easier doing that, than, for example, going to the cinema and then having no time to write a review until 3 weeks later and finding it difficult to focus on that film anymore! So I'll be keeping up the reviews, I just might not review everything!

But, until I get an opportunity to devote more time to regular blogging, and because I feel like the last 6 weeks has brought plenty of stuff to gabble about, I will fire through my life highlights right now!!

1) We broke up for summer and on the same day we went out for tea for my mum's birthday! yay!

2) I went to RYLA camp and it was an incredible week.. Read all about it here!

3) I came home from RYLA and my Uncle and my Granny were here and I hadn't seen my uncle in ages so that was cool!

4) I went with a friend to see 'The Fault in Our Stars' movie FINALLY and loved it but got slagged off because I didn't cry.. although I did well up!

5) I sat my driving theory test and passed first time.. woo!

6) I went out for a meal at Frankie and Benny's to celebrate two of my friends birthdays and we embarrassed them by getting candles in their desserts, the lights dimmed and the F&B's Birthday song! Haha!

7) I went with a friend to see a play as part of my Dad's Youth Festival and we had a right laugh!

8) Also as part of the festival, I spent a week on a traditional music course, learnt loads, made tons of new friends and had a blast!

9) I got my results and was over the moon because the hard work paid off! We celebrated with champagne and a scrumptious curry!

10) I went on holiday with my family to Italy and it was the most amazing, relaxing week I've had in a long time!

11) On returning, I tried to pick up my new tie from school but they had ran out so now I'm kind of tie-less.. stupid uniform company!

12) I had friends over on Thursday evening for a High School Musical Marathon (all 3 movies back to back!). Yes I realise that I'm very sad.

13) I've spent the last 3 days procrastinating like crazy and we go back to school tomorrow and I still have a shit load of homework to do!


So, I don't suppose this was my most interesting blog post ever, but thank you to all who read my (hopefully not unlucky!) 13 snippets of one of the best summer holidays I've ever had! Now that you're all (just about) caught up, let me know if there's anything specific you'd like me to write about soon and I'll be back asap! xx