The Sunshine Blogger Award

A couple of week's ago I was nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award by Nike's Corner and I would just like to say that I am so thankful for this nomination and would definitely recommend that you go and check out her blog as it's one of my favourites. She's a lifestyle blogger who also happens to give relationship advice so if you need any of that then I'd definitely go and check her out.

Anyway, moving on to the actually purpose of the Sunshine Blogger Award. This is an award given to bloggers by bloggers who they see as helping to give positivity and inspire creativity within the blogging community.

The Rules
#1 Thank the person who nominated you
#2 Answer the questions given to you by the person who nominated you
#3 Nominate other bloggers for the award
#4 Write the same amount of questions for your nominees as the person who nominated you
#5 Notify the bloggers who you have nominated

The answers to the questions I was given
#1 What is your favourite blog post that you have written and why?
My favourite post would either be my post on emotional abuse or on virginity because they were both probably some of the most honest posts that I have written recently and I received such good feedback on them either for my honesty or in helping other people realise that they're not alone in either of those things.
#2 Why did you start blogging?
I started blogging because I wanted to be able to write about my own experiences (whether it's about life in general, mental health, or anything else I can think about) and help others who are going through the same things as I went through.
#3 What is your favourite movie or TV show and why?
It's very difficult to choose a favourite movie or TV show because I love so many. My all time favourite movie would probably be Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging because it's definitely a go-to movie for me when I want to watch a movie but don't know which one to watch and it's the perfect girly film for a girly night in. However my favourite film at the moment would have to be the Netflix original The Kissing Booth because I just loved everything about the movie and it's definitely not over-rated like so many other films that are around and actually managed to grab my attention throughout the entire film. I'm also really loving Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again at the moment and have been obsessing over the soundtrack as soon as I watched the movie. I'm also a big fan of The Greatest Showman and feel that the whole idea of the movie and the songs in it could teach a lot of people a lot of different things. As far as TV shows are concerned, my all time favourite would have to be F.R.I.E.N.D.S and is something that I will always watch over and over again. I also really love reality shows, with my favourites being Keeping Up with the Kardashians, I'm a celebrity get me out of here, Love Island, and Celebrity Big Brother. With Netflix shows I love Safe, Queer Eye and GLOW. (I know I was probably only meant to choose one of each but it was too hard to just choose one.)
#4 Who inspires you?
I'm not sure that I've ever really had one soul person who's inspired me to be like them because what they do is something that I'm interested in doing and want to become like them. However there have been several different people in my life who have inspired me, and all for a variety of different reasons. One of my teachers at college was an inspiration to me because she managed to get me through my A-Levels and made me believe that I was capable enough of achieving the grades that I needed to get into uni (which I thankfully managed to do). Various family members have inspired me because they've managed to either get to do their dream job or have managed to have a successful career without needing grades and have always taught me that no matter how well I do in school, I can always find ways around my failures to get to where I want to be in life.
#5 What is your  favourite travel destination?
As I am only eighteen and have a brother who is terrified of flying, I haven't really been anywhere too exotic. I've only ever really holidayed in England and Wales (although I have been to Spain twice and went to Jersey once a couple of years ago). I did really love Spain, however I was only 7/8 at the time so could never really appreciate it but would love to return there one day. I also loved Jersey and could happily live there as it's similar to England but with better weather. I have also been to France and Belgium on a recent school trip and visited Disneyland on a netball tour a couple of years ago, both of these being the best school trips I have ever been on. Some of the places that I would love to visit at some point in the future are Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Italy, and Croatia.
#6 Apart from blogging, what is your dream job?
I have always wanted to be a singer but given the fact that I can't sing kind of prevents that from happening. However, I am doing an Early Childhood Studies degree at university and from here I would like to either go on to become a primary school teacher (preferably teaching either reception children, year one's or possibly year two's) or a social worker.
#7 What is your favourite book of all time?
I'm not really a very big reader and so don't really have a favourite book. However, I did kind of enjoy reading when I was a child and my favourite author was Jacqueline Wilson. I also really enjoyed reading a book called Pride and Penalties by Chris Higgins and it was probably (and still is) one of my most read books.
#8 Who is your favourite blogger and why?
I don't really want to pick out a favourite because every blog that I have ever read is so unique that you just can't compare one blogger to another. Obviously Nike's Corner is a favourite of mine and I also really love MeganAppsBlogsx for how she has told her story in such an honest way that I don't think I have ever seen anyone else do before and definitely deserves a lot more credit.
#9 If you had to wish for one thing, what would it be?
If I only had a wish for one thing, I would wish for a cure for cancer because there have been way too many people in my life, particularly recently, who have either been diagnosed with/have died from cancer and I just hate the impact that it has had on so many people's lives and wish that an end could be put to it all.
#10 What is your favourite social media platform and why?
For my blog it would have to be twitter because I've found that it's the best way for me to interact with my audience/other bloggers and is the only platform that I use to promote my blog on. However for my personal life, I do love twitter but if it was for talking to people it would have to be snapchat.
#11 What movie or TV show are you obsessed with?
I would say that I am definitely obsessed with F.R.I.E.N.D.S or Gavin and Stacey because I am constantly watching and re-watching every single episode over and over again and never go more than a couple of months without watching either one or the other (or both). I am also obsessed with Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again because I have had the soundtrack on repeat for the past few weeks and will quite happily watch it on repeat when it either gets put on Sky or on the DVD release (plus it would be really great and helpful if it was put on Netflix at some point as well).

My nominations:
#1 Venus (@venusaby) venusaby.blogspot.co.uk
#2 Megan (@MeganAppsBlogsx) meganappsx.wordpress.com
#3 Chloe (@MyOfficalBlog) checkmyonlinediary.blogspot.com
#4 Hayley (@Sparkles_Blog) sparklesandstretchmarks.com
#5 Kate (@catisbored) katedaysaweek.be

My questions:
#1 How old were you when you first became a blogger?
#2 If you could swap lives with any celebrity who would it be and why?
#3 What is your favourite season of the year?
#4 Are you an early bird or a night owl?
#5 Have you ever felt like giving up blogging? And if yes why?
#6 Do you prefer nights in or nights out?
#7 If you could go back in time and live in any period of history, which one would it be and why?
#8 Do you think that there is too much pressure on young people today to perform well in school?
#9 If you had the power to enforce any law within the government, what would it be and why?
#10 Where do you aim to be either in terms of blogging or your life (or both) in ten years time?
#11 What would you say is your best personality trait?

Love Beth xx

Results Day 2018

The time is here. The one day that every student dreads more than taking their exams. Results day (or dooms day as I like to call it). It's not the be all and end all of how our lives are going to pan out (however it is pretty stupid making a bunch of teenagers decide what they want to do when they 'grow up' and expect them to get the grades to do that by the time they've turned eighteen).

I got my results back on the 16th (this Thursday just gone) and was both pleased and overwhelmed by what I got. I had been predicted CCC in my three subjects (which was also what I needed to get into uni) however this didn't really matter that much as I had already received an unconditional offer from my firm choice (first choice) university (for those of you who don't know what an unconditional offer is, it basically means that it doesn't matter what grades you get, you are still guaranteed a place on the course).

My overall results were BCC. I got a B in history (which was VERY shocking) and a C in psychology and health. BCC is roughly equivalent to 104 UCAS points and I only needed 96 so I am in complete amazement over how this happened. I was already aware that I had got a C in health due to the amount of coursework that is involved and because as it was still the legacy A-Level, I had to take an AS exam at the end of year 12. This was a bonus in some ways as it meant that I could focus a little more on my other two subjects because I already had the grade that I needed for health. However, as good as this was it was also bad in some ways because as I was focusing slightly more on my other two subjects, it meant that I focused a little less on revising for my health exam (which wasn't particularly helped by the fact that I didn't like what the exam was on) and I think that the grade that I got in that exam reflects that a little bit.

My overall history grade can be broken down into four different things. In my coursework I got a B. For this we got to choose any event that happened at any point throughout history to write a 4000 word essay on - I chose to do mine on the fight for women to gain the right to vote. I was slightly disappointed with this grade because I spent a little over a year working on it and feel that all of the work that I put into it didn't exactly pay off, yet despite this a B was the lowest grade that I said I would be happy with when it came down to my history coursework. A grade that was kind of predicted from the start was the fact that I got a D in the American West and Civil War exam. I got the same grade for this exam at GCSE so always kind of knew it would be reasonably low (except this time it was at least a pass). I can also put it down to the fact that I didn't really put that much time in to revising for this exam, partly because it was my least favourite out of all of the history exams and because as it was my last exam EVER, I had pretty much run out of stamina to feel able to spend enough time revising for this, particularly the night before (but NEVER leave your revision until the night before your exam, especially at A-Level, because it puts more stress on you and there is no way that you can learn/familiarise yourself with a whole unit in one night). I also managed to get a B in the Tudor Foreign Policy exam, which was quite surprising as it was worth 40% of the overall grade (double what the coursework was worth) and it was only a few days before the exam that I found myself being able to properly understand the stuff I needed to know and how to answer the questions. I am very impressed with myself for managing to get this grade because I don't think that me or my teacher ever thought this was going to happen (in previous mocks the highest grade I had gotten was a D) and all of the hard work definitely paid off. To top all of this off, in the Wars of the Roses exam I somehow managed to get an A, which I have never managed to get at all in history and the fact that it happened in my actual exam means more to me than anyone will fully understand. I guess part of the reason for this grade is because I found the exam fairly easy as the essay question that I chose to do was on the one thing that I had made sure to go over when revising, however the source question wasn't even in the spec (specification) so I had to try and use my knowledge from something further on in that period to make some attempt at answering that question, which I'm guessing seemed to work in my favour.

I was particularly impressed by my psychology grade (I got a C) because in the mock I did in March I got a U, E, and C in each individual exam, giving me an E overall. I don't know what I got in each individual exam in the actual thing as it wasn't on my results slip, however my teacher told me that the grade I got was a high C, so I'm guessing that they can't have gone too bad. I did find psychology particularly difficult because you have to remember a bunch of different studies, including who carried them out and which part of psychology they were done for; as well as studies that supported and refuted (proved wrong) each other for the longer exam questions (eight and sixteen markers). I would recommend psychology as it's a very interesting subject and even though it involves a lot of biology and maths (both of which I'm incredibly bad at) as long as you have a genuine interest in it, this can help to motivate you to revise for it and should help in giving you a higher grade than those who don't enjoy psychology quite as much. Psychology was definitely my favourite subject to revise for (if that is even possible).

As far as health was concerned, I had already achieved the grade that I needed (a C) due to the fact that my grade from last year counted towards this year and because the grades I got in my coursework this year meant that I had already secured my C without having to take the exam. This meant that I could just turn up to the exam and write my name on the paper and would get a C just from doing that. My teacher had told me a month or so before the exam that in order for me to get a B I would have to get a high C in the exam (which, let's face it, was never going to happen). I somehow managed to get an E in that exam, which was surprising because in any previous exam papers I had only ever gotten a U, so it was pleasantly surprising. Even though most people probably wouldn't be happy with an E, this meant quite a lot to me because neither me or anyone else had thought that I would manage to get anything above a U in the exam, so for me to prove myself and others wrong was an achievement in itself. As I said before, I had gotten good enough grades in my coursework to mean that I would definitely get a C as my overall grade. In my Care Practice and Provision coursework I managed to get a B, which was also surprising because I struggled with this quite a bit in terms of either finding the things that I needed to include and trying to write enough in order to get a good grade. This coursework was based on the 2011 census for the county that I live in and I was having to assess why the population is mostly people aged over 60 and the different types of healthcare services that are available to us for that reason and compare it to the rest of England. It was difficult and most of the time I had no idea what I was doing, but somehow I managed to get through it. Next there was my Child Development coursework, which was the one that I needed to do well in because it's what I'm going on to do at university, and luckily I managed to get an A and only dropped two marks. I wrote twice as much for this coursework than the other one (although it's more about quality than quantity) and was very pleased with the outcome. For both modules there are four different pieces of coursework we have to write (eight in total) and we were always given two weeks to write each one (which I did use a little longer than I was meant to for each one) and it did become quite stressful and definitely isn't something that you can get away with starting a couple of days before the due date without having to re-do it.

I feel that doing a legacy A-Level goes to show that subjects should be slightly more coursework based (my final grade for health was 60% coursework and 40% exam) as I didn't feel as stressed about my health mark than my other two subjects (particularly as psychology is 100% exam) and even though the exam grade did let me down in my final grade for health (I would have needed a high C to get a B), as I have proven before, the tiniest slip-up in an exam could be the difference in a grade. Also, at least once I had taken my health exam (and even before I had taken it) I had some form of idea of how well I had done and how hard I would have to work for the exam (although you should always work hard, no matter how well you have already done), whereas for history and psychology I had absolutely no idea and was convinced that I had gotten no higher than a D in both of them and if I hadn't of gotten an unconditional offer for uni then there is a chance that I wouldn't be starting uni in September (or ever). So if anyone is reading this who has some sort of position of power to change how A-Levels (and GCSEs) are being ran, please consider doing something about the lack of coursework that is available to students nowadays because during A-Levels my mental health was at the worst it's ever been and I really don't want to go back to that place again. I would walk into school on a daily basis wondering if I was going to have a breakdown that day. In some exams I felt like I was close to having a breakdown but somehow managed to prevent it from happening. (Oh and OCR lowering the grade boundaries for an A* but making them higher for C just goes to show how everyone seems more concerned of those of a higher ability and making it easier for them to get into their chosen university than those like me who often struggle to even get a D).

Where my results are concerned I am so proud that I managed to prove quite a few people wrong where my grades and ability were concerned. I had four teachers and only one of them ever believed in me 100% and gave me the confidence to feel that I had a chance of passing. Even when I was saying how I was going to get a U in my health exam and that nothing could be done to change that, she encouraged me to carry on and to try my absolute hardest to at least get a pass in the exam (which I somehow managed to do). She also encouraged me to try my absolute hardest in psychology because she could see that I had the potential to do well as long as I tried really hard and encouraged me to get that C that I needed in psychology. Even though she wasn't my history teacher, as she was my mentor she encouraged me to keep on trying at history even though at times I really hated it. To my health teacher and both my history teachers, I would just like to say a massive f*** you for making me out to be thick, that I never had a clue what was going on and that my chances of either achieving my target grade in history or passing my health exam were very slim. To my health teacher, thank you for continually picking on me in class and making me seem thick in front of everyone else. Thank you for making me believe that I was going to get a U in the final exam. And thank YOU for turning things around on me and making it out like I was the one who had never believed in myself and you had believed in me all along. To my history teachers, thank you for those constant looks of disappointment whenever I either couldn't answer a question or it took me a while to realise the answer with a bit of 'help' from you or someone else. Thank you for making me feel really thick in front of all of my classmates and making it out like I knew absolutely nothing. And thank YOU for constantly putting me down in front of everyone else and laughing AT me when I either got an answer wrong or pointed out something that was apparently really obvious.

To anyone else that got their A-Level results or the equivalent and got what they needed to go on to the next chapter in their lives, a massive congratulations to you and you deserve every success in the world. To those of you who weren't so successful, it doesn't mean to say that you can't go on to do what you had originally planned to do, it just means that you might have to work around it somehow (and if you don't believe me, just go and check out all of Jeremy Clarkson's results day tweets because he likes to remind us how he failed his A-Levels but still managed to earn a lot of money).

If anyone has any questions about A-Levels (particularly if you're about to start year 13, about to start sixth form or just starting to look at sixth forms) then please feel free to ask me absolutely anything and I'll try and help you in any way possible. All of my contact details are at the top of the page in the contacts tab.

Love Beth xx

The Versatile Blogger Award

Before I start this post I would like to say a massive thank  you to Nikes Corner for nominating me for the Versatile Blogger Award. I would also really appreciate it if you could all head over to her blog as it is absolutely amazing and she is a fabulous lifestyle blogger who also gives great relationship advice.

This award was created to celebrate the uniqueness of bloggers who create good quality posts, cover a vast variety of subjects within their blog and I feel greatly honoured to have received a nomination for it.

Here are the rules for the Versatile Blogger Award:

#1 ~ thank the person who gave you the award and leave a link to their blog

#2 ~ select up to 15 other bloggers who you think also deserve to be given this award and include a link to their blog

#3 ~ tell everyone seven things about yourself

These are the bloggers who I have decided the nominate for this award:

#1 Chloe (@myofficalblog) https://t.co/rEsbsmiig6

#2 Hayley (@sparkles_blog) https://t.co/gqNG0YACId 

#3 Kate (@catisbored) https://t.co/n2SMRisbCe 

#4 Megan (@MeganAppsBlogsx) https://t.co/YmLbcA6MBp

#5 Han (@SH_anonletters) https://t.co/Pn4t5FQdQk

#6 Deanna (@DeerDeanna) https://t.co/ZvxmivSOtm 

#7 Teliateanna (@teliateanna) https://t.co/AHVScUT6V3

Here are seven things about myself:

#1 ~ I am an eighteen year old student from the West Midlands

#2 ~ At A-Level I studied psychology, history, and health and social care

#3 ~ In September I am going to be starting University and will be studying at Birmingham City University and will be studying Early Childhood Studies

#4 ~ My favourite Netflix shows are Pretty Little Liars, Orange is the New Black, Safe, Queer Eye,  Stranger Things, The Kissing Booth, Glow, 13 Reasons Why, and Riverdale 

#5 ~ I've only ever had one boyfriend (and he turned out to be a, well, I'll leave that up to your imagination but it's not Prince Charming or a Knight in shining armour!)

#6 ~ I really want to go travelling and was going to take a gap year this year and take that time to travel, however decided it would be better for me to go to university now as I don't have that much money and knew that if I went travelling this year I probably wouldn't end up going to uni (which I also really want to do. However, if (and hopefully when) I do go travelling my plan was (and possibly still is) to go to Australia and do some work there for around 6-9 months and then spend the rest of my time travelling around some parts of Asia (China, India and Thailand are my first options and any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated)

#7 ~ My first celebrity crush was (and still is) Zac Efron (standard, I know) and I love absolutely EVERYTHING that he has been in

Love Beth xx

Taking Time Out For Yourself

We all want to be that person that has the best life, has loads of friends, is constantly going out and having a good time, and never seems to be on their own or lonely. This seems great and all but is this really the best way for us all to live our lives?

I mean, being constantly surrounded by our friends and 'living our best life' and being able to show off about this on social media seems amazing, but I feel that sometimes these people might be so focused on constantly surrounding themselves with their friends that they don't take enough time out for themselves to just relax and to focus on their mental health. Going out all/most of the time is amazing, it's fun, and it's enjoyable, but it's not something that we need to be doing most days, or even every weekend. I guess that people don't want to stay in and take a bit of time for themselves and want to be seen by others as the sort of person who isn't boring and likes to go out and live a little (or a lot).

But staying in is just as important as going out. Because if we don't take the time to look after ourselves, then is going out all of the time the best thing for our mental health? I mean let's face it, mental health and mental illness is real and because, even in 2018, it is still deemed almost shameful if you suffer badly when it comes to mental health and some people don't want to make it known to others that they have a mental health problem. But this can all be helped by staying in every once in a while and looking after number one.

I have mentioned it in previous posts but I do suffer from social anxiety and one of the things that comes with this is that I tend to find myself saying no more times than I say yes to an invitation to go out with my friends. I wish that I could stop this because I want to make memories and I want to live my life but I constantly feel like I am being held down by something and that it is much easier for me to say no to something and stay in the comfort of my own home, than say yes and end up somewhere or in a situation that I'm not particularly familiar with and end up panicking to the point where I wished that I had stayed in instead. But after being constantly told or being given the impression of this not being a normal way for me to live my life, I am forever feeling guilty in some ways for not going out and enjoying myself and feel that I've let people down because of it. I also feel almost under pressure to go out, even when  I'm having my doubts about it and know that it wouldn't be the best thing for me to go out that day/night, so that I can be with my friends and so that they don't start asking questions about why I haven't gone out with them and why I chose to stay in instead. This has been even more of an occurrence recently as I turned eighteen in March and so I feel like I should be going out to the pub or going clubbing every Friday/Saturday night; however I've barely been out since turning eighteen.

Of course it's not just a matter of having to take time out for yourself because you're constantly going out with friends. It could also be that you spend the majority of your time working and find that you have very little time to take a bit of time out to relax and to give yourself a bit of love. Taking time out is important because it can help to repair your mental health if you are starting to feel yourself becoming more and more stressed as time goes on. It can just be something as simple as having a night in in front of the TV and catching up on some of your favourite TV shows that you might have missed a few episodes of because you were busy doing something else. You could even take a whole day out to go on a spa day; which will give you plenty of time to relax, rejuvenate, and feel that sense of wellness that you might not have been feeling recently.

Taking time out for yourself is important because if you put too much stress and pressure on yourself, then this can eventually mount up into bigger issues and might cause you to lash out at someone or something unexpectedly or push people away because you know that you need your alone time but you don't know how to get it. This can all be avoided by taking a bit of time to just relax, stay at home and watch a couple of films to try and get your mental health in check.

I'm not saying that you have to stay in most nights, but as and when you need it you should just take a little bit of time to make sure that you're alright. Even if you have already made plans with your friends, it is okay to cancel on them if, at the last minute, you decide that you're just really not up to going out and being in a room full of random people. And if they don't understand your decision to do this and make you feel pressured into still going out then don't go out just to please them. Make sure that you are comfortable with what is going on and the situation that you may be putting yourself into. If you're unsure of whether it would be the right thing for you to go out but you don't want to feel like you're letting others down, then ask yourself this: would you rather stay at home where you can remain calm, or go out and end up getting into a panic and then not enjoy your night? Even if you do decide to go out but once you get there you find that you're not enjoying yourself and that it's all getting a bit too much for you, it's okay if you decide to leave and go home early. If anyone you're with judges you for doing this then maybe you shouldn't be friends with them because no one should have to feel that they have to be in a situation that they feel completely uncomfortable in. Or if you don't leave your house for a number of days or see anyone for a certain amount of time because you need to focus more on your mental health then this is also a completely acceptable thing to do.

If there's anything that you take from this post, I would like it to be that you should never feel pressured into being in any situation that you don't feel comfortable in. I have been in this situation myself one too many times and it meant that I couldn't enjoy my night/time because of it. But on a few occassions where I have said no to going out somewhere because I either didn't feel completely comfortable with the situation I was going to be in or felt in a bad place in terms of my mental health, even though I didn't like the fact that, to an extent, I felt like I was missing out on making memories with people, it was much more of a comfort to me knowing that I wasn't putting myself in a situation where it was going to result in panic and wanting to leave but feeling like it would be too much of an embarrassment to do that.

So, still ensure that you do go out and enjoy yourself, but at the same time don't push yourself too far or put yourself in a situation that you're uncomfortable in or whilst your mental health isn't in the best of places.

Love Beth xx