Grades override ?

Today, the 3rd September I walked to my school to enrol into year 13. What this means is that I must choose the subject I want  to drop so my subjects go from 4 last year to 3 this year. The subjects I'm taking are: History, Sociology, English LIT and Philosophy. Right from the start I never liked or cared for Sociology I find it boring and repetitive. Unfortunately I got an A in AS for sociology, this went along with my A in philosophy, C in English and D in History. I was devastated. Considering in my mocks I got 3 A's and a B. I felt robbed.

The obvious choice wouldn't be to drop sociology however, I hate it and couldn't think of anything worse than taking in into A2. I decided to drop Sociology, retake one paper from History and continue with Philosophy and English.

My head of year however was not happy with this decision and told me to come back tomorrow so I could sleep on it and go in hopefully with different choices. This got me thinking how much of myself can I put into my education if my lest favourite subject might override my favourites because of a grade. Could I really take Sociology next year if I felt so strongly against it because I would have more security. 

I decided no. I would rather work harder in subjects I honestly loved than spend 5 hours a week in a subject which I detested. Sorry by the way if you like Sociology but my option stays the same.  

Any thoughts on my choice? If you're going into sixth form or A2 what subjects are you takng? Tell me down below. 

RED QUEEN

By Victoria Aveyard

This story follows Mare, a red, in a world of silvers with powers and abilities not seen in the red society. Except she now has these powers which is impossible for a red to have. She must now be front a centre in a world she knows nothing about while terrorist acts go on around her. Her choices could change the world she lives in.
I wasn't overly impressed by this book. I flew through it and it was enjoyable but it wasn't different. Maybe if I hadn't already read Hunger games, Matched, Divergent I would have enjoyed it more. However, that's not to say I didn't enjoy the read.

I'll tell you what I did enjoy and that was the one twist I didn't see coming. Shade is alive. Maybe it should be a given if you don't read the death then you should be suspicious but I was shocked. I thought Mare and her brother would have the same powers but I liked they were different from the silvers and that the powers in family trees could change. I found the writing style comfortable to read and flowed very well. I really liked Mare and thought her character has so much potential in books to come and it's pretty obvious she will end up with Cal and that the next book will start another love triangle. The word building was interesting with Aveyard's world of red and silvers using the idea of hierarchy and inequality as the backbone of this story.

I'm kinda sad Mare didn't end up with Maven just so the book could be different from the rest. I knew as soon as the line "anyone can betray anyone" that Maven was going to be that anyone. Wouldn't it have been a shock though if Maven freed his brother and Mare in the last chapter and turned on his own mother. Like most dystopian books it's usually the first boy outside of the protagonists world that she will end up with and that seems to be where these books are heading. I will probably read the books to come just because it was quite interesting but I wont be in a rush to get the next book 

TV Shows I'm Loving At The Moment

Like most "teens" at the moment I have no reason to leave my house as school is over. So have been binge watching a tone of TV shows, and loving every moment. So, today I thought I'd share some of my favourites and my thoughts on them.

Masters of Sex: Just the name lures you in, but this show is not what you expect. It's emotional, enthralling and striking. The series follow pioneers Bill Masters and Virginia Johnson  as they explore the scientific nature of sex in the reluctant and conserved era of the 50s through to the 60s. But it's also much more. The cast gives extraordinary performances and the character growth with each episode is impressive to say the least. Virginia and Bill begin to get involved in the study and the emotion turmoil which it evokes is what pulls the story along. Just finished season 2 and I can't wait for season 3 to start in the UK. To see Bill and Virginia, and of course all the supporting characters, back on my screen. I love Bill and Virginia and can't get enough of them it's the small emotional leaps that Bill makes and the ways Virginia has brought him out of his shell that draws me to the series. If you like series such as Mad Men I think this would be perfect.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: OH MY GOD. So different from the start of this post but I absolutely recommend this series to anyone who loves bad ass women pushing gender roles and supernatural intensity that will leave you wanting more. I'm sure you've all heard of Buffy but in a nut shell she is a vampire slayer, yup the name pretty much. As soon as I finished I went and brought the comic and flew through it. I needed more of the scobby gang, and spike and Angle and just everyone. This show is funny and unexpected and moving and just everything you want from a good supernatural programme which have strong actors and character development which tug at your heart strings and pull the whole thing together. (P.s I've just started watching ANGLE I needed more).

Hannibal: I know, I know it's just been cancelled but there's hope for it to move over to netfix which wouldn't be so bad considering the content they have been dishing out. Anyway back to the show, and what a show. Hannibal is just beautiful. The visual aesthetic has no end and while some say it overshadows the main plot I believe it is what makes it unique and elevates it from the previous films that have come before. Moreover the bromance between Hannibal and Will makes my heart ache. The creepy, dark themes of this show is why I love it so much, and also Red Dragon has just been added played by Richard Armitage (Thorin from Hobbit) which draws me to the next series even more.

So these are just 3 of the TV shows I've recently watched but by summers end I'm sure I'll easily make my way through more. In the process destroy my emotions while I some what live vicariously through these characters.
From Dee

First Job.

So tomorrow I have a part time job, part time might be a stretch, it's two days. Nothing fancy just in a retail store that needed some staff for sales and my name seemed to be picked for a reason that I have yet to fathom.

I thought I'd write a bit about the nerves and worries that have taken root in my brain and just won't shift.

First of I'm concerned about consumers asking questions that are simple (where's toilets, what time do you close etc...) but because I'm only there for two days I won't need to know this stuff. Therefore, I'll look like an idiot and have to ask another member of staff.

Next, I seem to have a habit of being clumsy and sale prep will involve me lifting, sticking and tagging.  What if I mess up. Or simply get confused. Actually this could happen throughout the day suddenly it's like a boulder has hit me with a wave of clumsiness and I'll go fall over and make a scene.

I have more but I have to get sleep so I can actually get to work tomorrow oh god I forgot and my bad time keeping...Well hopefully I'll get through the day. 

Should be a sleep

So it's 1:40 am, and I was having that moment that everyone has whereby every bad mistake or embarrassment passes through the brain. Why can't that part of my brain that stores memories just think 'hey you know what, maybe we should store some of that stuff, you know the stuff needed for exams and such'. But nope I seem to be in a perpetual state of remembrance in the most inconvient moment such as: when I'm trying to fall asleep.

 

Dustin Tebbutt - The Breach [Official video]

So, I'm kind of loving this song. Just listen it's amazing !

Dear diary... It's been a while

So, how's everyone. I'm almost done with exams, three more to go then I start year 13 and begin the last years of secondary school. 

Not Second Hand Anymore.

So in my last post I talked about second hand embarrassment, well today I made a right idiot of myself. I had an interview t for a chance to spend a week at Cambridge university to help a researcher that went to go to my school. We were interviewed on skills we had and asked questions on some pages we had to read ( tables and data etc...) Me being me didn't finish all the pages so as I was explaining that "mostly men worked in the 1850's and women stayed at home." when the interviewer pulled out the book and said wait right here it says 42% of females were earring more than men and 45% were making straw hats as an occupation. This is where it gets bad and my speech didn't seem to progress through my brain. 

At this point I said well I wouldn't consider that work...with that the interviewer gave me a pure evil look and asked why, for which I answered it isn't important (which looking back probably want a good answer). The rest of the interview was about the same level of stupidity and failure, I'm pretty sure the place will go to another student that can actually look at data and say the right thing. 

I don't take geography but when I signed up they said just studying history would be fine. It was not fine. I didn't understand half the terminology he was using and basically all the questions where about population. Geography obviously was needed. I don't even have a gcse in geography. And to make it even worse my friend came out of the interview saying how great it went while I sat there subconsciously shooting myself in the head.

Second hand embarrassment

Lately I've been experiencing a lot, and I mean a lot, of second hand embarrassment. By this I mean I've been with or in close proximity to people who have done something embarrassing and that embarrassment has then transferred onto myself. My latest encounter of this was with my mum who ran from a pound land till so she could get the buy one get one free deal. This left me to stand with a line full of people starring at me with the 'omg what the hell is she doing' look. So from these encounters I thoughts I'd give some tips on who to deal with these situations. 1) stay calm if you make a fuss even more people will notice 2) keep at a safe distance 3) just smile and nod like you can't even tell what's going on and finally 4) remember you can't control someone, it's not your fault so just let it happen and move on and never look back. 

I DON'T KNOW !

That *points to title* is what I keep telling people. I'm studying in sixth form at the moment and I like to give vague answers to question like: what do you want to do when you're older? Or, what career do you want to pursuit ? 

I mean God if I know ! My answer is usually: I want to go into writing or something in publishing. Is that really an answer ? I don't know. I DONT KNOW ! I don't know what university I want to go to or what career I want to take or what subjects I want to study.

I think a lot of people pressure me into thinking these decisions about plan out my whole life and must be sort after and discovered as soon as possible. But as I see it, it's a journey you'll change your mind and make new decisions and take different paths and that's ok.

So if you're like me and just can't quite figure out what to do and how to do it then just remember it's fine. We don't have to know everything. I've asked many people and half the time what they've studied in uni never became part of their career just another part of life. 

A London Stroll...

Dear diary...Mocks are killing me.

Ok, ok I know it's been a while. Sorry about that I'm sure you don't want to hear about my excuses. Now that's out of the way with lets talk about the last couple of weeks in which I have had crazy mocks. When joining sixth form I thought the exams wouldn't be so hard because I would only be doing 4 subjects.Well I was wrong. Lets just say cramming was my best friend. Leaving all my revision until the week before defiantly wasn't a good idea. Now all I have to do is wait for the results, and omg am I dreading them. Knowing that they are not the real exams makes me feel a little better but these exams have made me even more nervous about the real ones. What do I do ? Revision that's what.

Well next time I'll tell you how my revision is going...

A winter stroll.