Why I blog.

When I was younger, I always used to attempt to keep a diary but always ended up getting too paranoid that people would see it, start feeling silly for writing it in the first place or forget about it and then give it up. This blog is the longest I've kept a continuous stream of writing going for and I'm quite proud of it if I'm perfectly honest! I never in my wildest imagination believed that I would get anywhere with this blog, that I would give up after a week like my diaries, or just sit here and have no one read it. I've been writing for a year and a half and have over 10, 500 views and 55 followers so it's come so much further than I was expecting it to!

I can't really put my finger on why I love blogging or why I even blog in the first place, but these are some things I think probably help! 

I love writing.

The obvious one. I know several friends who tried blogging after my constant raving about it, wrote a couple of posts and then gave up. I understand that writing isn't for everyone but it did confuse me how they could start something and not want to continue it. 

I've always been quite creative, mainly taking arts and humanities subjects rather than science subjects at school and college and I've always loved writing, a poem of mine that I wrote as an extra piece of work for a year 9 English class was kept by my head of year and I was asked if I had copied it from Roger McGough! Over the years, the amount of creative writing I've been able to do in my classes has decreased to none which is quite disappointing, but that is why I love this blog so much, because it lets me write about whatever I want, in whatever style I want, when I want. It is still writing and it improves my individual style but without having to write pages of essays instead. 

If my current ideal job of working in Archaeology or History doesn't work out, then I want to become a journalist because I think my writing style suits the chatty but slightly formal tone of that line of work. 

The freedom.

Kind of leading on from the last point, I love thinking of this blog as having an online diary, and even though I know people I know read it (hi guys!), it feels nicer to just write and then send it off into the world wide web. A blog gives so much more freedom about what to write than a diary does because of that very fact. Other people read it and just talking about every day life can get rather boring, which is probably why I eventually gave up writing diaries in the first place! Blogging gives you that freedom unknown to other forms of writing as you have no barriers or restrictions unless you put them on yourself. One day, I could be talking about a book I've just read, a tv show I watched or a film I went to see, and the next, I could be doing a post like this, reviewing a make up product or having a little rant! There's no way of knowing because I just write what comes to mind that day. I thought this post up on the train home from college, there isn't really any planning that goes into these things, most posts are pretty much spontaneous! 

Some bloggers label themselves which I find limits what you can talk about. If I had to, mine would be considered a lifestyle blog as I will write about everything and anything!

The people you meet.

I've told you before that I met Kate from blogging and since then, I've spoken to lots of other lovely bloggers who are all amazing and super friendly! The blogging community is amazing and being involved in the 2014 Blogger challenge has made me become more involved in it which I'm really happy with, the girls that are participating are great! I get quite a few comments on my posts nowadays and each and every one makes me smile, I love replying and starting up a conversation with them, you never know what you could have in common!

Long story short, I'm so happy that I started blogging and I know that I'm going to continue for as long as I can, it's definitely become a part of me now! 

Jess xx

One Way, or Another.

As we enter our final year of mandatory school life, my year group has to start choosing our next steps in life, whether they lead us to University, an apprenticeship, a job or something else. 

Now I've had my grades back for this year, I've had to face the rather tough reality of the possibility of not reaching the grades I need to be accepted into the course I have been wanting to do for the last four years. This means looking at other options. On one hand, I love all things ancient and classical, and want to go on to do Archaeology and Ancient history (who's childhood dream wasn't to crawl around in the mud and dig for things for their whole lives?!) somewhere with a good reputation and teaching. However, on the other hand, I'm an Internet-savvy blogger who spends quite a lot of time (okay...most of my time) on the Internet, whether it be for social networking, research about yet another scrap of information I've found interesting and want to investigate, or doing something as simple as checking emails or reading the news. I forgot my phone on a day out on Sunday and I felt so lost, I kept checking my bag to see if it had magically turned up but sadly it hadn't and I felt like there was an odd space in my brain...and hand. With all of this in mind, my second (back up, if you will) choice of Uni course would be journalism of some kind, preferably Fashion journalism though. (One of the courses I've researched said I'm the description that all media should be understood, including Twitter! Perfect for me!) It looks so interesting and would incorporate the other side of my life which is equally important to me as the classical side of my life.

I really really love both things, modern and ancient, and in an ideal world I'll manage to get a weekly or monthly column for a paper or magazine whilst working on fieldwork or in a museum somewhere. My idea of heaven. But before I get anywhere near that, I'm going to have to pass this year and get on to one of my preferred Archaeology and Ancient history courses so I can progress how I want to. 

I'm going to have to work my arse off if I'm going to achieve my goals, but eventually I'll make it if I'm resilient enough and try my absolute hardest. If my hardest gets me Bs, great and I'll be super excited because come September, I'll head off to Uni to do Archaeology and Ancient history! However, if it gets me Cs, then look out Fashion journalism! 

Jess xx