Ghana's Newest Volunteer

  For those of you who don't know me personally, I'm going to Ghana this summer to spend some time volunteering as an English teacher for a couple of weeks in a local school in Accra for underprivileged children. I'm extremely excited to take part as it's been something I've wanted to do for many years but have never had the courage to do up until now. To take part I'll need to fundraise first, so that's what I'll be doing a lot of from now up until I go. 

 Instead of writing a really long post about it though, I'm just going to give you guys the link to a website where I've set up a page to fundraise for my trip. Said link will be posted at the bottom of this post. Even if you aren't able to donate I'd love it if you are able to take some time to read about what I'll be doing during my time there, as it's something I'm really happy to be a part of :) .

http://www.gofundme.com/ninasvolunteering

You Know You Love Me, XOXO

  Gossip Girl fans out there will immediately recognise this title as being the catchphrase of the show. A lot of my friends bang on a lot about Gossip Girl. It may have ended a couple of years ago but that doesn't mean it's fan base isn't still going strong. It doesn't help that Netflix streams all 6 seasons making it accessible for whoever. Anyway, I finally bowed to peer pressure this week and started watching it during my depressive state *see above post* . So far I'm halfway through season 2, and have come to the conclusion that many of the characters... Are dumb.

  There's one particular episode where all the characters (who are all spoilt rich brats btw) head off to Yale to basically beg the Dean to offer them a college place. In this one episode we see one guy sashay his way into the secret society, another imitates the nerd nobody likes so people won't know he's really related to a prominent businessman who fled the country after being charged with fraud (do i hear #firstworldproblems anyone?), while the real nerdy guy chases around a girl to get a letter of recommendation. 

  You think this is bad, but it gets worse with the girls. The 2 socialites literally get into a cat fight for a coveted spot, and when one girl finally nabs an early acceptance into Yale, she turns it down to show how much she loves her friend. Somebody needs to sit her down and explain that there will be plenty of time to show some loving after she gets a college place, but right now is not the time to be taking a stand for bestie friendships everywhere.

  So yeah, aside from realising that these kids have waaaaaaayyy too much money, I was surprised that it's actually really easy to enjoy the show, once you get passed the increasingly ridiculous plot lines and superficial bitchiness that comes hand in hand with high school. However it's only been a season and a half and I'm already flagging. It's just one of those shows you can binge watch when you have nothing else going on with life.

  Also, how did it take them 6 seasons to work out who Gossip Girl was. I worked it out within the first episode, seriously people!

World's End

They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, but when life gets tough it’s hard to always feel like that’s the case. Recently I found out that I wouldn’t be able to graduate this year because there was an issue with my dissertation module. Apparently I missed a minor deadline, and because of that not only would I have to wait till next year to submit my dissertation, but my overall grade for the module would be capped at 40%. It was like a double slap to that face, and when I was told this by my head of year, you could hear the audible thud as my jaw hit the floor.

  For the next week I felt like my whole world had come crashing down. I didn’t go into uni, I hid away in my room not wanting to face the world. In my mind I had already accepted that my university dream was lying in tatters. I mean, this news meant that I would never achieve the 2:1 I had been so close to getting, and to have it snatched away just like that with 6 weeks to go till the end of my life as a student was soul-crushing. As an academic overachiever all my life, a 2:2 had never been in my life plan.

  In these situations it’s easy to become self absorbed and feel like you have nobody to turn to. I know I definitely felt like that for the first few days, even though I had people calling me constantly to make sure I was ok. It didn’t help matters that my best friend/flatmate had decided to remain emotionally MIA throughout the whole thing. Even though I know that’s just how she is as a person, I couldn’t help but feel hurt and resentful that she couldn’t even put an arm round me and tell me it wasn’t the end of the world. My poor boyfriend bore the brunt of my emotions and did his best to comfort me suggested I get out of the country for a couple of months to avoid the awkwardness of watching all my friends graduate while I was left behind, and believe me when I say I’m still tempted to take him up on the offer.

  The hardest bit for me was accepting this was obviously meant to be. I still can’t wrap my head around why this happened, but it’s times like this I remember that everything happens for a reason. Unfortunately I just don’t know what that is yet. So for now I’m going to continue trying to find that silver lining that I know is hiding somewhere in the storm clouds.

Dissertation Dread

  Going into 3rd year of uni I always knew this year was going to be tough. Because this is the year I've had to deal with the beast that is my dissertation. I always thought a dissertation would be more fun because you get to pick the topic and study something you really enjoy, but the reality is nothing like that. You actually end up hating the topic you've chosen, which for me in this case is the Internet. I know, who knew it was possible to hate the Internet, but there you have it. 

  I've also reached the stage many students reach at this time of year when they start to panic and count down the weeks till graduation, and then realising that there's SO much to do before they can graduate. So here's to 2 months of grumpiness and sleepless nights, it's times like this I was a big coffee drinker.