Saturday 17 January 2015

Girl Dilemma | Friendship

I've decided I want to start a little series discussing various issues that I have to deal with as do so many young people, particularly girls! So I will cover topics such as being perfect, boys, confidence and more. But to kick it off I'm going to start with friendship...
 "Many people will pass through your life but only true friends will leave footprints on your heart"

I'm blessed to have lots of gorgeous friends that really care about me and I treasure each and every one of them. When we're young our lives literally revolve around our friends, we don't have careers or families of our own getting in the way. What I've really noticed recently and what I want to focus on in this post is that so many people these days care so much about having lots of friends rather than a few good friends. In today's society I completely see why this is.

School encourages your status and popularity to become important so early on in life, before we've managed to develop and identify 'who we are', because we're forever told it's not what you know but in fact who you know. No matter what teachers tell you about your achievement all being based on the effort you put in, we all know of that girl's super successful dad who got his job because his uncle owned some big business ;) So in my opinion school is just like the Hunger Games where it's considered vital to gain the MOST and BEST allies in order to do well in this competition we call life. Sorry for the extreme analogy!!

But should this really be the case? Why should people grow up these days without knowing their true and close friends? Now I'm not saying this is the case for everyone, I for one know who my true friends are and only recently this has been tested. Before I've naively thought each of my friends would do absolutely anything for me, but unfortunately I have been proved wrong. This has shown me who genuinely cares. And from this I know who I really need in my life (in case you're wondering this is mainly due to the whole moving school scenario).

Some people that I now see less haven't made the effort to stay close and some that I see more have let me see a different side of them I hadn't recognised before. I must add I don't blame them for this because they haven't necessarily done something specifically wrong, these things just happen and have to be accepted!

I also don't want you to think I'm telling you not to have lots of friends- have as many friends as you'd like! I just want you to remember having a few close friends is so important because they will be there for you through anything, when perhaps your hundreds of other friends won't... And make sure when you know who these magnificent people are you show how much you care about them to ensure you keep hold of those precious gems <3

I'd like to end this post the way I started... with a quote. I remember Eamonn Holmes from This Morning saying this once and it's really stuck with me. It's reassuring and honestly has made sense of many dilemmas I've found myself in:

"You're oldest friends aren't necessarily your best friends, they just got there first"
Thanks for reading xxx

Saturday 10 January 2015

50 Things in 2014

Today I'm doing another post reflecting on last year, so I wanted to list 50 different things I managed to do in 2014. Surprisingly it didn't take me too long! Any posts that are relevant to something on my list and linked.

From my school trip to London- a favourite!

  1. Went skiing yet again
  2. Began a 'Happy Moment a Day Journal' (last years new years resolution, lasted for nearly four months)
  3. Had my first ever Chinese takeaway!
  4. Went on a school trip to London (bit random)
  5. Saw Billy Elliot in the West End
  6. Completed my Junior Sports Leader Award
  7. Went to Poland
  8. Went to Hungary
  9. Turned 16!!
  10. Got my DSLR camera
  11. Wrote the school hockey teams initials in the wet concrete path (aren't we such rebels!)
  12. Completed my textiles coursework when I thought I never could
  13. I hosted a big Easter Egg Hunt for my friends- soon to be annual ;)
  14. Did SEVERAL English controlled assessment resits
  15. Completed my GCSEs
  16. Discovered Gossip Girl- have to thank my friend Molly for this one!
  17. Left my secondary school
  18. Had a post exam movie day
  19. Saw The Fault in Our Stars and got 10% of the way through the book :/
  20. Volunteered at my old primary school
  21. Went to Airhop
  22. Got Facebook?!
  23. Expanded my memory box to two...
  24. Learnt to surf
  25. Began playing senior hockey
  26. Started at my new school
  27. Started A Levels
  28. Began learning psychology
  29. Began learning law
  30. Saw War Horse in the West End
  31. Got Snapchat?!
  32. Went to Safe Drive Stay Alive
  33. Went to a law lecture
  34. Went to the National Theatre Bookshop
  35. Took thousands of pictures!!
  36. Became an elf
  37. Bought my Reading Festival ticket
  38. Saw the Christmas Lights in London
  39. Went to M&M World
  40. Went to a psychology conference
  41. Had a New Years Eve gathering
So there we go! 50 things I did in 2014, and hopefully I'll do even more fun and exciting things this year and I'll be sure to share everything on here :)

Thanks for reading xxx

Saturday 3 January 2015

Bring on 2015...

Source- Sprinkle of Glitter
Good Morning and Happy New Year!! I hope you saw 2014 out in style and have had a wonderful start to 2015.

Initially I didn't think I would do this post because I thought it could be quick boring considering there are so many new year posts around at the moment but I felt really inspired after reading Louise's (aka Sprinkle of Glitter). Also everyone says you're more likely to do something if it's written down, so touch wood!

As I've got older I've actually got worse at sticking to my New Years resolutions (in 2009 I managed to give up ketchup for the whole year!!), but his year I'm going to give myself steps to make my resolutions more achievable. So here we go:

  1. Drink more water- I'm going to continue to take a water bottle to school but I will aim to drink the whole bottle by the end of the day. Then when I get home rather than having a cheeky diet coke I'll have a glass of water. Ideally I'll only be having a water alternative with my dinner. I hope this will make me feel more alert, happy and maybe perform some miracle with my skin?!
  2. Drink using straws as much as possible- I won't do this with water because the aim of this is to keep my teeth as white as possible! My teeth stain so easily so even when using a whitening toothpaste they constantly look a bit yellow :( so whenever I do enjoy that diet coke or an orange juice etc. I will enjoy it through a straw...my mum's going to buy a big box of straws in this week's weekly shop.
  3. Go for a run once a week- This is to hopefully improve my stamina, as a hockey player stamina is really important for me to perform well in matches. The plan is I will go for a run on a Wednesday afternoon because I come home at about 1pm so it'll still be light and not too busy!
  4. Make and stick to a revision timetable- This year is massive as I will have to sit my AS levels. I desperately want to do as well as possible and I know that means I have to get organised ASAP. This evening I'm going to plan a realistic revision timetable that I know I can actually stick to. I made one for my GCSE's and it was for too optimistic!
  5. Do Friday evening bedroom tidying sessions- Recently my bedroom has been super tidy and I've been loving it, whenever I have too much clutter I feel trapped and can't motivate myself to do anything, so my Fridays will be spent keeping my room spick and span- unless I get a better option ;)
  6. Do my homework as soon as I get home- With my nice tidy bedroom I'll have the space to do this. The condition with this is that I have to remind myself I don't NEED to be watching that episode of Gossip Girl and Coronation Street can be watched on catch up. When I'm doing my work I want to fully concentrate on it, so fingers crossed I will get it done a million times quicker and better.
  7. Spend my free periods at the end of the day actually studying- So often when I finish early I convince myself that it's okay to grab a Costa before getting the bus home. However now there'll be none of that, I'm going to go to private study and do any work that needs doing. I might even think the night before of something to do so I know I'll have the equipment I need. The perk of this is that I'll still be able to walk into town with my friends :)
  8. Do 52 posts on Just Jen during 2015- In general I'm very organised about when and what I'm posting and sticking to my Saturday schedule. However I have a very busy year coming up with my AS levels quickly approaching and another jam-packed summer. Therefore I know it's not realistic for me to post every single Saturday, so I want to make sure that by the end of the year I have done enough posts to be the equivalent of one post a week.
  9. Be nicer to my family- I adore my family but I know I can be really horrible to them if I'm upset or tired or I've had a bad day, and I know that that's just not fair. So this year I'm going to remember no matter how I feel its' not their fault. If I'm nicer to them when I'm feeling crap then this might even cheer me up, no matter how stubborn I am!!
  10. Save up some money- I'm spender. I always have been. Because of this I never have any money whatsoever. That jam-packed summer I mentioned- well it can only happen if I have a bit of cash! So every time I go to buy something I will think do I need it? Will I regret this in a week? How much do I want to be able to afford my summer? My purse is staying shut for the time being!
I'm going to be honest- it's now 3rd January 2015 and I'm yet to start any of these but I go back to school on Monday and I'll be falling back into routine. So for now I'm not going to be too harsh on myself :) Some of you may think I have no chance of success if I start off like this but hey-ho! To keep myself on track I'm considering doing a resolution update in about a months time and then maybe half way through the year. How does that sound?

I'd just like to add that 2014 was amazing. I've achieved so much and I'm really proud of myself. One thing in particular I'm proud of is of course is Just Jen. At first this blog was just going to be for the summer but I love it so much! I have loads planned for 2015 so be sure to stay tuned ;)

Thanks for reading xxx