Sunday 20 November 2011

This Time Last Year

So lately I've been feeling a little down. I was at my youth club helping out last night and I found myself looking around at everyone there. I started to compare it to this time last year. I thought of the group that was there, the times we all had and how it seemed like it would never end. But 2011 has brought much change. Everyone has moved on or just doesn't come anymore. I feel there is no group there anymore and as I much as I am trying to move on and get into the swing of a new group I can't do it.

This time last year great things were happening in my life. It was coming up to Christmas and I was getting excited for it. Personal relationships were starting to form and it was all new and exciting to me. Everyone was very close and we had such a good group. And now, a year later things have started and ended and sometimes not for the better. I guess in a way, i'm just really sad about everything and I don't get excited for my weekends anymore because I feel like I don't really fit in at the minute and feel like I have no one to hang out with. Friday nights are now spent in my house on my own.

I am now just wanting school to be over for me so I can move away and start all over...

Friday 18 November 2011

Where Will You Spend Your Encore?

"All the world's a stage,
  And all the men and women merely players:
 They have their exits and their entrances;
 And one man in his time plays many parts"
  ~ William Shakespeare's: As You Like It



But where will you spend your encore?

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" ~ John 3:16

Sunday 13 November 2011

Today I'm A Princess

This week was a busy one once again. Many rehearsals for the school musical (42nd Street) were going on so I was caught up in it for a lot of the week. School is soooo repetitive! Don't get me wrong, it's brilliant having so many free periods a week and having virtually no homework at the weekends because I get it all done during the week. But because I only have now three subjects (History, RE & English Lit) and my two week timetable never changes, it becomes just a daily pattern of doing the same thing everyday! I shouldn't complain, you couldn't pay me to endure the GCSE years again!

On Thursday morning I have a double free. So I signed up to help out at a local primary school with reading or maths or whatever they needed us to do. I was placed in St. Malachy's Primary School which is handy as it is just across the road from my school!
I had my first morning there on Thursday past. I was a little apprehensive as I wasn't sure how the kids would take to me being there and I didn't know until I got there, what class I would have!

I was taken to Miss. Rainey's classroom. They are in P3 and I was told on route that there were "a lovely class, although there are a few bad ones..."
However, I was excited to be working so closely with children and primary school teaching is something I think I really want to do!
Thursday is Reading Day in their class. So I sat at a little desk at the side of the front of the room and while Miss. Rainey went through worksheets and things with them, I took a group at a time and read with them. They all handed me their 'Reading Record Books' in which I had to write the page numbers we were going to read, a comment and any words that they struggled with.

I really enjoyed it! The kids were really interested in what school I had come from and what all my badges were for! There was one girl however, called Sophie, who was a bit of a handful. The conversation went something like this...

Sophie: "My name's Sophie-Lee Crawford. EVERYONE calls me Sophie-Lee Crawford"
Daniel (one of the kids): "Miss! No one calls her that!"
Sophie: "Okay well my name is Sophie but today I want to be called Princess Sophia"


WHAT!? I had no intentions of calling her 'Princess' incase her teacher heard and thought I couldn't handle the class! So when we went around the group I just went, "Okay, you go on ahead" and pointed at her!

The other groups were fine thought and I managed to learn a few names. I'm looking forward to next Thursday when I go back and do it again :) I'll be in the school for two terms so I'm hoping the class will get used to me being there!

As for Princess Sophia, well....

Monday 7 November 2011

The Fire In Your Heart Is Out

Quite famous lyrics from Oasis' song - 'Wonderwall' is the idea behind my title today. It's a phrase that i've been thinking of a lot lately.

'Backbeat, the word is on the street that the fire in your heart is out'

It's really a self-explanatory phrase and I think recently it's been the case for many of my friends and people I know. It kind of reverts back to what I was saying previously about 'change'. (Yes, it's a recurring theme in these blogs!)

Lots of things have been happening around us lately and everyone is finding it hard to adjust to the changes. People have left, new people have come. Old groups have broken up, new groups have emerged.

This time last year, no one could have imagined that so much would be different just a year down the line. But i suppose that's just life, unexpectant things happen that we're not prepared for. It's how we deal with it that makes the real difference.

I am no expert, and definitely not full of wisdom. I make mistakes, am a creature of habit and at times this year I have not been entirely enthusiastic. But I am slowly, (and I mean slowly!) starting to come to terms with the fact that you can't live in the past. Sure, we had the best times and everyone is sad that those things have changed.

However, I really believe that not giving up is the way forward. Giving up solves nothing. Running away is always easier than facing up to the facts. Stuff sucks sometimes, people change and move on and that's all there is to it

Sure, things have happend to me in the past week that i've been upset over, and didn't want to happen. And you know what? Who knows what will happen in the future? That's what's so exciting, we have no idea what will happen in our future and there is a plan mapped out for each and every one of us.

So to all my Alfities that may or may not read this. We need to keep going. Yes, things have changed majorly, but this doesn't always mean that it has to be a bad way. We still have each other and we can make Alf what it once was if we don't run away and instead tackle it head on!

Quotes for Today! :


"Life is either a daring adventure, or it is nothing"
- Helen Keller


"The big secret in life is there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there is you are willing to work"
- Oprah Winfrey