I'm sat at work in the local Family Entertainment Centre with my friend Elizabeth, drinking a raspberry and crunchie milkshake.
I must say I am actually enjoying myself, even though I am very tired because I stayed up until the early hours of the morning reading'Betrayed' from the 'House of Night' series.
Beth has just started reading'Marked' from the same series and we are both sat here looking completely anti-social towards each other!!
The thing with Beth and I is that we can be sat in a room and not say anything and it wouldn't feel awkward - she really is a great friend.
Published Date:
15/08/2009
Modified Date:
15/08/2009
Friday Already!
All of this week I have been doing work experience at my local newspaper, the Hemsworth and South Elmsall Express.
It has been AMAZING!
I have done everything from going out onto the street to do vox pops (asking people their opinions and taking their pictures) - which when thinking about it, is actually quite terrifying - to interviewing my friends for my very own article that was published in the paper!
Each day I have been writing a different blog about issues that effect myself and, that I believe, also effect others my age.
Writing is my passion and I am very grateful for all of the opportunities which this experience has provided.
Ever since I was really young, about seven or eight, I wanted to be a freelance journalist. At around the age of 10 I once wrote an article about how ' haunted' my house was and I was going to bring it down to this very newspaper and ask them to publish it - but I chickened out.
On a number of occasions, since I was about 14, I have passed the Express office and thought about walking in and asking if I could do work experience - again backing out each time.
Finally, at the age of 17, I thought to myself "Just go and ask, what is the worst that can happen?"
So here I am, in the Express newsroom, writing a blog about my beliefs - and I am loving it!
Published Date:
14/08/2009
Modified Date:
14/08/2009
./' Music ./'
Music.
I LOVE music.
I am also psychic, you see, and I predict that you also like music. Am I right?
Thought so.
Everyone loves music, it is the one common ground that every single person shares.
Sure, your favourite band may be Avenged Sevenfold, and the person sitting next to you on the bus may have 'Year 3000' on repeat on their iPod because they are still in denial that Busted split, but it is music all the same.
I am a student at Leeds College of Music and in my opinion it is the best place on earth, the centre of my universe and the apex of all that I am.
I can be walking down the corridor from music industry to music theory, and each door that I pass there is a student in a room playing a different instrument.
Door 1: A metal drummer, banging so hard it is difficult to believe that without microphones it could get so loud.
Door 2: A saxophonist playing the jazziest music I have heard outside of my mother's Motown CDs.
Door 3: A pianist playing the most beautiful piece of classical music that I have ever heard.
You see, although everyone in my college has very different tastes in music, we are all there because we love it, and everyone is like a big family. Nobody is judged by their tastes, because we all know what it feels like to be inspired by a genre of music without even giving it conscious thought.
If everyone could just accept all aspects of their neighbour's lifestyle, without judgments or prejudices then the world would be a better place.
Published Date:
13/08/2009
Modified Date:
13/08/2009
Vegetarianism
I'm a vegetarian.
So I don't eat meat.
I get people asking me questions all of the time, things like "but don't you miss it?" and "how can you live without it?".
The answers to these are very simple- no I don't, and because you don't need it!
No matter who says I should eat meat because it is 'good' for me and I 'need the nutrients' which it provides, I know that it is a load of rubbish.
I have been a vegetarian for eight and a half years now and I am just fine. Not only am I fine, as a vegetarian I am less prone to cancer, diabetes, obesity and many blood diseases that eating red meat can induce .
I have a friend that once asked me "What do you eat? can you eat beans on toast?"
I eat anything I want, anything that isn't meat- so yes, I obviousy can eat beans on toast!
I know a guy who seems to think that I need to have an ambulance follow me around, just incase I randomly drop dead at any given moment!
The reason that I am a vegetarian is that I cannot justify eating something - that once had a life - when it is completely unneccessary.
I also get people that I haven't seen in a while from high school, saying straight away: "Hi Shelby, how are you? Are you still a vegetarian?"
I will never stop being a vegetarian, you wouldn't ask someone with a nut allergy if they still couldn't eat a Snickers bar!
Random facts about being vegetarian:
*On average, vegetarians live six to 10 years longer than meat eaters
*GoVeg even quotes Environmental Defense, which says that "if every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetarian foods instead, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than a half-million cars off U.S. roads."
*Vegetarians have stronger immune systems than meat eaters.
I respect your views, so please respect mine.
Published Date:
12/08/2009
Modified Date:
12/08/2009
Friday Night
I'm your typical bookish type, you know, my idea of a good Friday night is staying at home with a Chinese take-out and either a good book or film. Sometimes, if I'm feeling a bit adventurous, I even watch Big Brother!
I went out last Friday because my friend's friend is a DJ and he invited a few of us to go and watch him.
Now, I don't usually go out to bars or anything like that, but I must say it was quite enlightening. I realized that I am not a fan of the way music is heading to radio ga-ga status - that's a reference to Queen, not Lady!
After the set had finished, we made our way over to meet some friends who were out for an 18th birthday party. At first I was busy catching up with the friends I hadn't seen in a couple of weeks, but then I noticed the people who were around me. I left Minsthorpe Community College in 2005 and went on to a different high school in Doncaster, I am now at Leeds College of Music - but I thought I recognised a couple of faces.
One girl, I used to sit next to in English, one guy from my maths class who I used to have a crush on, and a group of four girls who were two years below me!
That makes them 16, or maybe even 15- depending on their birth month.
I feel a bit silly for being so shocked that girls I remember from primary school, who cried because a boy said they smelled bad, were now young adults who were more than capable of looking after themselves. In my opinion, nowadays kids are forced to grow up too quickly - oh, how I sound like my mother right now.
Published Date:
11/08/2009
Modified Date:
11/08/2009
CALLING ALL GIRLS!!!
CALLING ALL GIRLS!!!
Have you ever read that magazine? You know the one- where they tell you that skinny is the only way to be, that Nicole Richie is their role model?
Oh, that's right - they all do!
I once read a magazine, that for now will remain un-named, which said that Danielle Lloyd was fat!
Now, I don't know about you, but if I had her figure I would be very happy indeed.
But, you see, that is where the problem is- we all want what we can't have. I will never have the same figure as Danielle Lloyd, because it belongs to her and her alone. I will never marry Pete Wentz and go to his gigs every night, I will never be able to dance like Beyoncé or sing like Hayley Williams. But do you know what? I don't care!
I used to read those types of magazines and I would get depressed. I have tried every diet imagineable - none of which ever worked - begged my mother to let me get highlights when I was 11 because I wanted hair like Paris Hilton and cried because all of my friends were always 'prettier' and 'skinnier' than me. From about the ages of 12-15, due to programmes like 'I want a famous face' I wanted to get a boob job, nose job, liposuction, chin implants, cheek implants - the works.
It was only recently that I realised that all of what was printed on magazines, in movies and on the music channels; meant nothing. You could be the most beautiful person in the world, but it won't stop you from being lonely. Fame, money and beauty earn you nothing in the long run. Looks fade, money runs out and fame is temporary - but who you are as a person sticks with you forever.
Take Marilyn Monroe, for example . She is arguably the 'sexiest', most beautiful woman in history- she wore a dress size 14!
That's a US size 12 - nowhere near a size zero .
So what I am asking is this: don't put your body though the strains of constant faddy dieting; respect it and embrace it - it's the only one you'll get.
Published Date:
10/08/2009
Modified Date:
10/08/2009