what is my life

Hey there anyone-reading-this, it's been a while. I don't even know HOW time has gone by so fast, lower sixth has been the quickest and thus the scariest school year of my life. I remember really liking my last post and so wanting to not-post for a while, and that just kind of dragged on more than I intended. Anyway, SO much has happened since my last post. I'm basically a different person. Not really. Kind of.


 February and March were extremely fun months for me, with my birthday,a political short film project I was involved in and different little trips to Dublin and fun things like work experience. The film project I was a part of was called Reel Politics and the aim of it was to inspire more young women to become involved in the male-dominated field of Politics. It was such an incredible experience, I met so many lovely people and made some really amazing friendships I probably never would have made otherwise since people came from all over NI to participate, I learned so much and most of all, I got to be a part of something important.

~ What I wore to the pre-Christening fundraising concert and then the Christening itself, feat some selfies, the prettiest Free People dress and a Black Leather Jacket Club photo with my Dad. Ha. ~

All 3 teams were assigned a topic relevant to the underrepresentation of women in politics to focus on, whilst still making the importance of women in politics the main theme. The topic my team was assigned was domestic abuse. Honestly, initially I was disappointed, but as I learned more about the topic I soon realised how it was easily the most important and political change towards it could change the lives of so many people, and we had the chance to help achieve that. The project was full of fascinating round-table discussions which I truly really enjoyed as everyone had such differing viewpoints and it made it so interesting, we got to learn from professional Researchers on the topic who were so smart and cool to talk to; and then lots of interviews with politicians and forming the best questions to ask them (which is harder than it sounds!), and a few artsy film shots to balance it (many of which didn't end up being used in the final film, but were still fun to shoot.) I got to have such good, genuine conversations with politicians, including ones I admired and ones I really didn't agree with on most of their views, but I was respectful and friendly nonetheless, and it was so interesting and it honestly changed my perspective on so many things. I now feel like an expert in the topic of women in NI politics and domestic abuse. WHAT DO I DO WITH ALL THIS KNOWLEDGE. I AM SO NOT UTILISING IT. I should write the most depressing/motivating book ever.

~ Me and my friend Jess with the Queen that is the Lord Mayor of Belfast and another lady who was so nice and whose name I cannot remember and it's driving me crazy. ~

So that was a great experience, I probably should have spent that week off studying but oh well, I can make up for it next week, HA. Since then I've been trying to survive school and there was a screening for the film project in Stormont which was really cool, and recently it was my little baby cousin's christening. He was technically christened in the ICU but we wanted to properly celebrate it and have a blessing in the Church. He is so beautiful and is not doing so well health-wise, and the more we learn from more and more test results and specialists the more difficult the future looks for him and his parents. It's so tragic and I really don't know what to do and wish I could help. I guess all anyone can do is have hope.I'd appreciate if anyone reading this said a lil prayer for him or even just a thought. I'm not religious but the rest of his family are so I respect the hope they find in it.

 I had a trip to Dublin for my uncle's birthday/anniversary party type thing in a really pretty hotel, and that was SO fun since like an entire side of my family was in one place. And it mainly consisted of me and my cousin/the cutest person ever goofing around like this:

I also have been enjoying journalling poetry a lot lately, mostly whatever I can come up with but I'm too chicken to put that online so here's an E.E Cummings one that's been in my head lately:

It wouldn't be a true post without some of my pointless and generic but pretty photos:






















For the joys of the Lower Sixth Work Experience week, I went to a surgery and a literary agency. The surgery was really nice to go to, it was run by my parents' friends who are so lovely and a GP seems like such a nice job, I would love to be one when I'm kinda old and want to '''settle down''' because you can live anywhere in the world and still have a reliable, interesting job with a good income and the fulfilling nature of helping people everyday. I went to one in a very small village, so the GP had basically the responsibility of the health of an entire community on his shoulders. We went on house calls to elderly people and it was so nice, I could see myself enjoying it, but at the end of the day I don't really think it's for me. If I did medicine I'd want to go into Paediatrics. Maybe I'll try and find work experience relevant to that. 

I also did some work experience at a literary agency, which I loved! I didn't think I would love it so much. They don't even do work experience but the agency are trying to get some of my Dad's books published, so I got to be an exception (woo!). They are called the Feldstein Agency and what they do is they take on projects from authors and basically try and develop the project with them, whether it's editing the writing or designing the cover or the format or the title etc, then find the most suitable publishers and have meetings with them to sell it. I learned that in publishing there's Editorial, which is what everyone wants to do and apparently is filled with frustrated writers who want to have their own book published, and Rights, where they work with the rights of a book, like Foreign rights or film rights. There's also ghostwriting, which is so interesting to me. The Agent I was with had ghostwritten a really successful book, and I don't know how she does it because I would be so devastated seeing someone else take credit for my work, even if I signed up for it and was paid. But still, it's all so interesting and creative, and she's always travelling to NYC and London for Book Fairs and meetings with Publishers, and it seems like the final triumph of having each book published must be so exciting. So that was a really, really fun work experience and I actually am really considering a job related to that now. 

I've really liked this poem lately, but it's so long I'll just copy and paste a part I like:

///

And over the wrought-iron railing of the country club

to which neither of us could possibly belong,

in the moonskinned pool that seemed both to embody and imbibe

her, we improved.

And later, out on a green (to be sixteen!)

when the starshower I thought was mine

was mining me for sweat, muscle, memory

to make its own death

shine unceasingly inside of me,

even unto hell,

                               we excelled.

Can it be that her last name was really Key?

So much life in this poem

so much salvageable and saving love

but it is I fear I swear I tear open

what heart I have left

to keep it from being

and beating and bearing down upon me

•

What rest in faith

wrested

               from grief

///

I had a short essay (kind of like my last post) I wanted to include in this but this post is getting too long and the essay isn't finished and it's currently 5:09am so I should go eat ridiculously early breakfast or something (I woke up at 4am. Don't ask.) So, see you in the next post! This was kind of just a pointless filler post of me venting. And I leave you with this song because I've really been liking it lately. Ahhh the good ol' One Tree Hill soundtrack, that show is still the best.