'So what are your plans now?'

When you're in your final year of university, hell, not even your final year - as soon as you say you're going to university - everyone expects you to have a plan. To know what you're going to do with your life. But let's be honest here, there are very few people that have a plan for after university and, until very recently I was one of those people too.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when you go to a friends house and their parents start asking questions about your future, or you go to a family event and all of these people, some of whom you don't even know, ask you 'What are your plans?', 'What are you going to do when you finish university?', 'Have you got a job yet?'. This annoys the poop out of me. I always have the same answer too: 'I haven't decided'. Yet they still continue to ask me 'What do you want to do?'. By this point a million people have probably already asked me this question and I'm more than miffed, gritting my teeth, I reply once again with 'I. Don't. Know'. 

If you're one of those people that asks these questions and you're reading this: We hate it. Don't ask them. If you do ask and we say 'I don't know', leave it at that. We either really don't know or we really don't want to talk about it.

I consider myself very lucky because I've just managed to get a job in my home town, but there are certain people in my life (no names are being mentioned but they're who you expect to have opinions about everything you do) who don't agree with the job I've got because it has nothing to do with my degree.

What I think people need to consider when leaving university, planning what you're going to do next doesn't necessarily have to involve your degree. Personally, after three years of dedicating my life to studying everything about English Literature, I need a break now. I need to do something that doesn't involve me sitting and analysing a million and one books and what the hidden meaning behind every word is. I'm not saying that the job I have is something I'm going to do forever, but I'm not saying it's not either. I'm passionate about English but I'm passionate about this job too.

As for the Creative Writing side of my degree, to me I'm doing that right now by writing this blog post. Creative writing is something I can do whether I have a job in that area or not. I will always love writing stories but I can do that on my days off and in my spare time, as well as blogging. 

At the moment, my plan is to do this job for a year and then reevaluate. If I'm really loving it then chances are I'll carry on doing it because why stop doing something you love? If I'm not sure it's the job for me then at least it's been an experience and I can move on and try something different.

Just remember that we're still young. We have plenty of time to figure out what we want to do with the rest of our lives, but we're better to experiment now and try different things because if we go straight into a full time career that we plan on doing for the rest of our lives then we can't really leave that job. We're stuck there and if we want to try something different we can't or we run the risk of losing the job we worked so hard for in the first place. 

So the next time you're at a family event and you've got all of those random family members that you're not sure you've even met before asking all the awkward questions, just tell them 'I don't know and that's okay, so please don't ask me again'. <ake sure you have that sickly sweet smile on as well, the one that looks really polite but really says 'f**k off'.

Katie x

A Winter Lover

Hello!

I work in a takeaway, not the most glamorous of jobs but a job's a job and, as far as jobs go, it's not actually that bad. When I looked out of my window this morning though and saw pouring rain, I'm sure a did a little happy dance inside my head - it's too early and too soon after just waking up to be physically dancing - yet rain is never really something to get excited about in the UK (especially up north!) because we see a hell of a lot of it over a year. When you work in a takeaway, where there is constant heat everywhere, rain is a very welcome element!

In the UK lately, we've had really hot weather (it's a massive rarity!) and not to sound all British and constantly complain about weather but, it's too hot. Yep, that's right, I said it. It's too hot. I know there are other countries who have weather tons hotter than we've had at our height of summer but we're not equipped to deal with this kind of heat because we're just not used to it! Man, was I dying in all that humidity. I felt like the Wicked Witch of the West that melted to her death - I felt like I was slowly melting into a pool of sweatiness - lovely mental image for you there!

As you can probably tell, I'm not the biggest fan of the English "summer", which basically just consists of sweaty, humid air. I much prefer the winter.

1.

If I'm cold, all I have to do is put another jumper on!

2.

Talking of jumpers; jumpers! I love being able to put a soft, cosy jumper on and feel all lovely and warm.

3.

I can drink hot chocolate and not feel like a numpty for drinking a hot drink whilst it's thirty-odd degrees celcius outside! Instead, I can just feel even cosier with all my jumpers on and a hot chocolate with extra whipped cream sitting in my hands.

4.

I love ice hockey... a lot! And, of course, ice hockey is a winter sport. There is also an ice hockey team in Nottingham, the Nottingham Panthers, who are awesome and, as most of my winter is spent at uni, I get to see lots of ice hockey!

There are plenty more reasons why I prefer winter but I'm going to be late for work if I list them all, there are that many! I just think winter is a much cosier and, ironically, warmer-feeling season!

Katie x

My Month In Pictures

Hello!

I decided to be super cute today and make a collage of all my favourite pictures from this month because, you may have noticed, I love to take snaps of all the lovely moments! Now I have the cutest collage that rounds up my month and all the beautiful things that happened this month.

Most of them I've probably already blogged about somewhere in this little internet world because I like to make sure I keep you guys all up to date with my life and I find it nice to look back on myself today and see all of the lovely things I've done.

There was my lovely grown-up niece's birthday and then, of course, Miss Princess Daisy's birthday (I wrote a little something for her HERE, if you want to pop over to it), then the day after was the James's birthday, and two days after was my Grandpa's birthday! There are way too many birthdays to handle in just one month!

I also had a night out with some of my friends from home amidst all of this and a day in Newcastle with my bestie. There have been plenty of days out with all of the Little (and Big) Ones that I can't even tell you about them all but I did posts on a few of them HERE, HERE and HERE. I also found time to have an operation on my ear at some point and get a job (which I did a little thing on HERE)! It's actually been quite a busy month now I'm trying to remember everything I've done!

Have you done anything nice this month?

Katie x

The Trials and Tribulations of a Job

Hello!

As some of you may have read (HERE) I have a job now!

There are a lot of good points to having a job - like having a regular income! That part's definitely the best part!

There are also some not so great things about having a job; here are five of them (in my opinion):

1.

Not seeing the Little Ones :(

It was Daisy's birthday last week so I did manage to get the night off to go to her birthday tea but normally I take her out a couple of days during the week and I haven't had the chance to do that, which I hate. It was also James's birthday last week (too  many birthdays in one week!) and I only managed to see him for about forty-five minutes; it was literally a quick hello, birthday hug and a quick goodbye. I really miss getting to see them regularly and take them out to do nice things.

2.

No more lie-ins.

I actually have to get out of bed. You have no idea how much of a chore this is. It's awful! I love my bed! And now I have to battle with myself to remove myself from it. It's tough. I feel like I'm neglecting the poor thing. I'm sure my bed knows it too, seen as it's not letting me get a full night's sleep anymore!

3.

Sore feet.

For my job I literally have to stand on my feet for seven hours straight (aside from my eating break about half way through that) and wow is it taking its toll. I feel like every night when I get home I should have some professional masseur here to give me a foot rub. They hurt :(

4.

Uniform.

Most jobs have a uniform. In this sweaty weather, I'm not loving it though. There are a lot of ovens and things where I work (as if that isn't a big give away to the kind of place I work in) so it heats up in there pretty quickly! I have to have my legs covered because of there being lots of hot things, plus I'm super clumsy so it would probably be a good idea anyway, so my jeans are clinging to me within the first half hour and the shirt I have to wear isn't the thinnest of thins either, unfortunately but hey ho! It could be worse. At the secondary school I went to we had to wear all black. Now that was a bit warm!

5.

I miss my grandparents.

Slightly similar to the first one. I normally stay at my grandparents for the majority of the week and then come home for the weekend, or something like that, but these past few weeks I haven't been able to do that and it's killing me. I'm really close to my grandparents and I miss them like crazy not being able to see them. I've even been talking to them on the phone most nights but it's not the same. It takes a bit to get to there house though so I'm constantly trying to figure out whether it's going to be worth going for just the few days or waiting till I've got longer off.

Anyway, those are the woes of having a job. I'll get over them eventually, it's just taking a bit of getting used to when I'm home for the summer and I feel like I'm not getting to see the most important people. And I have sore feet. That never helps.

Katie x 

The Best Jobs

Hello!

I officially have a job! Hallelujah! I was definitely in desperate need of one; the small remainder of my student finance (all £30 of it) was quickly dwindling away!

Just like nearly every person in the world, there were a lot of different vocations - if that's what you can call them - that I wanted to take up when I was younger! So, here are five of them:

1.

A writer!

The first thing I wanted to do was the thing I still want to do now, so I guess I never really changed my mind. The only difference is, I no longer think every story has to start with "Once upon a time"... Not going to lie though, still holding out for this one!

2.

An astronaut...

What can I say, I liked to dream big... Just for the record though, I still think I could be an awesome astronaut! So if all else fails, you'll find me on the moon!

3.

A Disney princess <3

I'm sure every little girl had this dream! I used to have all of the different outfits of each princess and I'd dress up and pretend to be them. I still have the same problem now as I had then though - I can't walk in heels to save my life. Not the best start to a Disney princess life *sad face*.

4.

The classic hairdresser.

Not going to lie, I really did like that dream, until I realised that not every hairdresser got to do the hair of princesses. Needless to say, that revelation shattered my dream.

5.

A sandwich filler...

Don't ask me where this one came from because I have no idea. I just... I can't even... I was a weird child. (I do make one mean sandwich though - maybe this is my true-calling!)

If this has made me realise anything, it's that my dreams just got smaller and smaller as I got older. I went from wanting to be an astronaut to a sandwich filler - I don't even know what to say. I'm lost for words. Bye.

Katie x