Sixth Year Update: Finishing School, Yearbooks, Hoodies, Grad Night and Voting!

Hey Everyone!

I realise it has been a while since I last updated here and my YouTube series, ''Letters to the Leaving Cert'' so here is what has been happening in Sixth Year. This post is quite photo heavy but I hope all you visual people enjoy it.

Last week was our last week as Sixth Year students. The week really and truly flew by. On Tuesday we were given our hoodies, Wednesday was our awards ceremony, yearbook day and last official day of classes. Thursday evening was our graduation. I still find it difficult to comprehend that six years have passed in the blink of an eye. I still remember my first day as a First Year back in 2009, fill with excitement and wonder at the idea of a fresh start.

The awards ceremony was an absolute blur. All I can really remember is lots of clapping, music and smiles. I ended up winning four awards, an unexpected shock to me. I won an award for participating in the Senior History Quiz Team (we came second - by a point) an award for my history RSR (Research Study Report) an Academic (for my mock results) and a medal for having a 'Star Journal' ie a tidy journal.

After the awards, we all went and had our ''Last Supper'' together at lunchtime. We moved all the benches into the centre and all ate together. We had 3 last classes which we attended, giddy, hyper and excited for our new adventure. We all went to collect our Yearbooks and got as many friends to sign them before inevitably leaving. It was emotionally charged to say the least. I can recall sitting on the grass, gazing at everyone smiling and laughing, thinking how this will be one of the last times we'll see each other as one whole group.

On Thursday evening, we had our Graduation mass in the gym. We were all given a tree (mine was Hazelwood) which I planted on Saturday afternoon when the sun was beaming down. Afterwards we all got changed for the obligatory grad night out. We all spent ages taking photos (I have so many notifications of being tagged in photos over the past few days, it is hilarious) and headed off to the local hotel and then into town. I won't go into details but it was a brilliant night and everyone was in such high, flying spirits. It was a fabulous night filled with lots of fun and laughter.

On Friday, I went and emptied my locker and returned the key. It was strange saying goodbye to the locker. It was originally my brother's locker but I given the locker when he finished. I have 'before' and 'after' photos down below. I used to get many compliments and funny conversation starters due to some of my posters, mainly Dan and Phil fandom members spotted them!

I also voted for the first time this week! If you've been living under a rock, Ireland had a referendum on marriage equality (also one on presidential candidate age - which was rejected) It was quite exhilarating being a part of democracy. On Saturday in between study breaks I checked the counts, literally whooping and cheering when I heard that the referendum passed! I'm so proud to be Irish, especially as we're the first country to pass gay marriage by popular vote.

The Squad on the last day!

Sending snapchats to Jane

One of my articles in the yearbook! I have to say I'm quite proud of this article.

Some lovely messages from my friends at the back of my yearbook! 

Before I emptied the locker.. 

After the locker was cleaned.. sad times..

*credit to Robyn Burton for the photos below*

Post-voting selfie!

So that's all from me, hope you enjoyed this post. Next time I write will most likely be after the Leaving Cert. Next week I have revision blocks in school then it's the exams - scary!

Stay Strong, Happy & Fearless!
Aveen 

''Never Forget What You Are, For Surely The World Will Not...''

Hey Everyone!

It's been a long time hasn't it? I apologise for my absence since March 29, however I fear that these lengthy absences will become a frequent feature of this blog until June 18th (When I finish my Leaving Cert) For now though, I'm going to savour each blog post I write, as I know they will sadly be a rare occurrence.

This will be a Leaving Cert update I suppose, as well as my life obviously. No I don't have a life - it's only the Leaving Cert. Last time I updated, it was the start of my Easter holidays which I very much appreciated. The two weeks were filled with study, revision, Irish sraithpictiur and German bildergeschichte. It was tiring and a long slog, yet so worth it.

The two weeks after the Easter holidays were Irish and German oral time. My Irish oral was Tuesday 14th April. It lasted twenty minutes and I was extremely happy with it. I could see such a product of study and revision. (Fyi, I read Spailpín Fánach and got sraithpictiur 20, Samhradh Iontach!) German was the following Monday and went well too, which I am thrilled about.

Grace and I met up, went to Costa and filmed some AwkwardSprinkles videos. As you can imagine, with constant time constraints, I haven't even had time to look at editing the video, let alone posting it! I can't say for definite when it'll make an appearance, it may have to wait until the end of June as study for me is going up a gear (metaphorically to fifth gear at this stage) so we'll wait and see. I don't like making promises I can't keep so I won't say for certain.

I also proof-read The Sibling's thesis (which was interesting but literally made no suggestions for corrections, yay!) I also went out with my friends for my friends 18ths on two consecutive weekends! First up was Caítlín's 18th (photo below!) It's fair to say we had a fun night and all went out and had a brilliant night. This Friday night was Maeve's 18th (photo below!) and we went out again. Conversation flowed so easily between us all. In reality, it made me sad to think that after the Leaving Cert we mightn't have such fun night outs when we're all in different places for college. Thanks to the internet however, I think it'll be a lot easier to stay in touch. So it's best to just enjoy everything while it lasts.

The 'Vote Yes' bus visited my town/school during the week! If you don't live in Ireland I should explain. On May 22, Ireland is holding a referendum on marriage equality. Here is a link if you're interested. As I was 18 last September, I'm registered to vote. As I believe every citizen of Ireland deserves equality, I am voting yes. I believe everyone in this country should be equal. I also got a badge with ''Tá'' which is the Irish for yes from the Yes Equality people which is stuck proudly to my school pencil case. If you aren't registered, get it done quickly, I think the closing date is near.

Selfie with Grace!

Costa trips are a girl's best friend. 

With the girls for Caítlín's 18th! 

Saw this on Yik Yak, I always loved this quote. (It is also the title of this weeks blog post as I'm still catching up on Season 5 after the orals)

Maeve on her birthday, we went out too but I don't have any photos!

The Yes Equality Bus in town! #VoteYes

Mam and I were glued to the news watching for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Prince George and their latest addition are too cute!

My brother sent me this snapchat of me, needless to say it is my favourite photo!

My Yes Equality badge! 

So that's about it from me, 

Hope you're all well, it's only as I type these last few words have I realised how much I missed blogging! Hopefully I'll be blogging more regularly, fingers crossed! 

If you're also doing the Leaving Cert, how is your study going? Let me know in the comments!

Stay Strong, Happy & Fearless!
Aveen xx

Every Lesson Forms A New Scar, They Never Thought You'd Make It This Far..

Hey Everyone!

This week I finished Fifth Year and my Summer Exams! *Happy dance* So I won't be back in school until late August/early September to start Sixth Year, aka my last year in secondary school. I personally find typing that sentence both exhilarating and also quite, quite terrifying.

I finished up exams on Thursday at lunch time which was nice I have to say. Ever since I've basically stayed at home on Tumblr, tried to finish packing for my trip to the Gaeltacht (It's on Tuesday, my nerves are shot at this stage) and went to Costa two days in a row for a 'Last Supper' of a Costa drink.

I printed a map and directions to the Gaeltacht for my Mam and her first response was ''WAIT, YOU'RE ON AN ISLAND FOR THREE WEEKS?'' She also suggested that it's ''Next stop America from there'' So you can basically picture me being on an island speaking Irish, surrounded by bogs, sheep and stone walls  and being over an hour away from Galway city, this will be interesting!

If you're wondering if my blog will remain active for the duration of the trip, the answer is YES :) I have enlisted in the help of some lovely bloggers who have written guest posts on various topics which will all be posted sometime during the 3 weeks I'm away. I also have written some posts myself but I will be out of contact with the interwebs until June 25th.

Maybe an internet detox is what I need at the moment. After finishing Fifth Year I feel that I need to get away for a while, so many this will be 'killing two birds with the one stone' as it were. I feel that I'm, in a way, too connected to the internet and my thumb is on the pulse of the internet far too often. Once I wake up I check my emails, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. I check those websites continuously throughout the day. I think that a detox for three weeks would do no harm, but I will really, really miss blogging, tweeting my bloggers friends and just communicating with everyone. It's going to be hard to adjust but we're allowed to write letters over there which is good!

I honestly am not quite sure what else to say about this week. I basically spent the majority of it cramming, sleeping and panicking over exams, which is always a great way to spend your time. I subsequently spent the other half of the week just reblogging gif's of Dan & Phil and whatever else popped up on my dash.

my latest YouTube video!  Titled ''Negativity On The Internet'' If you liked it please give it a thumbs up or comment! 

Selfie with my Costa today

Sitting in The Sibling's Room 

''Aveen have you packed for the Gaeltacht?'' 

''Everything including the kitchen sink''

Sadly, this seems to be my last post until June 25th at the least. 

I can feel butterflies of nerves as I type these last few sentences as I really don't want to leave the blogging world for three weeks, but it'll be worth it and I will be coming back. 

'Till Then,

Stay Strong, Happy & Fearless, I will miss all of you so much!

Slán Abhaile.

Aveen xx

**Lyrics: Taylor Swift ~ Eyes Open

The Worst Enemy To Creativity Is Self-Doubt ~Sylvia Plath

Hey Everyone!

This week was an utterly crazy and surreal week! I've been studying every night as my Summer Exams are starting next Tuesday *shaky laugh of fear* Due to studying I've been very quiet on the interwebs, my laptop wasn't used from Sunday until Friday evening! I guess it's good that I'm 'weaning' myself off the internet for when I'm in the Gaeltacht.

My awards ceremony in school was on Monday during school time. Basically it's awards from the school for good grades, attendance, sports, music, art, drama, public speaking and lots more. The Principal and Year Head give inspirational speeches about next year (Leaving Cert) and hand out awards whilst everyone else awkwardly claps.

It's quite difficult predicting if you'll get any awards, especially as there's over 250 students in my year all 'competing' for a limited number of awards. I was thrilled to receive 5 awards, it was a total and utter shock! I received two awards for public speaking, as I was a member of the school public-speaking team during the year. One was a little trophy from the school and one from Mental Health Ireland for participating in their public speaking competition. Another was for having a 'Star Journal' basically my journal was very tidy, another was an 'Academic' given only to the top 29 academically in the year, (I was so shocked because there's over 250 in the year) and the last award was being nominated for Student Of The Year, only ten people get nominated each year so I was screaming internally.

I was absolutely thrilled with my awards, I usually get a couple of awards each year but I felt absolutely ecstatic afterwards! Congrats to the boy and girl who won Student Of The Year (Won't name you as I didn't ask permission) you both genuinely deserve the award :D

I had some exams during the week, I had my German and Irish orals (a speaking test) during the school week which were quite stressful. It went well though, I learnt off my sraithpictiur so it went okay! My German teacher even gave me an A for my test so hopefully my written test on Tuesday will be okay.

Today I spent the morning studying, in particular Sylvia Plath for English. I only revised three poems in detail because I felt if I studied more I'd want to put my head in an oven like she did. (Bad pun I know) In honour of Plath and her poetry (which can be quite interesting but depressing)

Afterwards I went to my Cousin's Communion which was brilliant fun. There was two bouncy castle's so guess who went on both? Me, naturally. We all  had a brilliant time. My lovely Aunt gave me the Wi-Fi password so I spent the majority of the time sending snapchats and occasionally socialising.

 I titled this blog post using one of her quotes. I felt that it's a very accurate quote, self-doubt can destroy everything. It's something I suffer from a lot, worrying that I won't be ''good enough'' I feel that it's a huge problem within this current generation. We're all made to feel inadequate in all aspects of our lives, which isn't right. Even a simple awards ceremony like the one I was at this year made me worry about whether I was ''good enough'' to get any awards. I actually couldn't eat my lunch before the awards, I was that worried I'd end up with no awards and was anxious about how I would be perceived because of that.

 I think it's wrong that a girl should feel ill because she's scared she's going to fail. Why are we all trained to believe that we have to be the best and if we aren't the best we're ''failures'' or ''nothing''?  I was lucky, the odds were in my favour, but imagine my self-esteem if I didn't receive any awards? I don't like the feeling or opinion that because you didn't receive an award or the grade you desired that you're a 'failure.' I don't agree with it, especially as it's so prominent in school life. Everything is competition and you're 'inadequate' if you don't receive the best grades or if someone else gets a better mark.

 It feels like I'm in a constant rat race, everyone tries to be the best, but nobody is perfect. We all have different strengths and weaknesses. Nobody is perfect, it's an impossible expectation which we are all expected to reach, and feel inadequate because no matter how hard we try, we can't be perfect. Something's got to give. The ideology that we all have to perfect is ridiculous and causes further stress and anxiety, in particular to students. It's a marathon, not a sprint which is something everyone needs to remember.

So that's about it from me this week, I'll be spending the rest of the weekend studying, thankfully my exams begin on Tuesday and end on Thursday, then the summer holidays begin then I'm gone for three weeks to speak Irish in Galway, oops. 

 If you're doing exams, best of luck! You'll be grand!

Stay Strong, Happy & Fearless!

Aveen xx

Photo's from my week!

Selfie with my cousin..

I stole my brother's phone and sent snapchats to all his friends.. 

Selfie with The Sibling. I hope I got better genes.. ;)

Beside one of the bouncy castles!

My awards from the awards ceremony. *cries because shock*

One of my snaps

A random selfie with Dad. I think he'll have to practise the whole selfie thing.. 

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