You could be doing anything you dream of.. If you believe in the things that make you strong

Hey Everyone! 

So this week was an extremely quick week for me. As I sit here on a Sunday morning typing and listening to Maybe by Birdy (hence the title of today's post) I'm finding it difficult to recall what occurred this week, something which is quite unusual for me as I usually recall everything. 

We had a half day on Monday due to a staff in-service so I missed double religion and also English (yay, but I actually love English) The weather was absolutely gorgeous, so much so I even posted a photo on Instagram about the weather. The day was symbolic that maybe Spring was well and truly here, that the dark, rainy, squally and just generally miserable days in Winter were gone for another few months. 

On Wednesday after school were my parent-teacher meetings, where, as the title says, your parents meet your teachers to discuss you and how you're getting on so far. My parents came home and they were absolutely thrilled, not a single bad/negative comment had been said! -Breathes a sigh of relief- I was quite calm afterwards as I had been slightly concerned about what the teachers would say. 

Thursday truly flew by along with Friday. On Friday my Ag Science class went to a dairy farm at the top of the town (ironically past my house) so at around 9.45am we were driving past my house and all I wanted was to go back to bed, priorities. The farmer showed us around the farm and we all took countless photos. As my uncle has a farm, I'm no stranger to calves, cattle and bulls, but some of the more ''townie'' girls honestly couldn't handle it which was slightly hilarious. 

At around midday we left the farm, just down the road is a petrol station who do what can only be described as the best breakfast rolls and salad rolls ever. As you can imagine, we begged our teacher to let us all have lunch there, which we did! (The other class was on the other bus and went straight back to school without going there hehe) So we all left with simply amazing rolls for lunch. (It's about less than a mile from my house so during the holidays my lovely Mam usually drives me up there to get lunch. Some of the lads even drive up there at lunchtime they love the place that much) 

We arrived back to school nearly half an hour after the other class so I was 25 minutes late for business. My teacher didn't mind as I explained we were later than was expected. (You're meant to tell your teachers in advance if you're not going to be in class due to any trips or GAA matches and whatnot) 

On Saturday I went back to badminton for the first time in I'd say three weeks! I've been given so much homework recently I haven't had any time to go. Needless to say I was really tired (10 am on a Saturday morning) but when we finished up, the weather was amazing. At 4pm I collected my two younger cousins and brought them to my house as their parents were gone to a wedding. 

We watched the Ireland vs France match, screaming with joy and nerves throughout the entire match. We jumped for joy when the final whistle blew (not going to lie, that referee had the most beautiful facial features ever) I got a little teary when Brian O'Driscoll (BOD) was interviewed and was the Man of The Match as it was his last game for Ireland (I also got emotional when Johnny Sexton was take off on a stretcher, I was just emotional throughout the match). A huge congratulations to the team for winning the Six Nations, the selfie they took was just fabulous! 

Enough with my rambling for this week! I posted a blog post yesterday about my blogs first birthday! I guess it was a really good day for Ireland yesterday, brilliant weather, Ireland winning the Six Nations.... and my blog turning one... haha. 

As I'm Irish and in a town somewhere in the South East of Ireland, I'm VERY excited for St. Patrick's Day tomorrow, I've loved the parade since I was a small child. I'll try take some photos of the parade, I'll also be wearing green of course. 

On a final note, happy birthday to the best Mammy in the world, my Mammy! It's her birthday today (the day before Paddy's Day, so you can probably guess that her name is related to that fact) I hope you have a lovely birthday and my brother and I won't annoy you too much today! :D 

Photos from my week!

''Aveen why are you posing with silage?'' It's for my Ag Science project for my Leaving Cert if you're wondering. 

Taking selfies in front of the silage, Ag Students.. 

I was in Tesco on Friday, it's clear they're fans like me! (I bought the DVD and watched the film with a bowl of popcorn on Friday night, heaven)

Another poster in the store! May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favour

Some cupcakes we had over the weekend, yum. 

A photo I posted on Instagram. Clear skies in Ireland? Is it the end of the world? ;)

Stay Strong, Happy and Fearless!

Aveen xx

Don't Tell Me Our Youth Is Running Out. It's Only Just Begun...

Hey Everyone!

Source: Tumblr

So this day last year, March 15 2013, I wrote my first official blog post as the author of ''The Random Life of Aveen'' Needless to say, my life seems completely different barely 365 days later.

I had a number of 'failed' blogs where I became bored and frustrated over my content and eventually abandoned said blogs. In March 2013, The Random Life of Aveen was born. I wasn't even sixteen and a half but I felt that my life had hit a immovable brick wall which I simply couldn't pass.

Blogging was an outlet for my frustrations and an opportunity to consider what I really wanted to do with my life, to show that my actions, thoughts and personality could make a difference to the world if I wanted it to. At the time, I felt that everything I did, was in vain, even waking up in the mornings could be a waste of time. Somehow, blogging helped me get through that phase. Writing a blog post every week and including photos gave me a purpose each week and this helped immensely.

Soon, my blog actually started getting a few hundred views, in May I got 1500 page views and I was so incredibly proud of myself. A small town girl who was always told she had ''potential'' after years of disbelief, was beginning to believe again.

Every small step was literally a milestone in my eyes. During the summer when I was working in my summer job, my views increased weekly, along with my esteem. It was like Maslow's motivation theory, The Hierachy of Needs.

Source: Google Images

For an awful long time, I was barely at 'love and belonging' I felt as though I didn't belong. In school, I pretty much stuck out like a sore thumb in a mass of people. In the past year however, I've become much closer to Self-Actualisation. Where you possess feelings of creativity, moral integrity, spontaneity, ways of problem solving and so much more. 

Writing about my life through The Random Life Of Aveen doesn't make me obnoxious, rude, vain or self obsessed. It's part of my steps to self actualization and understanding and accepting who I am, flaws and all. It may seem when reading my posts that I have ''an amazing life'' which so many people apparently believe. This. Is. Not. True. I have a student's life. I'm your average 17 year old Fifth Year student who worries constantly about homework, my grades, my future, college and everything in-between, I just happen to write about everything. 

Writing The Random Life of Aveen has opened so many avenues of opportunity which I never believed to be possible. My peers may talk behind my back about my blog, when in reality, I don't really care any more. What matters more is how you perceive yourself. 

The Random Life of Aveen is a year old now and I feel as though I could never part with my blog and all the lovely friends I've made through blogging. I hope this will be among the first of many milestones I experience here as a blogger, and I hope all you lovely readers will continue to join me on the roller coaster that is, the random life of Aveen. 

This was a little blog post about the first year of TRLOA, whether this is the first blog post of mine you've read, or the 50th, I can't thank you enough. It's strangely comforting to have people all over the world reading my thoughts and sentences. 

Stay Strong, Happy and Fearless!

Aveen xx

lyrics: Foxes ~ Youth

''Do I sound Irish? Or is it like I've just jumped off a tractor Irish?''

Hey Everyone!      

So it's the end of another week and I only have one more week in school until Mid-Term! (Cheers ecstatically) which means freedom from school! So this week was relatively interesting, maybe I should tell you about it? ;) 

Well we'll start off with the title of this blog post and it's meaning. If you read my Twitter & my tweets, you'll see that I was tweeting with the following lovely people; Grace of Dainty Sprinkles, Tolly of Tolly Dolly Posh, Kate from The Fashion Chain, Mia from TeenageBeautyBlog and Rachel of Oh Hey There Rachel! on Saturday night (last night!) which was absolutely ''savage'' and we all discussed stranger danger with strangers (irony at it's finest) due to the Internet Safety Group! 

Later on in the night, myself, Grace, Mia & Tolly decided to Google chat, which was um.. interesting. Apparently I overused the word ''savage'' which I use to say like 'epic' or 'brilliant' Overall though, we had a brilliant chat and it's great that the teenage blogging community can get together like that. It's hard to imagine that say ten years ago, the technology wasn't there to do things like that. It really makes me realise how lucky we are to have the ability to communicate via blogs, Twitter and other social networking sites. 

Also on Saturday, there was a storm/weather warning in place where I live so I went to take photos of the waves at the seaside 'town' near where I live (I always have bright ideas) Turns out however, there was a multitude of people there too, some with phones, some with camera's and tripods, everyone taking photos as the waves crashed against the pier. My Mam didn't let me stand too close to the waves (for obvious reasons) but it was utterly spectacular seeing the waves rolling towards us, getting slightly closer with each crash. I took literally tonnes of photos, and my favourites are down below. One in particular I love is the photo with the man standing literally metres away from the waves, I know he was risking his life, (And I was terrified he was going to jump in) but I love the photo as it shows how huge the waves actually were. It puts the waves into perspective in a way. 

Also, this week I read the book ''Switched'' by Amanda Hocking, if I have time I'll write a review in a separate blog post! (I finished it last night at around 1am which is always a bundle of laughs) and I think I'll read the next two books, Torn and Ascend if I have time. (If they cause emotional distress like most other books I read maybe warn me in advance, I cry at nearly every book so maybe it's just me) 

A shoutout to my annoying brother (who Grace, Tolly and Mia probably now know from the chat last night) for switching off the Wi-Fi when I was writing this blog post, cheers peasant!

ps. all photos below are mine and you can freely use them, but please notify/inform me :) 

Stay Strong, Happy and Fearless!

Aveen xx

If all goes to plan, I will be recording a YouTube video this afternoon! Watch this space! x

Photos Of The Coastline 

 

Beach near where I live .. (what's left of it..)

My 2013, a review of The Life Of Me.

Hey Everyone!

So it's the end of 2013, another time span of 365 days has passed. This year has been a really intriguing year for me, but as Augustus Water said ''I'm on a roller coaster that only goes up my friend'' and I feel that this year was similar for me, things only went up, even when others were trying to bring it down. I feel I really matured this year and learnt a lot of life lessons. I even started properly blogging on this blog in 2013 which is a huge thing for me, blogging is just one of my favourite hobbies now!

I started this year in a bad place, let's be honest! I have discussed this in a blog post here about my mental health and how negative my thoughts were(how wonderfully optimistic).But this not dominating this blog post. I started this year in denial, unsure about what my future held in store for me, I had dreams yes, but I had no idea how to achieve them or if I ever would. I eventually figured out that I had a future, I'd been scared I would never ''achieve my potential'' A bright future had been promised for me for years by teachers and so many more people. I was terrified I would amount to very little in life. I eventually saw the light in late May (ironically the end of the school year I was in, I'm saying nothing) I contribute this milestone to obviously my family and friends, but also to writing on this blog helped so much, so I'd like to say a huge thank you to everyone who reads my blog and supports me through everything. (Don't worry this entire blog post isn't a sob story)

I know my peers slag off my blog at every possible opportunity (please stop lying to my face thanks) but another life lesson I learnt is to not care about what everyone else thinks of you. What's more important is how you view yourself, if you view yourself negatively, then everyone else will too, that's not right. View yourself as a good, positive person. You can only be yourself and you might as well accept who you are instead of constantly changing to please everyone around you. Over this year my self image has improved tremendously, I feel much more comfortable in myself and I'm so glad about that. I used to be so self conscious (I still am at times, nobody is perfect but it's nowhere near as bad as I was) and I used to worry about what everyone in school would say about me and think about me. I thought how other people viewed me was more important than how I viewed myself, which is wrong. Now, it doesn't bother me, if you hate me, it's your problem. (Wow Aveen, such a nice thing to say in your 2013 review)

Of course, this year hasn't only been about peasant fighting and inner turmoil, I feel that I have achieved a lot this year. I went all over Ireland and even to London! I began properly blogging in March 2013 and it's something I truly love. I've always wanted to write, but I felt I was too young to write a book/novel (I've several idea's written down in notebooks and whatnot) so blogging is a way for me to constantly write and even receive feedback and get to know other bloggers all over Ireland, the UK and even further away. It also helped me see what I was doing with my life during a time when I had no idea what the future held for me. I now know exactly what I want in life and I'm edging closer and closer everyday to achieving the dreams I've dreamt for as long as I can remember.

It's been an interesting year, but I wouldn't take back anything for the world. Every experience, both positive and negative, builds our character and our coping mechanisms for the future, I feel fearless in ways,I even jumped on a zip wire when I'm afraid of heights! I also learnt that people have ulterior motives and I have to stop taking people at face value. I read about these kind of people in books, but I never experienced anyone like that until this year, but it's a good life lesson to know people like that, so it won't happen again in the future. I've learnt that everybody isn't your friend, but you shouldn't jump to conclusions about people, and I shouldn't judge everyone by their cover as I hate when people judge me by mine.

I also joined the school public speaking team which was a huge leap for me. I've always loved public speaking for some reason, the thrill of the audience has always enthralled me. It was my first speech in years, we had to have a ''speak off '' for the four places on the team and the topic was mental health. It was a huge feeling for me to be discussing mental health, I couldn't believe it when I made the team. At our first competition the topic was mental health. I was our first speaker which was a huge thing for me, you have no idea! As a girl who isolated herself from everyone for months, pretending to be fine and became socially awkward, speaking in front of an audience was an adrenaline rush of excitement and fear, and one I relive and feel happy about.

As you will see below, I had a tin in the shape of a London bus with random pieces of paper. From January 1st to late March approx, every time I had a happy memory, anything that made me happy during that time, I wrote it down on a scrap of paper and put it into the tin. I eventually stopped as I felt I didn't need to cling as much to these pieces of paper. Yesterday, for the first time since March, I opened the tin and I read every single piece of paper. It was quite interesting and it showed to me how far I've come this year and I felt slightly proud of that. It really hit me when I saw one dated as ''January 1st 2013'' and two words ''Be Strong'' it was quite a shock for me, this year I feel I became strong, happy and fearless.

 Through blogging, I've met so many new people who I would have never met unless I started blogging, huge shout out to all my blogging friends and to the blogs I read, you all know who you are and I'd be afraid I would forget someone if I tried listing everyone! The Life Of Me has opened a huge new corner of the Internet to me, a community filled with lovely genuine people who I've never met in real life and share similar interests and hobbies, but make me feel as though I do know really well outside the computer screen. *Coughs, you all know who you are, even if we've only tweeted once or twice, I still consider you a bloggy friend!*

With Grace of Dainty Sprinkles! 

All the scraps of 'happy memories' from January to March, I stopped after the London trip.

The very first.

In January, I attended the NUI Maynooth Essay Law Competition, I came fourth (I think) in the category of cyber-bullying, they even quoted me ! 

It snowed for like two hours that one day.

Accurate (Source Tumblr ~ KickThePJ)

The first photo of myself I posted on my blog! Oh the memories! 

The Lovely Dan Howell (Danisnotonfire) whose videos made me laugh so much my stomach hurt, thank you.

The mental health group Project Smilier (we were to help increase positive mental health in the community, my life is one ironic moment I swear)

This year I became obsessed with Tumblr and these two! Phil Lester and Dan Howell, if you know me IRL or stalk my Tumblr, you'll understand the depth of my love for these two YouTubers

Siobhan and I on the London Eye, March 2013. 

Tower bridge (this was my laptop screen saver for months)

Big Ben and Houses of Parliament, I went to London on a school trip and I'd love to go back there again, I simply adored London!

The photo of me that seems to be everywhere..

A group of people who also went on the group, this was on our last night after we saw Stomp in the West End.

Posing outside a phone box with my cousin Olivia 

With Emer in London

I have to admit, this wasn't taken in Downing Street, it's from the Churchill Museum ssh!

I won a certificate from the Seanad (Senate in Ireland) for my speech about ''The Challenges That Face Ireland And Does My Future Lie Here?'' 

                  

A photo of Project Smilier on the set of Fair City with Jim Breen of Cycle Against Suicide, we even made the newspaper! 

On the same day with Colm Hayes (of 2FM), Jim Breen and the other student leaders of CAS. 

At the Leaders On Our Level conference in Croke Park with Colm ''The Gooch'' Cooper! He's a Gaelic footballer and a pure legend. At the conference I also met people like Enda McNulty (who now follows me on Twitter, holla) and lots more interesting people.

Two of my friends Maeve & Caítlín with the model Roz Purcell (she's so lovely in real life)

Always very mature.. 

Caítlín & Maeve on the last day of TY in May

My current profile picture on nearly every single social networking site I'm on!

With my crazy cousins Owen and Oisin! 

The John Green book shrine! 

With Grace from Dainty Sprinkles!! 

My name (in Irish) during the Coca Cola epidemic of names on bottles.. 

RAWR! 

On my 17th with Tara :) 

With Mary, Grace, myself, Tara and Viv for my 17th in September! 

With Aoileann in Tayto Park with the Irish club :)

Grace and I recording one of our YouTube videos

A meme made by the lovely Grace ! (Several others were not suitable for public viewing) haha

Beside the Catching Fire poster! 

Halloween! In a cow onesie.. oh dear. 

Another meme! 

Testing out my tripod (FredOrGeorge)

With my friend Emily at the Spleodar (Irish club) Christmas dinner

With Shannon at the Spleodar Christmas dinner (In Irish of course)

With my friend Maeve of Maeve's Fashion ! 

With Grace filming another YouTube video! 

We're normal people I swear. 

Christmas Eve!

Selfies beside the silage pit

One of the MANY quotes that I live by.

(Source Google Images)

With Harry Styles (ahem he's real I swear)

Christmas Day with my cousin Owen :) 

So I guess that's it for now! Let 2014 begin! 

If you're wondering why this blog post is before New Year's Day, it's due to Sherlock season 3 starting on New Year's Day and I doubt I would be in a calm state to blog on the day. #SherlockLives if you're a Sherlockian check out my Tumblr and we can squeal over Benedict Cumberbatch together! 

A huge thank you to everyone who reads my blog, it's a huge support. I wish every single one of you a brilliant 2014 and the wealth of health and happiness.

Stay Strong, Happy and Fearless! 

Aveen xx