Life As Of Late - The College Edition

September has well and truly returned, bringing back the routines of school and college. I'm preparing for my third week back in college, so I finally mustered up the time to write about what I have been doing since making the trek back to Limerick. (The photo above was taken a couple of days before I left, in Courtown Harbour on the last day of summer). 

 Visiting DCU and Glasnevin Cemetery 

I went up to DCU shortly before returning to college, as my brother (fondly referred to as The Sibling) is starting his Master's degree up there. I wish him the very best of luck in the course and hope he likes DCU! 

I persuaded -read, begged - my parents to bring me to Glasnevin Cemetery while we were there. It truly was a wonderful experience to view the graves of so many historical figures from Irish history such as Michael Collins, Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington and Countess Markievicz to name a few. 

Visiting the cemetery added another dimension to the stories I've heard in history classes over the years. It brought a sense that these names in the history books were real people with real lives and graves. (Slightly morbid at times but it was a unique experience) 

Got a hair-cut and a spray tan for college 

My hair was in dire need of a trim so in true back-to-school tradition I got mine cut shortly before returning to Limerick. I also got a spray tan as they were on special offer in a local pharmacy and I was looking frightfully pale after being sick over summer. I ended up looking quite brown but it gradually lessened over the following days! 

Spotted Goats Outside The Window

Goats always make a consistent appearance in these blog posts, today is no exception! After a few days being back in Limerick, I opened a window and heard bleating. I looked across the road and there were two lovely goats in the field! They've since moved on but it was cute to see and hear them for a couple of days.

Socialised/Meet With Old Friends And New 

A major highlight of college is being back with my friends, as well as making new friends! College consists of frequent nights out, a sample of which I posted above. I promise the only new friends I've made aren't the pigeon that tottered over to me in the Bus Station! 

Retained Snap Streaks

At this stage, it feels as if we just send selfies with the captain of 'retain the streak!' or 'keep the streak!'  The joys of student living! 

How are you settling back into school or college?

Let me know!  

Aveen x

Life As Of Late #2

I quite like the idea of writing an update on the last fortnight through a visual/photographic way. Once again, here is my Life As Of Late. 

Meeting Up With Old Friends And New Friends

At the beginning of the month, I went to the Gorey Market House Festival and met up with my friends from secondary school and was introduced to new friends. It was a brilliant weekend to say the least. 

 Dealing with Adulthood and Responsibilities

Upon realising it's my last few months as a teenager, I decided to try be an adult. As a result, I bought what I felt a lot of adults use - sellotape and also a laminator. Scary times. 

Designed an Emoji?

On Snapchat you can design yourself as an emoji. As an avid emoji user, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to send emojis of myself to my friends. Note, I got a little bit excited sending this snap. 

Read Harry Potter and The Cursed Child (Also, cried)

As a massive Harry Potter fan, I just HAD to buy Harry Potter and The Cursed Child. I devoured the book during an afternoon. I might also post a review for those who haven't read it yet as it is quite interesting and different to the original seven books (this book is the script of the play in London).

 Petted More Goats?!

On the Sunday of the Market House Festival, there were goats and other animals on the Main Street, along with several other attractions. Being me, I ran towards the goats and sheep to try feed and pet them. 

And petted sheep

Became obsessed with a new Snapchat filter

As you can tell, I spend too much time on Snapchat. But this is definitely one of my favourite filters to use when sending snaps. (Snapchat: AwkwardAveen)

Made an impulse purchase

I decided to buy a sandwich maker ''for college'' to make myself a tonne of toasties with. I'll be rolled out of my apartment in college next May I swear. 

Have you ever bought any random impulse purchases?

Let me know in the comments, tweet me or shoot me an email!

Aveen x

A Voice Is To Be Used, Not Stifled.

Hesitant hands hover over the keyboard, heart thumps as the blank screen awaits, fresh for new ideas to be displayed in the form of 26 letters in new unique compositions. A frantic intake of oxygen, followed by a brief exhalation. Eyes swiftly close, to be reopened in a wave of fear.

The constraint of the inability to post freely. The hand over my mouth has become more prominent and uncomfortable.

My words are censored, carefully selected.

What was once such an easy task is debilitating. The tedious process of filtering information regarding my life into suitable sentences and sets of photographs. What was once a fun, light hearted activity has become a stress inducing exercise.

The fear consumes my soul. It has for many months. The frequent inactivity gnaws my bones. I know I must post regularly, simply due to my own desire to do so. Yet this desire is rarely translated onto the screen or the page. Fear appears regularly, eating up the keyboard and ripping up the pages in a terror induced rampage.

Slumped against the chair, hands pressed against the face. A sigh of dejection and a quick shake of hair are the only physical signs of the turmoil.

A stretch of the limbs and a deep exhale from lungs attempting to avoid the fear lingering in the room. I must remember the reason for starting this blog. I must recall the happiness instilled in my being by this blog. Remembering I have a voice. A voice is to used, not stifled. 

I avoided posting about my emotions on my blog since September 2015. I wanted to be a different person but we can't simply deny vital components to our identity. Instead of joy, I felt anxious when even writing a post, breaking into a fear-induced sweat - thinking about what others thought.

The title of this blog is The Random Life of Aveen. It is my life, my thoughts, my events, my musings, my emotions. My own personal platform which I have not utilised as much as I should have as of late.

I turned my back on my identity. Trying to 'fit in' and 'blend in' is something you should never do. A lack of time caused some posts to be written but a lack of accepting my own emotions caused 90% of the posts not being posted.

We all need a support network, a place to voice our opinions and to be ourselves. I've had to accept that I am in fact a blogger - something I like a lot. I can't change that. It is a part element of the composition of my identity.

I questioned my identity for many months after starting college. I struggled with being a student, student-teacher, blogger, friend and many more persona's, yet as I type these words, I feel a weight lift. To deny oneself of their identity is a shame.

 I am a writer and a blogger. I feel through words, my comfort comes from the 26 letters comprising of our alphabet. It's my method of making sense of the world, and a blog is another addition of that.

A blog is for voicing our true, genuine thoughts, feelings and emotions. A blog is not for pretending every element of our lives is perfect. A blog is a platform where we should feel enabled to speak with confidence, our words booming and ricocheting across the Internet, not whispering meekly because we're afraid of insulting a person in real life.

It happened to me personally that I was given grief due to the content of my posts in 'real life.' It's an experience that taught me that we must be truthful to ourselves. If we post something that aggravates another, we generally are being truthful.

I have decided to take the plunge once more and post more personal content on The Random Life of Aveen. Several posts I posted as of late have felt so lack lustre, empty and devoid of content and emotion.

It's time to change that. 

Wave goodbye to the posts of poor content and airbrushed emotions.

 Say welcome back to the truthful, gritty posts where I actually discuss my emotions and actions. 

''Show Them All You're Not The Ordinary Type''

Hey Everyone!

I am now officially on my Easter Holidays! Unfortunately for me, it won't be a time of relaxation as I have my Irish and German Orals (Speaking Exam) as soon as I'm back in school.

I'm taking the three weekends off, however I'll be studying for ten days (two school weeks so to speak) I'm also doing Easter Study as another way to motivate me. I'm glad I had two mock Irish orals during the week as I learnt all 20 sraithpictiur for them. As well as orals, I also have to finish  my Ag Science project which will be interesting!

Grace was 16 during the week so we all went out to celebrate. It was a brilliant night and resulted in some funny selfies being taken (Some are down below) I had forgotten how rowdy TY's were in comparison to Sixth Years. They were bursting with energy when all I wanted to do was sit and relax. Oh well.

Apart from swotting sraithpictiur (I wish I could literally hit them sometimes) and going to Grace's party, very little happened during the week. I have a feeling that from here on in until June, my life will be a little dull due to the immense amount of study I'll be doing. (Being a perfectionist is not fun) It was weird to do no homework or study whatsoever over Saturday and Sunday. When the Leaving Cert ends, I will have no idea what to do during my spare time (Probably scroll through Tumblr)

I've found myself scrawling in some of my notebooks which is so relaxing and helps relieve some of the stresses of exam preparation. I'm working on some other blog posts and even a YouTube video or two. Hopefully I can achieve everything I want to over Easter.

Grace and I !

Viv and I!

AwkwardSprinkles

When you're studying Sraithpictiur, anything seems funny.

Hello there! I didn't see you behind the stacks of books in my room!

How will you be spending your Easter holidays? 

Relaxing or cramming for two weeks like me?
Let me know in the comments!

Stay Strong, Happy and Fearless!
Aveen 

*Lyrics: Panic! At The Disco - Let's Kill Tonight

''That's When I Could Finally Breathe''

Hey Everyone!

I am proud and relieved to say that I am finally back from an extended/unexpected blog hiatus. I feel sad that I abandoned TRLOA for a month but to be honest, it was necessary.

An awful lot of things have happened since I last wrote here. I found that compiling information and photos every seven days was becoming difficult and with a sickening tug I write - boring. I felt like I was stuck in a rut of doing the same every week. Life has become a mundane pattern of routine as of late and it is tedious. I thought that a break to breathe and live a little more would be more beneficial to myself, my blog and all of you.

Since my last post on February 22nd, I have had a quick month filled with highs and lows. I enjoyed my mid term and came back to school. After an agonising three weeks, I received all my mock results back. Overall, I was happy with them, I got what I need in the actual Leaving Cert which was absolutely unreal. I was a little disappointed with a subject or two but I now know which areas to improve upon for the Leaving Cert. It can't be denied that some results need to be taken with a pinch of salt (or a few!)

I also learnt that the stress of the Leaving Cert brings out the worst in a lot of people. People talk and say things without realising the consequences of their words. Despite the fact that what their saying is a blatant lie, it might be believed by others. Also, if someone is talking behind your back and blackening your name, metaphorically and probably physically, you are ahead of them. Actions have consequences. To quote the play Othello by William Shakespeare, ''Beware my lord of jealousy, it is the green monster which doth mock the meat it feeds upon.''

I actually went socialising during my month off! Below are photos from my friends Maeve and Tom's 18th and also a trip to Dublin Zoo with Spleodar! The party was a fantastic night to say the least. You know it's a good night when I only take one photo ie I was enjoying the night too much to capture it on a lens. The trip to the Zoo was the last Spleodar trip of the year which was sad. I joined Spleodar in Transition Year with a poor level of spoken Irish. I attended one of their Gaeltacht courses last year and was a Cinnire this year. My Irish has improved so much over the past few years and I will really miss all the cinnirí and daltaí.

I was with Grace for most of the day and other students in the club. We saw practically every animal and had a delicious pizza for lunch. The weather was beautiful and I took lots of photos of the animals and the sunshine on the bus home. *Cue a shoutout to the man on the Luas who waved back at us all*

Today is Mother's Day, tomorrow is my Mam's birthday and the next day is St. Patrick's Day. Busy start to the week indeed! It's scary to think how quickly time is blurring past. In two weeks I have my Easter holidays for two weeks then my Irish and German oral for the Leaving Cert. Deep breaths!

Credit to Chloe

Caítlín and I !

So that's about it from me, 

Stay Strong, Happy & Fearless!
(Something which can be difficult but gets me through each day. It is the small acts of bravery in life that define us)

I can finally breathe clearly. 

Aveen. 

*Lyrics Taylor Swift - Clean

I Had A Dream So Big And Loud, I Jumped So High I Touched The Clouds..

Hey Everyone!

I'm home nearly a week and realised I've been very quiet in the blogging world so I've made a resolution with myself to try post more often this Summer, as I'll be really busy with school work and the Leaving Cert from September (boo!) For the time being however, I'm making an effort to post with good content as regularly as possible.

I guess this blog post could be considered a ''My Week In Photos'' as it's quite photo heavy.  Here goes!

When I came back from the Gaeltacht, my parents surprised me with a new pair of Converse! I thought it was an interesting colour, green, as I was just back from the Gaeltacht. They're really comfortable and stand out when I wear them with my black jeans. 

This is my ''Fainne''' which is the Irish for 'ring' I got this ring in the Gaeltacht and when you wear it, people know they have the option of speaking to you in Irish too. I'm going to start wearing it out and about and see if anyone starts speaking to me in Irish!

A random selfie on my day off. I didn't straighten my hair, this was the result.

The John Green book shrine. My room is still a mess so there's lots of random things on the shrine (and TFIOS & LFA are missing as well as I'm reading LFA and a friend has TFIOS)

I went to see Mrs. Brown's Boys with my family and it was hilarious. One of the actors in the film was even in the same screening (he left at the VERY very end to avoid everyone, comical)

I got this cute tin in the shopping centre. I loved the red and white stripes and the retro feel of the tin. 

I'm re-reading Looking For Alaska. I actually finished it today and still got a little emotional even though I've read it before. 

That's about it from me, I'll hopefully be doing some fun and interesting things in the next couple of weeks. Might even film a YouTube video or two if I get the time!
Stay Strong, Happy and Fearless!
Aveen xx


* lyrics, American Authors ~ Best Day Of My Life