Overcoming Barriers and Hurdles.

Hey everyone!

As it's my birthday month - yep I'll be the grand age of 30!! I've been thinking about how my life has turned out since I completed my A-Levels in 2008 and where I am now. It's funny looking back... When I started my A-Levels, I was really determined to do journalism and studied the following subjects; Media Studies, English Language, General Studies, Law, GCSE Sociology,  GCSE Art & Design and Numeracy. I worked my little self hard and did the best I could. It wasn't easy. Thankfully I had wonderful staff who helped me along the way. I received 2 awards whilst at Sixth Form; an in college and also the Excellence in Cumbria award; a county award. These were presented to me because of me overcoming barriers and hurdles in education. Two very proud moments! 
I secured myself a place at the former Institute of the Arts in Carlisle with a conditional offer based on whether I would have enough support (they were very impressed with me academically wise) but after trying to sort out care, I had to eventually not go ahead with this. It was purely down to not having enough care outside of lessons. This made me feel a bit defeated but not totally deterred. 
I then decided to do an Access course at my local college which is now the University of Cumbria and during the interview, they said I was too advanced to do this so they enrolled me on their Combined Honours degree in Sociology, Psychology and Criminology. I was surprised by this but soon prepared myself for the new start. After not hearing from them about my start date and timetable, I started to feel a bit like what's going on?? So I got in contact with them and they finally told me that they decided to 'drop' the course. This made me feel very disappointed and let down. 
Some time later I came across an online creative course called The Writers Bureau and found myself enrolling on it. They sent me all the information and course study books. I managed to get to the fourth assignment and found myself struggling. When I was at Sixth Form, I had one to one support and this is what I was missing so I haven't finished the writing course to this day. At least I received good feedback about the assignments that I did manage to complete. My health issues had slowly started to creep in at this point, as well. 
A couple of years later, which was around 2 years ago, I took part in a social media workshop at the local Signal Films centre which I enjoyed. The only snag was that I was already using the social medias that they taught so I happily helped the other 'students' using my knowledge and explaining what the mentor was showing or talking about. Despite being bunged up with a cold and sore throat, I enjoyed it and it made me feel good helping others out. 
Nowadays, I focus on running my EDS (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome) awareness campaign by having my Facebook page, creating video diaries on YouTube, tweeting on Twitter and having an EDS account on Instagram. Every year, I try to have a craft stall selling my handmade crafts with half of the money going towards my Ehlers-Danlos Support UK fund. I have gained the support of my local MP, John Woodcock and even had an article written by the lovely Robyn Durdy in the local newspaper; North West Evening Mail. 
I have recently had my review about the movie; Starred Up published on the Signal Films website which I feel proud of. It's a good feeling seeing something that you have written printed somewhere where the public can see it. 
Now looking back; I have certainly had my successes and also my disappointing, discouraging periods but these help me be where I am at now. My aims and ambitions have certainly changed but I am slowly working my way towards my new goals. 
My goals are; 
- Raising awareness about Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and getting it out there on a wider audience. I would love to take part in doing talks to both medics and the public. 
- Creating BETTER videos for YouTube. By this, using the best editing software that is available to me and perhaps getting out in the community talking about EDS with the camera. 
- Keep writing reviews for movies, shows and dining out (maybe). Hopefully have them published too.
- Start work on a book. I have always wanted to write books but never really known what genre or type. The chosen topic would be about living with EDS, like an autobiography. 
- I'd like to take part in a dress making course/workshop to further my embroidery skills. 
- Doing a continual project with John Woodcock and Robyn Durdy to raise awareness about EDS within the community. 
- Lastly, do a basic course in Criminology. I have a passion for how the mind works in the criminal field and to basically expand my knowledge. 
I feel proud to be where I am and know that I will enjoy working on my goals. It gives me something positive to focus on and to work towards. Although a part of me feels like I missed out on Uni life, I feel it was meant to be. It wasn't the right path and now it has led me to where I am now. 
Thank you for reading this post. x

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Children with Gadgets

Hello everyone, I've been thinking back to a few weeks back when I was having a conversation with somebody. The topic was about kids having technical gadgets like games consoles, kindles, iPads and so on.  Going back to when I was a child, we didn't have all of these. Yes we had an Atari but that was for the whole family and I was in my teens by the time we got it. I had actual children's toys like Lego, Sindy dolls, and other toys. For the days that it rained or was too cold, I'd spend hours playing with these toys and I enjoyed arts. I'd do painting, making things and writing stories.  I liked to play out on the street with the other kids on the street. There were skipping ropes, pogo sticks and that ball with the rope toy etc. It was so much fun and meant we  learnt how to be creative, socialising and getting the exercise needed.  Another thing that kinda annoys me is when parents give their little kids kindles and iPads or even putting a DVD on fo
Read more

Child Prodigy

Image
It was just the other day when I came across a documentary by Keith Allen filming James Harries who is now known as Lauren Harries. Does the name ring a bell to you? He was the 80s/90s child prodigy who claimed to know about Antiques. He had thick, curly blonde hair and always wore a dicky bow tie. I'll post a picture of him as a young boy, I'm sure you'll remember him when you see him. Back to the documentary. James is now Lauren after a sex reassignment operation. I actually think she still seems confused and delirious. In fact the whole family are living in a world of fantasy, delirious, disfunctional and delusion. All the way through I kept an open mind, in a way, I kind of felt sorry for them. All those years ago, Mark and Kate must have been really desperate to push their youngest son into the limelight forging a claim that he could do antiquing at such a tender age. I thought it was good that Lauren had counselling during the treatment but when i
Read more

How I Created This Eye Look!!

Image
Hi everyone! I want to tell you how I created this eye makeup look on myself from last week. I think it looks really nice and quite natural which is great for every day style.  The products that I used are as follows; Rimmel UK - Pinkadilly Circus Eyeshadow Palette ‘Rosie for Autograph’ by Marks and Spencer - Cream Eyeshadow Stick GOSH COSMETICS - Forever Eyeshadow Stick Avon UK - True Colour Glimmersrick Eyeliner  Benefit Cosmetics - Bang BadGal Mascara  How I created this eye look . I started of by applying the the lightest shade which is a white colour all over the lid as a base.  Then using the light pink along the crease line and all over the lid. Starting from a third off the inner corner, I applied the slightly darker shade just along the lid.  Then with the darkest shade which is like a dark pinky/brown in the outer corner. This creates like a smokey eye effect. I didn’t think it was showing up as much as I hoped so I decided to apply some of the ‘Rosie’ Eyeshadow Stick in the
Read more