13.10.16

Relationships Can Be Hard

Hello there.

Today I wanted to talk about a very big part of my life. Me and my boyfriend have been together for nearly 2 years now, but our relationship isn’t as simple as a lot of peoples’.

We met in our first year of university. He was living with one of my oldest friends, Becky, that moved away when I was younger. Becky and I had always stayed in contact, so we re-kindled our friendship and became basically inseparable. Since I was spending a lot of time with her, I was also spending a lot of time with my now boyfriend, Mathew (yes, his name is spelt with one ‘t’). We became very good friends and eventually, over the Christmas break, we decided we would give us a try.  From then on, we spent a lot of time together, and when it came to the Easter break, it was very strange. Going from spending so much time together to nothing for two weeks was actually quite hard. Which felt strange, and that’s when I knew that it wouldn’t just be a ‘thing’ between us.
Our first photo together as a couple...n'aw

When it came to summer, we knew that we wouldn’t be able to see each other every week as he is originally from Manchester, and I live in Hull. I think we saw each other around every 2-3 weeks and it wasn’t too hard due to us having similar working patterns. This was along with skyping every couple of days.

This playsuit was my fave and it has BROKEN!!

At the start of our second year at university, we were actually living together. Whenever I told anyone I was living with my boyfriend after getting together 8 months previously, they think it’s a little strange; BUT it wasn’t planned. We had decided to live together along with two other of our friends before Christmas, before we got together. Living together was basically what we were doing during first year anyway, as I spent most of my time with my best friend in the same flat. It was fun, I got to see him whenever I wanted without having to brave the outside world. When he was being annoying (like boys are), or if I just needed my own space, I had my own bedroom too. The best part of living together so soon is that we learnt everything about each other, got to know the others habits and understood them truly and completely. There will obviously still be things that we don’t know about to each other yet, but we only have that to look forward to. I suppose living together early on in our relationship tested the strength of us as a couple. If we couldn’t cope with it for just 9 months, then we weren’t going happen in the long run.

One of my favourite, yet most blurry picture of us ft. Mayo the polar bear

Somehow we did it. We both even said that there aren’t many people you can spend time with 24/7 and not get annoyed with them or a bit bored. But this didn’t happen with us. The most comforting thing for me was having someone there all of the time to talk to if I needed to (well I had 2 people, Mathew and Becky). This helped a lot as I do have anxiety and panic attacks, so I knew I had at least one person there for me just about all of the time. But that’s a story for another day.

Mathew with long hair looks funny lol

After our second year finished, we went our separate ways again, trying to see each other every other week, which was quite easy during summer, as Mat didn’t have a job and I worked weekends. The hardest part came when Mat started his placement. We’re both taking a year out of our studies to get relevant experience to our courses (as are many of my friends at uni). During my year out, which I am currently on, I am getting some voluntary experience whilst still keeping down a part-time job so I am still earning. Whereas Mat has a full-time paid placement in a town not far from Nottingham, which is the same sort of distance from me than Manchester was, so there’s not much difference there. The only problem with this is that as he has a 9-5 job, Monday to Friday, and my job is mainly weekends. 


It has become increasingly hard to be able to plan when we’re going to see each other due to my job, so I am currently looking for something better suited to me and my life.

I must have said something funny...
If I’m really honest though, I wouldn’t change a thing about our relationship. Not seeing each other as much as we’d like to makes the time we do have together more special. I am seeing him this weekend as it his birthday. Seeing each other less also makes it more exciting when we see each other. Right now I cannot contain my excitement, as it has been over three weeks since I saw him last.


No I don’t have the easiest or most normal relationship, but I suppose normal would be boring.

Thanks for reading! Please do leave any comments below if you are also in a long distance relationship, I would love to hear any stories.

Paige xo

6.10.16

Long time no...post

Hello there.

As you may notice, I haven’t posted anything on my blog in quite a while, and, honestly, I have no good reason. Since I’ve been at university, my motivation has seems to have plummeted and I haven’t posted on here for around six months now. Considering I do a Journalism degree, you would have thought I would have been motivated to post more often. But it appears to have done the opposite. Don’t get me wrong, I still love writing. I always have done and most likely always will; it’s something that comes quite naturally to me.

Anyway, although I have been a Journalism student for the past two years, I feel like I need something more than just a degree to get me where I want to be in the future. I am currently on a year out from my studies to get some relevant voluntary experience so I don’t JUST have a degree at the end of my studies. Yes, a degree is great, but these days, employers look for experience in whatever field you’re going into. I have already been into my local newspaper as part of my voluntary work, but have found that it wasn’t really for me. Although I love writing, I don’t really like writing the news, and that’s just about all you write about in a NEWSpaper. 90% of the time, I feel like news is either boring or negative, and I need to be writing about something that I would enjoy reading myself.

I thought this year would be a good time to also get back into writing on my blog. Although the newspaper wasn’t for me, I didn’t want to give up on something I love, so what better place to share the stuff I do love, than here. I’m going to be writing about things I care about and basically my everyday happenings. I want to make this blog somewhere that I can document my journey and personal experiences (not to sound cheesy).

The past few times I have tried to get back into writing on here, I have pressured myself a lot to try and write a certain number of posts a week, which is what I think made me less motivated. So from now on I will be writing whenever I want to and not when I feel like I should be.

Thanks for reading!


Paige xo

19.2.16

BOOK REVIEW: Ketchup Clouds

Secrets can save your life. And 15-year-old Zoe Collins knows exactly how to keep her secrets, secret. But Zoe's isn't just any old secret.
Zoe seems to be your average school girl with dreams to become a writer and a crush on a few boys. But these boys turn out to be brothers, one who she happens to have murdered.
As the lies are eating her up, Zoe hears of a man, Stuart Harris, on death row in America that is not unfamiliar to murder and deception. Being no stranger to the world of writing, she picks up a pen and tells her story.
With the book revealing the letters she wrote, ‘Zoe’ does not actually use her real name or address so she cannot be traced; both of which are revealed when Stuart is dead and gone.
Only at the end of the novel do we find out which of the brothers has died, with there being constant mystery throughout.
Ketchup Clouds, by Annabel Pitcher, is fundamentally classed as a female children’s book, but with the gripping story lines that a lot of people can easily relate to, this book could be enjoyed by multiple age groups.



I absolutely LOVED this book. I bought it almost 2 years ago, so I decided it was time to actually make use of it. It was finished within a few days and I could not put it down. I think it helps that these kind of books are my favourite.


Thanks for reading!


Paige x

4.1.16

2016

Sometimes life can get a bit much and you just have to take a step back. And I have tried to do just this.

I realise that I haven't written on my blog for a good few months now. Once I had started my second year of university, I realised that it wasn't going to be as easy as I thought. In my head, I was raring to go and ready to actually kick start my blog and try and make it as successful as I have always wanted. But I had underestimated just how much work I would have to do to make myself like I was actually getting somewhere with my studies.

I have never been good at organising my time. I was hoping that my second year would be different and that I would manage things a lot better, but man was I wrong. It's not that I couldn't cope with the amount of work I had, it's the fact that a lot of the time, I just didn't have much motivation.

I have to admit, at one point I felt like I wanted to drop out and start all over again. Then I thought: "What else would I want to do?". The answer to that = nothing. I couldn't see myself going straight into a full time job. I wouldn't want to. I think the reality is that I'm not fully ready to grow up yet. I still want to spend a lot of time with my friends and my boyfriend, whilst also learning about something that I enjoy doing. I also wouldn't want to just get any random job. I want to know that I will enjoy my career so much that it won't even feel like a job most of the time.

Over these past few months, I have been wanting to write a post on here several times, but not really knowing what to say. I don't just want to talk about what everyone else is, just for the sake of it. I want to know that what I am writing is good, and that someone, somewhere, thinks so too.

Yes this has gotten rather deep, but I feel like I needed to vent my feelings on a platform where not many of my friends know about, if any. As an incredibly insecure person, I feel as though I am being judged 24/7 with everything that I post online. I now only really use Facebook as a place to talk to my friends and share things with them whilst I am away from home. I post on twitter more often, but not too much.

I hate making new years resolutions, as I have found that a lot of the time, they aren't really very realistic for me as a person. But what I have done, is thought of a few changes that I want to make in my life in general, to make these goals seem more reachable:

  • Share my feelings more.
It sounds weird, but as a shy person, I don't really tell people what I'm thinking a lot of the time. Sometimes I even feel like I have to hold back from my boyfriend and my best friend, which I shouldn't. I get scared very easily that I will be judged by them, yet they are the closest people to me.

  • Be more confident.
This one's a bit cliche, right? My whole life I have felt like I've lived in the shadow of my friends. Since starting university, I have gained so much more confidence, but since the start of my second year, I feel like it has been knocked a bit. I need to learn to care less about what other think about me.

  • Be healthier.
Another cliche 'resolution', I know. I do eat pretty well whilst at university (yep, surprising), but I'm going to make sure I am even stricter on my relationship with food. Also, I have had a gym membership since September, and lets just say that I haven't really gotten my money's worth yet.

  • Take control of my anxiety- BE HAPPY.
I have struggled with anxiety for a number of years, but never really felt like I have been in full control of it. Some people think that you can just switch it off, but it can really affect your day-to-day life and they just can't see that. It is a mental health issue that a lot of people do not understand. I am trying to make my life more stress-free, which will help a lot with this. (I will probably be writing a full post on this point).

I thought it would be a good idea to get these down now, so that I can look back and see if I have actually made changes in my life to accomplish them.

Anyway, I hope that everyone has had a lovely Christmas and a wonderful New Years.

I feel like this is just the beginning for this blog now. I am more in control of my life, and I can't wait to see where it is heading.


Thank you for reading,

Paige xo