Don't sweat your GCSE results!

GCSE results for 2014 are released this week, and even though it has been 17 years since I collected mine I can still vividly recall that feeling of apprehension as the results day approached. I didn't do great at school, I was bullied from the middle of year 7 onwards and to be honest I just felt isolated and insignificant. The bullying massively affected my attention levels in classes and the confidence to believe I could learn. I recently read a blog post by Carrie Hope Fletcher on her blog all I know now that had a quote about her own bullying at school that I felt summed up my experience of school and the affect it had on me, Carrie said "how could I grow when there were people constantly cutting me down?" So accurate in my opinion. I kind of came in to my own confidence wise in the last year of school, but by then I had fallen in love with a rebelious boy, and that was a massive distraction for me. It was kind of too late to turn my academic performance around and I just didnt have that much interest in it by then. When my results came out I had got mainly D grades which wasn't too bad considering that with the foundation papers I had been entered for the highest grade you could get was a D. I got graded G in maths though which I knew my parents would be disapointed in. I remember as I looked around at the other pupils at the results day and seeing them all hugging and celebrating their top grades, I felt a massive sense of regret. I wished that I had worked harder and that I was going home to tell my Mum and Dad how great I had done. My exam results were not good enough to get me on the 2 year business BTEC that I wanted to do at college so I would have to do a foundation year at sixth form first. During that year I felt even less confident than I did at school, the sixth form teachers treated us like the drop outs, the ones who were likely just there so our parents could continue getting child benefit. All of that coupled with the factor that I was in a relationship with somebody who was emotionally abusive left my self esteem on the floor. I suffered through that year though, and was one of the only two people to actually complete the course. One good thing about that year was that it included a typing course, which I passed and has greatly benefitted me thhroughout my professional life. That summer I decided that I wanted to turn my life around, I wanted to end the destrucive relationship I had been in and I wanted to get away from all of the people I had been at school with and actually do well at college. With all of this in mind I enrolled at a college a couple of towns away where I didnt know anybody and the teachers treated you like adults who were capable of achieving great things. I went there with so much determination and two years later I left college the highest achiever in the class with excellent results, but on top of that I left there a different more confident person ready to thrive in the working world. All I want to say really is that if you have done great in your GCSE's then you should feel extremely proud of yourself, take in the moment and savour it, do something great to celebrate - you deseve it, and don't forget to keep up that work ethic on the next part of your journey. If you haven't done so well for whatever reason then don't sweat it! The grades just get you from one thing to another and there is still time to get where you want in life. Not everybody is acadmically minded and for a lot of people school just isnt a great experience. You did as well as you could at the time, and that is fine. I thought it was so rubbish that it would take me 3 years to get my qualifications from leaving school but I was still just 19 when I started work, which looking back seems very young. There is no set route you have to take to achieve what you want to, if you think that you could have done better then just tell yourself that you will apply yourself better in the next phase of work or study. Whatever your results may be, well done you survived school!

Big Brother 1st August 2014

I wasn't surprised to see Zoe evicted last night as the public had really turned on her over the comments that she made over 'normal people'. I think it was kind of unfairly edited and what Zoe meant was that because the series was big brother power trip it appealed to her more than the average series because the contestants would be high achievers etc. However, she still said that she wouldn't be interested in talking to or sharing a house with normal people so she should take responsibility for that. Chris was still being a bit creepy and over possessive with Ashleigh last night, I would be quite interested to see if they do stay friends outside of the house.

Big Brother Thursday 31st July 2014

Last night there were some home truths for the housemates when they were rated by the public in different categories. Helen didn't take too well to being branded the most two faced housemate, and Chris said he was 'okay' with being called the creepiest housemate, but his little rant in the diary room later on said otherwise. I think Chris can sense that he is being judged by the public over his relationship with Ashleigh, although I don't think the public had a problem with it until he made those comments to Pav about him staring at Ashleigh. I think it's fine that they are friends, Ashleigh seems very mature for her age and that's probably why they have connected, I just worry that Chris is vulnerable and may have stronger feelings for her that will hit him hard when he leaves the house.