The Randomness Ensues…

So it’s definitely been a while, sorry for being away so long. It has been possibly the most stressful month of my life but all the stress is now over. When I last blogged, I had just been to a couple interviews for my PGCE. Well…after four nerve-wracking interviews and plenty of panicked waiting, I found out on Friday that I have been accepted! Very exciting knowing that from September, I am going to be training at UCL to become a Social Sciences teacher. It is going to be a really difficult year financially and there will be little time for much else than studying BUT it is all going to be worth it J

Now for that last push to finish my degree! I have four weeks of lectures, two coursework submissions and three exams between me and graduating. Definitely looking forward to a break – I feel like it’s been non-stop for three years but I’m really going to miss this place…

On the upside (as there always is one), I get to move back out of London with the Kitten to the greener pastures of Surrey. I adore living in London but I’m excited to be a tourist coming here again. I’m ready to have a garden and my family around me for BBQs and have my niece round to ride her bike, it’s been a long time waiting for this - much excite! J

As I already feel I have nothing else to say due to my brain being bogged down by dissertation work, I shall leave you with an excerpt from a book I recently read:

“...I see myself at crossroads in my life, mapless, lacking bits of knowledge - then, the Moon breaks through, lights up the path before me...”

John Geddes, Familiar Rain

Even if you don’t know which path to take or people are telling you what is best for you: be true to yourself and do what makes YOU happy. It’s not necessarily a bad thing to not know what is coming next. A path will open for you. 

Busy Bee!

It seems there’s a bit of a gap to fill. To catch you all up…I applied about two weeks ago for my teacher training programmes. The last couple days, I’ve actually been at the interviews I was offered. The two I’ve been to are School Direct programmes so I would train to be a teacher whilst working in the school full time. The interviews were really intense. I had to do A Level papers to prove my subject knowledge, teach a lesson to Year 12s, give a presentation and have a standard interview. Two very stressful days and now the wait begins…

…I really hope that I do get on to the teaching programme this time but if not, I would happily stay at Greenwich a bit longer and do my Masters in Psychology instead. I’ve loved my time here and I’m not sure I’m ready to enter the real world just yet anyway!

In other news…my kitten (now officially cat L) turned one whole year old last week. He was treated like a king with tuna and shrimp but is now ignoring me for abandoning him for two nights (don’t worry, he was looked after by his other human)! Fickle.

It was nice to be away though, to spend some time with my parents. Coursework deadlines have been so insane lately that to take a break was just what I needed. I even got to see my best friend for a couple hours between interviews. Final year is non-stop so I’m really looking forward to a few days of eating and drinking way too much at Christmas.

I also might get a chance to catch up on my films and TV. Even though it’s technically part of my dissertation to analyse horror films, it’s definitely a good excuse to put my feet up with some popcorn. I’m going to be looking at how fear and violence are portrayed in three subtypes of horror films. Hopefully it won’t be as boring as it sounds…at least the watching of the films won’t be. No doubt I’ll be cowering behind my sofa for most of the Christmas break- between the shovelling of popcorn. My dissertation/I finally have a break media list involves a bit of Scream, a lot of Freddy and a pinch of Chucky.

Really looking forward to a bit of Supernatural action over the break as well. I’ve been banned from watching Season 10 for now until it ends but I’ve asked Santa for all sorts of SPN geek spec presents. Here’s hoping I’ve been good enough this year to get that Misha Collins t-shirt I’ve been eyeing up! And if you don’t know what SPN is, here’s a little bit of education:

Yes, they are really that beautiful.

Until next time chickadees and if I don’t see you before, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

So my first blog…here goes!

I’m Jenna, I study BSc (Hons) Criminology and Criminal Psychology and I finally made it to my last year! So now the stress begins all over again with Teacher Training applications and filling out the dreaded UCAS form. It’s not as bad as I thought it would be but I am struggling with what to say in my personal statement. See, I know what I should put, but I don’t know how to make myself stand out. I’ll keep you posted with how that goes anyway :)

So…I really want to teach at Secondary level. When I was at college, I had no idea what I wanted to do but then an amazing lecturer (Auntie Linny) helped show me the way. After that, while I love Criminology, I wanted to promote education in the way she did. Later, I might help people on the shrink couch but until then, teaching is definitely for me!

On another completely unrelated note: I am a cat person. I’m not a crazy cat lady by any means but I love animals, especially cats. I have a little male hairless sphynx kitten that is absolutely mental and takes a lot of my time- he’s a huge attention seeker. Even though I like exotic house cats, I’ve been looking into going back abroad to do Big Cat Conservation in Costa Rica. Last summer I went to Morocco to work in orphanages and with “street kids”. It was an incredible experience and something I would always recommend but I think this time I might work with animals. They say “never work with animals or children”, well I’d quite like to prove a point and work with both :)

So until next time when I’ll hopefully have some news about my application, here is a picture of a cat: