Somme: Lest We Forget

This last week has been for remembering not only those who lost their lives but, for all who fought and partook in the battle of Somme, France, 1916. You will have seen on the News the many remembrance ceremonies held throughout Britain, France and other countries in order to pay tribute to those who risked their lives fighting.

As a history student at university, I take great interest in researching battles from different wars, especially those of the two Boer Wars, The Great War and World War Two. Learning about the Battle of Somme in s5 at high school at Higher Level was defiantly a highlight in my learning (history being one of the only subjects I enjoyed along with music). As I was going from s5 to s6 I was privileged to go on the Battlefields Trip with my school, where we went to Belgium and France to learn more in depth about certain battles.

Newfoundland Park is the memorial for the Battle of Somme where you can walk through what is left of the trenches from the battle and walk around different cemeteries and memorials such as the 51st Highland Division memorial and the Caribou memorial.

Trenches

51st Highland Division

Caribou

This was a very emotional day for everyone on this trip as we heard stories of soldiers who were fighting in the battle and were also given a demonstration of how fast the Allied forces were shot down by the Germans. By the time the Allies got to the German trenches, one soldier out of around 40 was left to fend for themselves. When we took part in marching through the trenches, our tour guide kept taking people out of our formation to indicate when soldiers died, so in the end one person was left. The person left happened to be one of my close friends from school and that really hit home for me and my group of friends. We all began to think about how hard it must have been for that one soldier if he were to survive the whole battle while his friends had all been killed. Would he be relieved he survived and could see his family again? Would he be devastated and go into a depression due to the loss of friends from his division and the catastrophic scenes of death and destruction he witnesses? Would he feel guilty for being the only one to survive the battle? 

Once we had finished our visit at Newfoundland Park we drove up to Thiepval which is a beautiful memorial to commemorate the fallen soldiers of the Somme. On the 1st of July every year, a major ceremony is held to remember the fallen, the injured and the warriors of the Somme. 

Thiepval Memorial

On my trip with school, on of the boys on the trip had a few relatives names on the wall of this magnificent memorial so my friend played a lamont on his bagpipes in order for us to remember and to appreciate their efforts in the war. This was very hard to get through; everyone shed at least one tear at this memorial. For me, this was one of the two most emotional times of the trip due to not only reading the thousands upon thousands of names of soldiers who's bodies were not found on the memorial walls, but everyone on the trip bonded over this and all felt something we had never felt before. That night when we got back to our accommodation the bond between all the pupils on the trip was stronger and more loving towards each other. Just as I image how soldiers in the war would have bonded with each other. 

Their Name Liveth For Evermore 

Lest We Forget.

Lessons Learnt

The space of three months is not a long time when you think about it,  however the last three months for me personally, have been a whirlwind of lessons taught and learned. Who knew that moving away to university could teach someone so many social and personal lessons as well as academic studies in three months.

Leaving the east coast town of Kirkcaldy to move into student accommodation at Strathclyde University on the river city of Glasgow has probably been one of the best decisions I've ever made.  There has been moments of pure bliss and fulfilment as well as states of depression and homesickness.

After studying at a smallish high school for 6 years and seeing the same people everyday makes starting this new chapter in life quite daunting. You are no longer seeing the same faces everyday, the faces you've come to love and maybe for others not so much. For some people it is not such a big leap as they do not move out of their family home. For those who do though, it's a massive milestone in life moving into you're own home and having to do everything for yourself, especially when you're use to having others there to help you. On top of that there are many other fears and worries about starting university.

Having reflected over the the last three months while at home for Christmas brake, I realise there are many lessons I have learnt in this time. The lessons I am about to share with you all now are only a few I have learnt. I could not possibly have enough time or words to write about all of them. So without any further ado, here are my top 5 lessons learnt at university.

Lesson no. 1: Country Girl In A Big City

The lessons began on day one of living in the mysterious city of Glasgow. First of all, I had to learn how to live in a city. That may sound very weird and confusing for many of you reading but if you think about it, I am a country girl. I grew up and lived my whole life in the peaceful country side where my only neighbors were cows, sheep and birds. Living in the city is the complete opposite; student accommodation if full to the brim of different people with different personalities as well as constant traffic and sirens in my case as my flat is next door to the hospital. At night I am use to the silence that fills the country side at any time of the year. The city is a mysterious but wonderful place, it has its pros and cons, pros being everything I could possibly need is in walking distance from my flat, I get much more exercise that usual because my flat is on the top floor so have to walk up and down the stairs more than once a day and with the amount of walking I do on a day to day basis is definitely making me feel a lot fitter. However, the cons are the constant waking up during the dead of night to sirens and not being able to concentrate throughout the day because I'm not use to the constant traffic. Even though I have learned to live with the constant hustle and bustle of city life, I'm still adjusting and not sure if I ever will fully adjust.

Lesion no. 2: Moving In With Stranger

It is always extremely daunting meeting new people, but meeting people you're going to be sharing a flat for at least a year with for the first time is even more so. In the beginning it was extremely difficult as I'm very particular when it comes to shared living space such as the kitchen. I hate it being left in a mess as other people have to use this space, not just you. Finding a good medium of how much tidying I should do and how much the others should do becomes easy after a while. Everyone learns to muck in making it a joint effort, or as we all like to call it, a flat effort. Also, the people we live with all have different hobbies, interest and different ways of learning. For example, I like to have music on when I am studying as it helps me to concentrate where as one of my flat mates can only work in complete silence, another example would be one of my flat mates loving having everyone over to our flat for pre-drinks on a night out and coming in at 4 or 5 in the morning drunk where as I like to have a few quiet drinks and not get too drunk so I can go to bed at a reasonable time. It is all about working with each other to find what works well for all of you, not just certain individuals.  I have been awfully lucky with my flat mate as we all get on extremely well and it is as if we've known each other for years rather than a few months. It is true when people say, who you share your accommodation with really do become like family to you.

Lesson no. 3: Just Ask

Many people who come to university have different struggles weather it is a form of anxiety or dyslexia. A large majority of these people do not know what help is available to them or are too shy to ask. What everyone needs to remember is that the university is there to help you and if asked for help with personal issues - as well as help with corse work - help will be given. I am dyslexic and found out at an assessment that my spelling rate is at 25% as well as my reading rate being the same percentage which is very much below average. I would never have found this information out if I did not ask for the help I need. After the assessment I had an appointment with a kind and helpfully woman who works for my universities disability service; the appointment was to discuss what help I need for during term time and exam arrangements. Due to the type of disability I have, I am being funded a laptop, printer and other items/computer programmes in order to help with my dyslexia. Some people are not too anxious or scared to ask for help but just don't know who to ask or where to start looking for the information needed. The best way to find out is to go on to your university's website and use the search bar to attempt to find what you are looking for. If that fails, then use the phone number or email address provided to get in contact with the main reception at your university and whoever answers your query will be more than happy to help. The key with university is to just ask for help when you need it. The help you want is always there and will not be given if you do not ask.

Lesson no. 4: Is This Love?

With university comes love and relationships, it is all part of the bundle. You may meet your life long partner at university or you may just meet a short term partner who may become a close friend later in life. My experience with boys and love at university has been quite confusing to say the least. After meeting a boy on freshers week and spending a large majority of my time with him for the next month he asked me to become his girlfriend. Now, I'm the type of person to panic over every little, minuscule thing when it comes to relationships since I haven't had the best experience in the past. I decided to keep him as a friend as I did not want to lose him if we were to brake up. After that moment I really began to regret saying no to him and became slightly depressed with the whole situation. Things only got worse when a family member became extremely ill in November. My friends and I decided to go to Edinburgh at the weekend and the boy I was crying over came to me because he wanted to make sure I was alright as I had not been myself the last two weeks. It was after that moment I knew if we were in a relationship and something bad did happen, he would not ignore me or treat me badly. So the week after I spoke to him about us and now we are happily in a relationship. Love and relationships do not come easy, mistakes will be made but they can always be rectified if you talk about your thoughts and feelings with the other person involved.

Lesson no. 5: Keeping Yourself Healthy

It's extremely easy at university to stop paying as much attention to your personal health. The amount of alcohol consumed during the week is unreal due to some clubs doing free entry and £1 vodka shots. Of course with a deal like that, many students will be overjoyed to be able to drink at such a cheap price as their bank account will not have been hurt too badly. Although this may be an enjoyable experience for many, it is not an enjoyable one for anyone's body. Putting alcohol aside for the time being, it is also important to remember to be eating healthily. Now a days it is so simple to pick up the phone and order some food if you cannot be bothered to cook anything that night. Most takeaway food is very unhealthy you and your bank account. From personal experience, I feel miles healthier after eating food I have cooked myself rather than from picking up the phone and ordering it. In the later weeks of November 2015, there was a day I came back to my flat after lectures feeling terrible and slept for 16 hours. That is 16 hours of not drinking any fluids or eating any food which is extremely bad for your body even though I felt like sleep was the best thing for me at the time. This caused me to experience light headedness and to have excruciating pain behind my eyes the next day which was an awful feeling. The best thing I could have done was forced myself to eat, even if it was something as simple as a sandwich. Keeping on the topic of not eating, the weekend after I only had one proper meal over the corse of two days. On the second day, I decided to stay in bed all day watching films. When I decided to actually leave my bed at half 6pm to get a shower I fainted. This could have ended a lot worse than it actually did as next to the shower there is a sink which I very nearly clattered my head on, as well as fainting I could have potentially cracked my head open or knocked myself out of consciousness. Luckily it did not come to that but it very closely could have. I learnt after that incident that I had to be eating three healthy meals a day and not having any food because I do not feel hungry. Now, I cook every dinner time and always try and make it healthy and cut out deserts, I make myself sandwiches for lunch that either have tuna, chicken or an other filling along with salad, and for breakfast - because I don't like milk - I always have toast with strawberry jam and butter or have a strawberry yoghurt with different berries. As well as eating healthy, I like to do some form of exercise every Monday, Wednesday and Friday night after all my university stuff is finished with. The key to keeping yourself healthy is by having a healthy lifestyle, exercise regularly and eating healthy meals to keep your body in tip top condition.

Being at university is a great experience for many people academically and socially. The lessons I have learnt are ones that will stick with me for life and have helped me to become a better 'me' as well as opening my eyes to the real world. The world you are exposed to where you do not have parents breathing down your back 24/7, the world where you have to fend for yourself for the first time. Even though it seems awfully frightening going to university and moving out of your family home, I cannot express enough how enthralling and rewarding it is.

Apreciate the little things in life

Tonight I was out in the garden with my dogs when the sun was starting to set. It was beautiful. That was the moment I realised how incredibly lucky I am to live somewhere where I can see beautiful sunsets, breathtaking scenery and suroundings. 

I had no idea how much I took this for granted untill last week when I took my self for a walk to explore a little. I don't think anyone realises what beauty lies on their doorstep unless you go out and see it for yourself. It's all very well having people tell you what's out there and showing you photos, and although photos capture the beauty of the land, it can't convey it fully. 

Go out and see it for yourself. Become an explorer for the day and go and seek the beauty that lies on your door step. Sunshine, rain, snow, fog; the land can be outstanding in so many different weathers so go out whatever the weather and see true beauty for yourself. 

Just make sure before you go out, the land you want to explore is public, and if it's private ask the land owner for permission to walk on their land. If you don't ask and go on the land anyway it is trespassing, so make sure to ask for permission from the land owner before you go out walking. If you don't want to ask for permission to walk on private land, then find land that is open to the public. 

Like I said, you'll never know what's there's if you don't go looking it. 

Everyone is beautiful

This is just a quick post as this week I've been in so many rehearsals for a show I'm in, Grease, which our first performance is tonight and finishing on Saturday night.

In the dressing room last night, I was talking to a few of my friends about body image and how we all view ourselves when we look in the mirror, coming to the conclusion that everybody will see ourself differently to what you and other people see. 

We started listing things we hate about ourselves and the things we're most self conscious about, lowering our self esteem. This is when one girl said "but the things we hate about ourselves, is probably the thing someone else loves the most about." To which, she was stop on. 

So this is when the little "feel good show" begun. Going around in a circle, we named one or two physical features about the other people in an attempted to get us to love our own bodies and to be comfortable in the skin we have to live in. 

The things we listed went from eyes to hair, legs to curves, chin to shoulders. 

This is such a good way to boost your self esteem and make others and yourself feel good about ourselves and comfortable in our own bodies. 

So if you're having one of those days were you just can't get your hair to fall right and you feel ugly (nobody is ever ugly, only beautiful), or you notice a friend not looking so comfortable in the clothes they've chose, try this little "feel good show" to make everyone feel beautiful. Just to make it clear, everyone is beautiful, even if you don't feel it you are. 

What if...

Everyone has had those 'what if' moments. Either a 'what if I done this?' or 'what if this happened differently'. Today I was sitting in school with my friend during a free period doing some history work when we started saying 'what if...' all to do with the past. 

Have you ever wondered things like 'what if Margaret Thatcher hadn't closed down the mines?' or 'what if Japan hadn't bombed Pearl Harbour in the Second World War?' It really blows you're mind when you think of all the possibilities that could have happened if events had happened differently or not happened at all. 

At night when I lie awake with my thoughts (as you do when you want to sleep), all the 'what ifs' go through my head on a personal leave and I start to question events in my life that could have been different from the like of 'what's if I hadn't of been to five different primary schools, would I still be going to university to study history? Would I have started playing flute?' to 'what if my old group of friends didn't go to Bolivia when me and two or three others went on a Battle Fields trip to Belgium and France, would we all have still stopped talking? Would we have become closer?' 

My head literally hurts after think of all the possible outcomes. The world we live in today could be such a different place to live in. It could be for the better, or it could before the worse. 

I guess we'll never know how the world would be if events had panned out differently in the past, and it's the same for our own personal stories. We all just need to be happy with the life we live, in the world we live in because if you think about the 'what ifs' thoroughly, the world we live in now could be a much worse off place to be. 

Holocaust Memorial Day

27th of January. A day we need to remember. A day just as importance as armistice day. A day we take time to remember the victims of the Holocaust.  

On the 17th of September 2014, my friend Stacey and I were chosen from my school to take part in a project called Lessons From Auschwitz which we heard from a Holocaust survivor and had discussions about it. We then took a day trip to Auschwitz in Poland and when we came back we had to teach classes in our school about the Holocaust. 

The actual trip to Auschwitz was so surreal, just seeing the conditions men, women and children were forced to live in. Before we went to any if the camps we visited a Synagog with a man called Rabi Marcus who is one if the leading Rabi's in Britain. We taught us about the Jewish culture and what they believed in so went we visited the vamps we could see exactly what had been ripped from the Jews, not just their cloths and possession, but their identity, personalities and their culture.     

When we visited Auschwitz 1, we walked around some of the blocks that had been turned into a museum. We were told that the Jews believed they were getting taken away to live bigger and better lives so were to take their possessions, some even dressed in their best clothes. When they got to the camps, it was all stripped if them. We saw all of their pots, pans and kitchen utensils they brought with them; there was a massive display of suitcases with names on them; mountains for adults and children's shoes; clothes and possible one of the most disturbing, the hair of the Jews. The Nazis shaved the hair from all the Jews bodies and then weaved it to the likes of blankets. 

After having a look around the blocks, we want into one if the most eerie and frightening places I've ever set foot. A gas chamber. We weren't aloud to take photos because the flashes would damage the structure but believe me when I say, if you looked closely at the walls, you could pick out scratch marks on the walls from the Jews who were murdered their clawing in attempt to escape. It was totally and utterly barbaric.

  

After we left Auschwitz 1, we traveled to Auschwitz-Birkenau. When we first drew up to the gates, everyone in our bus was surprised how small it looked, however, when we went up into the Nazi watch tower, we were utterly flabbergasted by the size of the camp. It was enormous. Bigger than many people actually think. 

We were taken to the barracks, the huts that the Jews were forced to reside. The first had many 'beds' in it, they were a wooden structure, most if them being slightly smaller than a single bed now a days. These beds would hold a minimum of 3 people and could hold up to 8 or 9 people each. Many people died because of the cramped conditions. The next door barrack was literally 4 lines if holes that lead to the ground. These were their toilets and where they could get 'washed'. Again, many people died because of the disease that would spread from the unsanitary living conditions. 

We walked down the left hand side of the tracks, the side Jews walked down and never returned. It was so devastating walking down the green mile knowing thousands of people had not returned before us. 

Before we left, we had a very emotional ceremony led by Rabi Marcus with many poems, readings and a song sung by Rabi Marcus in Hebrew. At the end of the ceremony, Rabi Marcus blew a tups horn signalling the end of the ceremony as it is a traditional thing to do in the Jewish culture. We were all given a candle each to light and place on the tracks before walking out of the gates. 

As we were walking back to the bus, we saw the most beautifully devastating sight of the sun setting behind Auschwitz-Birkenau gates. 

That day was one of the hardest and challenging days of my life, physically and mentally. Saying that, I do believe everyone should visit Auschwitz because it's the most eye opening experience you'll ever have in your life. 

We learn from history, but we can only learn if we remember the events and the victims targeted. So use today as a day to remember those who died because of their faith and all the others involved such as the Polish, gypsies, homosexuals, disabled etc. Today is a day of remembrance, so please do not forget those targeted during the Holocaust.

Before I Die

There's always at least one thing that you really want to do before you die. It could be something exhilarating like sky diving or swimming with sharks, or it could be something considered as a 'normal' thing to do (whatever normal is) such as graduating from university, or learning to drive. 

Leave in the comments a list of things you want to do before you die, but for now here is a list of 10 things that are on my bucket list.

Let's start of 'normal':

1. Graduate from university with a history degree

2. Learn how to drive

3. Get married

4. Buy my own house

5. Have 3 children (hopefully 2 girls and a boy called Emily, Mali and Jacob. As you can see I've had a lot of time to think about this and when I say a lot, I mean a lot)

Now let's get into the nitty-gritty of it:

6. Travel to Australia 

7. Road trip around Europe (with the lovely Eimy)

8. Go sky diving

9. Swim with sharks

10. Climb to the top of a mountain (don't ask me why, it just really want to)

As well as doing all these relatively fun to extremely exciting activities I also really want to raise money for charities such as for autism as I know a lot of people - children and adults - with autism. I also want to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust as I think it's such a great charity that do amazing work. 

Life is what you make of it, if you're idea of an ideal life is to start a family, work for a living and just have a quite life or if you want to have a life filled with adrenaline rushes and full of adventure, go for it! It's your life, you do what you want to do to make yourself happy. 

"Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy." ~ Guillaume Apollinaire