Wednesday 5 February 2014

Candles

This is my first post on my iPad, so please bare with me. Sorry that the photos aren't great!

I have always loved candles, and for the past year my love has grown. I love standing in various shops, smelling all the different varieties. I could literally spend hours doing it!

I have trusty oil burner, which I use the Yankee Candle tarts in.
 
I have Christmas Cookie in there at the moment, and its divine. I have been using slightly deeper tealights in there, with a vanilla scent, which intensifies the aroma in my room. 
They are brill!

I caved the other day in the garden centre, and bought my first every Yankee Candle jar. I was lured in with the 50% off as it was a seasonal scent.

This scent is just SO me (if that makes any sense at all!!) and it has been left with its lid off to hopefully soread some of the scent, without having to burn it yet. I am struggling to pluck up the courage to do so!

I also like to dot some tealights around my room. It creates nice soft lighting, as well as giving the room a nice warm and cosy feeling.

Not a very interesting post, but at least it's something! 

xx Sophie xx

Monday 3 February 2014

The Uni Debate

I grew up in a family where no one went to University. My Dad did an apprenticeship in motor vehicle mechanics and my Mum had no further education after she left secondary school. My brother followed in my Dad's footsteps, and is a motor vehicle technician by trade, but now works as a vending machine technician. All my cousins are a lot older than me, and they too didn't go much further in education after secondary school. 

So I could say that there was quite a bit of expectation that I would go to University. I was a bright student in primary school, and it all looked very promising. But then I hit secondary school. I was in the band of A*-C students. This meant that I was ok to them. I would get them the grades they needed to keep their league tables in check. The students that got most of the support were the ones bordering on the C grades, and then the rest of the sudents that got support were the super duper bright ones that got like an A* in every subject.

I went to college not really having a 'life plan' as such. I went because that was the done thing, and I didn't have anything else to do! I couldn't get a job because I had no A-Levels. So that was the path I went down. I studied English Literature, English Language, Sociology and Psychology. I dropped psychology after my first year, and carried on with the rest to make up my A-Levels. It just wasn't for me, I have never really been a big fan of science!

To tell you the truth, my time at college dragged like crazy. My last year being the worst. It is crazy to think I only spent two years there. It definitely feels like way more! I think to me, college just highlighted how immature everyone else still was. I had done most of my growing up. I've always head an 'old head' on me as my Uncle John likes to say! But I think some of my boredom was brought about because I didn't know what I wanted to do when I left. I was there for the sake of it, not because it was helping me to gain qualifications in a subject I needed for my desired proffession.

My final results weren't brilliant, but that also has something to do with the rough patch I was going through with my boyfriend at the time. But I really lacked the motivation. And because I was so undecided, I couldn't justify going to Uni. I wouldn't even know where to start with what I wanted to study. I knew that I would just study something for the sake of studying it, and because I had kind of enjoyed it at school and college. But that wasn't enough of a reason for me. Uni wasn't for me. And who knows, I could go later on in life, but right now it isn't the best for me.

Instead, I managed to extend my part-time hours in the bakery I was working in, to full-time and I moved stores in order to do it. But it wasn't exactly my dream job, and it wasn't what I wanted to be doing a year down the line. So I started job hunting. I had several rejections. A handful of interviews that all ended up being nos. And I didn't hear back from the majority of jobs I applied for.

But one day, my Mum showed me an advert in the local paper. And that advert changed my life (cliche or what??!!). There were two jobs this company were advertising that I was interested in. A Car Sales trainee postion, and a Car Sales Administrator position. The place suited me down to the ground. Its a small garage with a small showroom, which only sells used cars. But it had the family-run business feel that appealed to me the most. I come from that field, I know that field. I had two interviews, and I got the jobs. Both of them. No one else was hired. Almost like a dream come true, but I think that would be going a little bit too far!

So if I had gone to Uni, I would have missed this job oppurtunity completely. Which is totally wierd to think about. I couldn't imagine working anywhere else at the moment. And I am really enjoying all aspects of my training that I am facing. I know not everyone is as lucky, but I honestly think there is something out there for everyone. So don't feel the pressure to go to University if it's not what you want to do. Life has the habit of falling into place eventually.

xx Sophie xx