Promises.

I promised my Mum that I would finish my course and graduate. I am a week away from finishing all my work, and it hasn’t been easy to say the least but they say if it isn’t hard it’s not worth doing. Some days are really difficult not being able to call her and tell her how my day has gone, good or bad. I have found myself going to dial her number… even sending a text message. I will never be ready to delete it. The memories I have will always be in my heart, any choice I make, anything I accomplish in my life it will be because of My mum Sue. She has always been the drive behind me succeeding in life. She taught me how to be patient, look at things a different light, never dwell on anything in life, she instilled many of her attributes in me. I know that many people say you don’t know what you have until it’s gone, but even with My Mum I never took a day for granted, I loved the chats we had late at night, she would always listen and know the right thing to say in order for me to make my own choices. I promised to finish my course, and not think of her passing away as leaving me, I promised that I would never forget her, that I would always make the right choice for myself, I have and will continue to do that.

Day From Hell.

So close to finishing my dissertation and I was actually enjoying it, plodding along. No stress or worry. So I decided I was going to have a break today and enjoy the sun as it doesn’t seem to be out that often. I put two headings in for the study, and then the computer was not responding. Turned it off. Then put my memory stick back in and all the files were corrupt. All the editing from my dissertation gone, notes, gone, research, gone, articles, nada.. I have been watching YouTube videos, and searching for a solution but there was non. Luckily I emailed a copy to my supervisor, so all I needed to do was go back through it and edit it AGAIN! I have such a bad headache, and as much as I have enjoyed doing the IRS, I REALLY just want it done and submitted. I hate memory sticks, computers, files, and even formatting in a word document, what does that mean!! A word document named dissertation, was all in symbols, and codes, and just plain old jibberish!! I have also downloaded word from my MMU email, because it says it can store the files on-line.. and surprise surprise there was no file saved.

Connected

‘It’s not what you know, it’s who you know’

I have just been reading an article on ‘Connected’ and although I understand being connected through one person to another, I also agree with him when he states that there is a group of people that are influenced by other people’s choices, and less likely to make decisions for themselves independently. Personally if a friend of mine has a friend that I don’t know about, I won’t associate myself with that connection because I don’t know that person at all to call them a friend, unless I decide to build a friendship with the friend of a friend. In terms of making decisions, since leaving care I developed into a very headstrong person, and If and when I know what I want I go out and get it, and if there are any obstacles to overcome then I will whatever the situation.  Professional connections are very important to me as I hear that saying ‘It’s not what you know, it’s who you know’ so in terms of the leaving care ‘system’ I know people from social workers, support workers, their manager and their managers, as they deal with requests or situations that I have been involved with, and I have also had conversations at awards that I have been nominated for. So I understand the importance of building networks, so I know who to go to for what whatever reason.

I like that way he describes people coming together in the form of the bucket brigade, it involves a number of people running to and from the house with a bucket of water with some people getting lost on the way, tired, or spilling water but it is all about the way it is organised. It is more effective in a straight line with people passing down the bucket without spilling water, getting tires or getting lost to and from the house.

During my time at university I have made some great friends, and won’t forget the tutors that have rooted for me when I came back after failing my first year. I don’t see this as a failure, it shows the determination and motivation I had to not only do this for myself, my mum sue but also to the naysayers out there.

Contagious

Why are things talked about more than others? Any content, information or gossip can spread from one person to another. In a youtube clip, Jonah Berger talks about ‘STEPPS’ which stand for S – Social Currency, T – Triggers, E – Emotion, P – Public, P – Practical Value and S – Stories.  Social Currency means that when sharing information it is done for the purpose of making the person look good. Triggers are things in the environment that remind you to talk about stuff that you have found useful or interesting. Emotion in the form means that when you care about something you are more likely to share it. When content is made public because it is easier to see, it can be imitated. The value of information is the practical value and finally sharing a story in putting into the context of a broader narrative. Once these steps have been followed you are more likely to gain attention to it. An example of this is not so long ago, many people tweeted about a dress. Asking whether it was black and blue or white and gold. It was the most topic talked about via social media, and spread like wildfire. That evening there was a campaign made with the dress as the image showing two different colours, and the campaign was based on domestic violence. There are two images and two slogans..

‘Why is it so hard to see black and blue’ and ‘Because they cover it with white and gold’

Because the dress gained so much attention on it’s own, it is more than likely to gain attention in the form of a campaign.

Politics Shmolitics..

An advert came on the TV about the live battle for 10 downing street, against Ed Miliband and David Cameron/.. I think it’s safe to say I have no interest in watching it, would much rather be slapped in the face with a fish! I remember a few years ago when David Cameron was speaking to the public in order to get voted in, and he said he would do this and that.. for example.. Student fee’s.. and I thought what a nice guy.. Next thing you know once he was voted in, the fee’s went through the roof. You can’t really trust these people well I don’t think so anyway.. They say one thing and do another. Voting is around the corner, the adverts have also been on the TV and I haven’t enrolled to be able to vote, it is always said that one vote can make a difference.. Yes.. but for who?!

Progress

Feeling 10 times better today, all I needed was a good night’s sleep and a plan of action to tackle the remaining assignments left. I made corned beef hash last night and took out my frustrating on 6 carrots.. that did actually help! I am getting so much work done today with my dissertation, what makes it easier for me is a structure, mini tasks, and setting mile stones, starting to feel easier to complete. It is going to feel so strange not being in education again, it has been extremely stressful and I have thought to myself why did I ever do this to myself but on the other hand knowing that I have 2 assignments left and a dissertation.. I feel like I am enjoying it.. Only a little bit.. Don’t want to jinx myself! Just taking a day at a time!

Stressed

Ok.. so I think it’ safe to say my stress levels are through the roof. 4 weeks away from finishing university for good, and then graduation is around the corner and I have so much work to do.. I’m sure everyone is feeling like this. This is a nightmare. Another thing that is stressful is MOVING! I will be moving house in May, to another area, I won’t be in education anymore, I will start work in May and start with my driving lessons as it seems to be a requirement for the job role of a support worker. Everything is changing. I feel happy, stressed, scared, tired and excited all at once.

Mobile Phones

One thing that drives me insane is when my sister comes round to visit, she sits on her phone. Glued to it.. can’t seem to put it down for 5 minutes. So I think why come round if all you will do is stay on your phone. I do think that having a mobile phone with you is important, if anything goes wrong you can always phone your loved one. When my partner went away to Africa it was the first thing we decided to do, was make sure that there was a way we could communicate as there was little or no internet connection in Senegal where he stayed. I think I spent almost £25 to £30 a week just to have a phone with him that would be around 5 minutes a day. However, I don’t think it’s nessercary to have it all the time. There’s nothing wrong in leaving your phone at home and going for a walk, and putting it down for an hour while you doing something else, I think some people don’t know if they can live without a phone. Is there a need to stay connected all the time through applications like twitter and facebook, if you want to know what someone is doing go round for a chat and a brew now and again that’s what I think anyway!

On-line Tools

The on-line tools I have used throughout this unit have been ‘Photo Collage’, ‘Canva’ and google maps. I used ‘Photo Collage’ to make a photo for an Inspirational poster task, which was very easy to use, all I needed to do was save the images to my phone and add them to the app to pull it all together however when I used ‘Canva’ that seemed to be more complicated than doing on my app, I can’t remember the difficulties I had exactly, but to overcome the issue I print screened the image on my laptop and cropped the image, and sent it to my emails to get it on to my blog and finally I used google maps to create a map to show how many student were in Manchester, to show how much debt there is when a student decides to complete a course. I don’t tend to use a lot of apps, especially in my personal life because it takes too much time out of my day to manage, and some of them are too complicated as well as forgetting my passwords for the accounts also.

Loneliness

You can feel lonely, even though you’re around a lot of people.. During my time at university, I have a tendency to stay at home, and do my work and become a hermit crab! When I lost my grandad and my mum Sue, I didn’t want to go outside. I would just through myself into my work, these last two weeks, I haven’t been on my phone as much as I thought I would be because I have had so much work to do, but I can leave it alone when I’m at home studying. However, it can get very lonely! Feeling like there isn’t many people you can turn to, or at least anyone who will understand, or agree with what you’re saying about a particular situation, or while everyone is going out and you have to work harder than others to get the grades. I don’t think being lonely gets as much attention as it should do.