APPLYING TO UNIVERSITY

Tuesday

I am in my final year of college and will be completing my A-levels next year so now I want to move on to bigger things; bigger things being uni. I have recently applied to 4 universities all in the south of the UK. This turned out to be quite a lengthy process as I had been visiting the universities of my choice since July and I honestly had no idea how to go about applying to university. Going to visit the universities on open days was honestly the best thing to do as they really show in detail what uni is actually like and the uni you choose might look good on paper but you may find that when you actually have a look at it that it really isn't for you. Looking at a few really helps because it shows you which ones you like best so you can order them into a sort of hierarchy.

Deciding what to study at university was also quite difficult for me as there is so much choice, maybe even too much choice, and I am the most indecisive person ever. Eventually, I decided that I was going to do a BA Media and Communication degree. This was a hard decision to come to as I also wanted to study Philosophy and Ethics but I preferred the look of the content covered at A-level and having looked at the course at different universities, it just wasn't what I was expecting. The media and communications course covers both practical and theoretical content which is good for indecisive me. Funnily enough, I also don't know what my plans are after uni and all of the people I have spoken to about the course said that it is the right one for me because it could lead you into a wide range of careers, unlike a degree in fashion journalism for example, which is more specific to a career choice.

Before choosing my top universities I had to consider the realities of it like how I'd get home, where I might look for part-time work, money and boring things like that. I didn't want to go too far from home which is why all of the universities of my choice are only an hour away from my home. There are no closer universities because I live in the middle of nowhereland, walking distance from Stonehenge. Once I had chosen my top universities, it was time to do more boring stuff like making a UCAS account in order to apply to them. UCAS the website used when applying to university where you store all of your details and write your personal statement. After completing the requirements from UCAS, the application was then sent off to my lecturers at college so they could write references for me and then send the applications to the universities. BORING.

I am now waiting to hear from all of the universities. I will either receive an unconditional offer, a conditional offer meaning that I will get in if I get the grades required, or they will decline me altogether. HOPEFULLY, I won't get declined as I have worked really hard at college to achieve the goal of going to uni and I got good grades last year so if this year goes well too then I'm all set! It's weird to think how this time last year, I had no idea what I wanted to do after college, now I have gotten to the point where I am waiting for replies from universities. Just goes to show that even me, the most indecisive person in the world decided on something. If I can do it, you can do it too.

Thank you so much for reading and I will keep you updated on the uni situation :)

20 GENDER NEUTRAL CHRISTMAS GIFT IDEAS

Wednesday

I know it's not quite Christmas yet but it's beginning to be the time of year where people start thinking about buying their Christmas presents if they haven't already started. Buying gifts can be so hard sometimes because you might not have a clue what to get some people, or ANYONE. If that is you then hopefully this list of gender neutral gift ideas will help you in some way.

Gender neutral Christmas gifts
1. Favourite chocolates /sweets or any other food favourite
2. Books
3. Stationary
4. Novelty mugs
5. Clothes
6. Accessories
7. Jewellery
8. Hobby related items e.g.
9. Tickets e.g. concert tickets, theatre tickets
10. Socks (it's not Christmas without socks)
11. Games
12. Gift card for their favourite shop
13. Picture frame (with or without picture in it)
14. Perfume/aftershave
15. Bath & shower stuff
16. Ornaments
17. DVDs
18. CD/vinyl
19. Adult colouring book & pens
20. Art

I hope this list helped you in some way and maybe gave you some ideas. Obviously there are other gifts that you could get people that are typically tailored to just one gender but this is just an overall list of things that could suit anyone. Let me know in the comments if you have any other gift ideas. Thank you so much for reading :)