Hi Cyber World!
It's Laurell here but all my mates call me Lolly.
I am a born and bred South-East Londoner but at the moment I am studying at University.
I am an outgoing, music lover who loves to talk.
Generally, I start sentences with 'did you know' or 'what I've come to realise is...' and then casually proceed with the word 'actually'...
I haven’t posted a tumblr in ages so my post are going to be backwards.
We had a really productive session, where we completely ripped apart our CVs and Cover Letters. It was really helpful to get another perspective and another pair of eyes.
Okay, I didn’t get a chance to ask 2 people from my generation and 2 people from an older generation because I have been at work 5 days a week but I did get a chance to ask one from each. For the purpose of this post, I will change the names of the people.
Kate’s role at work is to complete the diaries for organisation. She was told my her line manager that some colleagues’ diaries had to be blocked out for meetings. However she misunderstood and those ‘blocked’ slots were filled with something else. The consequence meant that she spent an entire morning ringing external people to rearrange times so that her colleagues could attend their meetings. What she learnt from it was that she could double clarify with her line manager if she did not understand the instruction given. Now she is somewhat over cautious.
John is a supervisor at a retail store and it is his job to count up the money at the end of the day. When the money goes into the secure bags the receipt for every till has to be in it as well. One day he forgot to put the receipt in which meant that the money was unaccountable for and he had to explain to the cash office why there was no evidence in the bag. This may seem minor but in retail this is a big deal! Now John uses the sale assistants to hold the receipts and the secure money bag to ensure that everything is accountable for.
When I screw up, I go into action mode. I analyse at what stage did I go wrong and then I try to think about what I could have done better. I use my self-evaluation to do better going forward.
Okay, so exams are over and I still have yet to write my tumblrs for this week. I’m just waiting for my exceptional awesome magnificent oh-wise ones, that I call adults to reply to my emails.
I am writing this in a delirious state of no sleep because I have been helping my mum with her assignment on access arrangements for examinations. However I have done it on no sleep and cans of red bull but I have realised that although I have “Row Row Row your boat” in my head. The ideas that are rushing through my brain are plentiful and I doubt it’s because I have gone past the threshold of tiredness and maybe entering a stroke of genius.
Now I am considering living in Germany and working the music industry over there. I just need to do some more research.
Anyway, I am off to get some breakfast.
Over and out as this boat goes down the stream merrily…
When I read Camilla’s email about the task for the week, it made me laugh. John Donne said this:
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee”
When I was a child, my mum used to tell me this all the time. She used to say “Laurell, remember no man is an island”. I have always been independent and determined to be not be dependent on others for anything. This is because of something that happened when I was young but as I have gotten older, I have come to learn that ‘no man is an island’ and it is impossible to be completely independent of others. Hitler tried to do this with Germany and failed. Now they are always remembered for the disastrous event that is the Second World War.
There are so many important things in my life right now:
At the moment, it varies on how much I do everything but focussing on this week. I would say I do 80% University work and about 2% on everything else. Uni work can be a killer lol
This post is about purpose and do you ever have one purpose in life or many.
This is an interesting subject because as a young person, the options are limited. I guess even as an adult the options are also limited. Over the weekend, my housemates and I have been discussing what we would like to do in life and where we want to be. Steph who is Colombian, said that eventually she wanted to focus on music and perfect her craft on the piano. However, with her being at Uni she can’t do that. My mum, told me once that when she had children, her purpose in life changed and it was all about being the best mum she could be. Now we are older, she wants to change at least one’d life before she dies.
After having these two discussions, I concluded that the purpose you thought for you life when you were young can change. It might not change or it might change during your teenage years and then in adulthood, you might want to go back to it. It’s funny because everyone says that certain careers have expiration dates but I strongly believe if you are determined and focus you can achieve any goal that you want.
The purpose you want in life, is exactly that, it is yours!
So, it’s essay time and I am totally bummed out. After a great inspiring talk with Ed Howard from asylum records. I am back to the reality of work and that my constant pressure of essays and exams will not finish until I graduate! Yippee…Not!
I am on my final essay which discusses creolisation after having to dig deep in the world of decisions and free will of Alex from a Clockwork Orange. Then when this is all over, I have a german test to revise for. Ode to Joy.
This is the time where I have to challenge my positivity and remember that University is good and wonderful.
So enough of my rant, I think it’s time that I go back to my essay where I am currently about to discuss Derek Walcott and his take on the Odyssey.
Okay, so I have been pretty rubbish at posting tumblrs this last month and I apologise greatly to the Spark+Mettle community and the general world wide web!
Last month was pretty hectic, I turned 21 and I had two weeks full of festivities, I just finished on Sunday.
The day I turned 21, I felt like I had a lot of decisions to make because I finally felt like an adult. I am definitely no longer a teenager or a twenteen and I have to really start taking responsibility for my action and choices. Decision making is something that Suraj, Camilla and I recently discussed as a team. I often use gut instinct, logic and the advice of people. However, due to my lack of tumblrs, decision making can also have an element of prioritisation. I have not used my diary and to-do-list like I usually do and therefore things have got missed or just not happened.
Whatever way you make decisions, stick to it because it works for you. Don’t try to fix something if it is not broke. Decision making can be hard because sometimes you have to say NO but like I did last month, I stretched myself a little too thin and didn’t save time to blog my thoughts.
Speak soon
L x
I decided to interview my dad, not just because I know what engages him but also because I got to find out why…the competitiveness really shocked me. I know that he likes to cooking and gardening. They give him almost the same satisfaction as cricket. I know that cricket would be his career if he could afford the books etc. Then he would be playing for the West Indies…
My dad is a firm believer in doing things that make you happy.
Here is the transcript of the interview:
1) Is there an activity that you enjoy doing when you simply don’t notice time going by?
Cricket training
2) What do you particularly like about that activity?
The competitiveness
3) How often do you get to do that activity?
Being old not as much but it would have been once a week
4) When you were younger, what were you absorbed by?
Cricket - I eat, sleep and breathe cricket
5) Did you ever imagine that this is what you would enjoy now?
Oh yeah
One word to describe that video: AWESOME!!!!
The words were AWESOME!
The animation was AWESOME!
The presentation was AWESOME!
It was so AWESOME that I sent it to friends!
Okay, so Suraj, Camilla and I had an awesome session as per usual.
We spoke about our best thing for the week. Suraj and I were both extremely proud of Camilla because…she was wearing her engagement ring!! Boy was it a rock!
We discussed other positive emotions and the few that I came up with are:
Overall, I think we all came out of the session feeling re-vitalised and positive. Go team CSL!!!!
Okay…
So my first hangout of the New Year was short and sweet.
Our group like to discuss what was our one good thing of the week but this time we got to discuss what our one good thing of the hols was! It was hard but I think meeting with Suraj and his sister was awesome!
We also discussed positive emotions and for me the interesting debate was ‘do you have to be happy to have positive emotions?’
I will leave you with that thought and have a longer post later.
x
