Spring

The snow has melted, the grass is now green

Spring has arrived and is here to bring

A fresh perspective, a season of hope

A burst of joy, a new song to sing

Pretty spring flowers, yellow, pink and white

Warm April showers and brand new life

Greeted with all the happiness,

The expectancy of a newly wed wife

The leaves slowly return, embracing new friends

Full of life and colour, a vivid lush green

Choose wisely, the leaves you allow to grow

Choose leaves that are kind and encourage you to dream

Look forward to new beginnings

Soak up that warm sun

But don’t get too comfortable

For the really work has barely just begun

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Modern day slavery

Once upon a time, it was the males duty to provide for his family by hunting and gathering. It was the female’s duty to prepare the food and look after the home whilst her partner did so.

That was a VERY long time ago.

Now, we live in a world where some women are forced to work on street corners, to enable her and ‘her fella’ to get high that night. He will drop her off, and not allow her back in the house until she has made enough cash to get them through to the next day. That’s if they make it through the night.

If she tries to stop, she’ll get beaten, making it harder for her to entice customers. And even if she manages to get away the withdrawal symtoms will probably kill her anyway. There is literally no escape.

So when you’re about to call someone a whore, or you’re about to look down on a woman involved in prositution, just stop and think. That woman, is still a woman. She is still a daughter, a sister, a mother. Yes, she fell in love and made a bad choice but honestly who hasn’t? None of us are perfect. That’s the nature of being human.

How can we help?
Volunteer/Give – there are loads of charities that assist women involved in prositution in various ways such as health care, lifts to appointments, job interview tips, food, condoms etc etc
Challenge – the next time you hear someone talking about a woman involved in prositution in a negative way challenge them – help them see the other side of the picture
Be Kind – just as you would offer a homeless person some change, the next time you see a woman involved in prositution talk to her – see what she needs – ask if she has eaten today – buy her a sandwhich

 

FOCUS

With one week left to my half marathon and only three weeks left of term (when writing this post), today was a day of refocusing, recentering.

Its been good to reflect on what has gone well over the last few weeks and the things that I’ve let slip which need to be picked back up again. The three main catogories being: diet, dating and doing revision.

DIET
At the beggining of January I decided to make the scary decision of coming off all my perscribed medications. Turns out the medication was making me more ill than my actual illness & it wasn’t even working anyway… so best. decision. ever.
I worked with a nutritionist to use my diet as my new form of medication. At first it went really well and I even managed to keep to the strict supplement schedule, but as the weeks went on I slowly started re-introducing forbidden food groups (mainly beans and the occasional dose of gluten). I realised that these slip-ups have been mostly due to a lack of preperation rather than a lack of self-control. SO to counter balance this, I have created a meal plan! The plan is to avoid all white/unhealthy carbs and eats lots of protein/fat. This is to help me become a fat processing running machine!

DATING
I have also set up some really healthy boundaries with this new guy I have just started dating. We both really like each other so it’s been a really fun but rather intense couple of weeks, and obviously that is just not sustainable. I noticed within 2 weeks that the amount of contact we had was beginning to feel addictive but draining at the same time.

He makes me laugh out loud at some of the awful jokes he produces and hilarious stories he tells. I guess its just nice being able to talk to someone you click with. But because we enjoyed the conversation so much we got lost in it and kinda overdosed on it. Turns out you CAN have too much of a good thing. 

After talking about it (communication is key) we both agreed that we wanted to keep seeing each other at the same level but decided to cool off the texting element. Which really gives us the best of both worlds. It also means that the quality of conversation we have when we are toegther will be better and it gives us the chance to miss each other a little during the day.

DOING REVISION

I learnt last term that I need to revise a topic as soon as its taught. However, that requires time and effort and determination. Once i’m in the revision mind set – nothing can stop me. HOWEVER getting into that frame of mind is so hard.

Does anyone have any revision tips? If so… please share in the comments below!

Tick tock goes the clock

I always thought I’d be married by the age of 21. That I’d have a stable job that I love, a smoking hot husband and a small house to make my own.

I’m now 23.5 years old and I’m not even remotely close to that life. Hell, I’m not even sure I want that life. I don’t have a job, a boyfriend or anything of substance to my name. I am also rapidly running out of savings… yet some how that’s ok. Yes I want children and a house, but I’m not so sure about a 9-5. That’s why I want my network marketing to pick up so that I can leverage my time more effectively.

I’d like a couple of my own businesses too but they’re top secret for now 😉

I’m quite glad things turned out the way they did, even if it does mean I’m slightly strapped for cash for a few months.

107,602,707,791

Last night I had a dream, and in my dream I was in the most beautiful library you could ever imagine. As I walked in, the smell of old books hit me, almost like the heat hits you as you walk off the plane towards your holiday destination.  This library was huge, it had about 400 floors of books. The ladders looked rather precarious but the librarians operating them seemed unphased by the hight and unstabilty before them.

I soon got the impression that this was no ordinary library. There were no other people inside, yet I didn’t feel like an intruder, I felt at home. I decided to have a closer look so I climbed the stairs to the first floor of books. I ran my hands across them as I walked past hundreds of books. When I got tired, I stopped and decided to open a book. It was called 09/03/2009 “how uncreative” I thought. But as I turned through the pages I realised that these were not the novels I had expected, instead they were full of events that had happened on this date.

08:15: Ignored brothers request for a hug
09:04: Disrespectful to her mother
09:13: Thought mean things about the new girl at school
09:31: Thought unpure thoughts towards the boy she fancied
10:08: Lied to a teacher regarding homework

and this was the first page of 500, of 09/03/2009 (what I thought was a rather insignifcant day until now).

I soon realised that these books were records of all the sins I had ever commited in my life.

I felt overwelmed and started to cry. I felt ashamed of all of the bad things I had done in my life and wondered how I would ever begin to make up for them all. But then, one of the librarians came up to me and asked what was wrong…
I replied “Look at what I have done, how could I ever pay off this debt that I owe”
The librarian smiled and gave me a hug, “but look here, you see that signature after each line? Its quite messy I know, but that’s Jesus signing them off, saying that you have been forgiven of each and every sin you have ever commited and we even have a section over there with the sins you havn’t even commited yet. Your debt has been paid, you are a free woman.”

****
According to google, there have been 107,602,707,791 people born on this planet.
Now consider how many people are yet to be born. That is a lot of librarys.

When you hear the message this Easter that “Jesus died for all our sins” I want you to think about the gravity of what that means.

Every unpure thought, white lie, war, gossip, murder, act of greed/voilence/selfishness/abuse/pride/hypocrisy that has been commited in the past or in the future has been forgiven so that we might be able to have a personal relationship with God and enter into Heaven when we have finished our time here on earth.

That’s why today is called Good Friday.
For it was the greatest day in history.

Why Uni? Why Now?

6 months ago I made the scary decision to leave my full-time, well paid job to become a student.

The decision was made on various different factors, the main two being:

• I was ill

The job I was doing at the time was so stressful it actually triggered an auto-immune disease, which has been dormant in my system my whole life, to become active and created various serious health issues. I felt like going back into that job would have been detrimental to my health.

• I was still young

At the time I was 22 and I couldn’t help but think that there had to be more to life that working 50-60 hours a week behind a desk working towards buying my CEO his third holiday home. I was young and stupid enough to change my circumstances before I became part of the furniture.

SO HERE I AM 1.5 semesters later… and do not regret my decision at all.

Stay tuned for:

• Why Business Management?
• Why Coventry Uni?
• Being a Mature Student
• Living “at home”

Are you contemplating becoming a student in the UK? Do you have any questions you would like me to cover? Let me know in the comments 🙂

EXPLORE THE MIDLANDS (FOR FREE)

Part two of this series will explore all the activities you can do in the Midlands for free!

1. PARKS – use the 1364 hours of sunshine we get in the area to get outside!
   -Lickey Hills Country Park (Rednal, B45 8ER)
   -Sutton Park (Sutton Coldfield, B74 3EW)
   -Cannon Hill Park (Moseley, B13 8RD)
   -Memorial Park (Coventry, CV3 6PT)
2. MUSEUMS – and for the rest of the year stay dry and take in some culture!
   – Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (Bham City Centre BCC), B3 3DH)
   -Transport Museum Coventry (Coventry City Centre)
   -Lapworth Museum of Geology (Edgbaston, B15 2TT )
   -Ikon Gallery (Brindleyplace (BCC), B1 2HS)
   -Bantock House Museum & Park (Wolverhampton, WV3 9LQ)
3. PLACES OF INTEREST
   -Coventry Cathedral (Coventry City Centre)
   -Stratford upon Avon
   -St Nicholas Park (Warwick)
   -Leamington
   -Birmingham Canals
   -Coleshill
4. FURTHER AFIELD (1-2HRS AWAY)
   -Malvern Hills
   -Tweksbury
   -Worchester

There are so many cute wonderful places on your doorstep it would be a crime to not explore at least some of them over the three years you are studying and as these are all free you literally have no excuses not too!

Have I missed any local treasures? What do you like to do for free in the Midlands area?

My Mom

Never in my life have I met anyone as patient as you
Bringing up four crazy kids OR five including dad
Everyday a hetic one with no chance to breathe
Still theres a 0.000001 chance of us ever seeing you mad

Never in my life have I met anyone as talented as you
From hairdressing, to nails and amazing special cakes
Christmas dinners, ginerbread creations and beautiful eggs
She never ceases to amaze me with all the things she makes

Never in my life have I met anyone as selfless as you
You sacrife your own happiness in the blink of an eye
Theres nothing you wouldn’t do to help someone else out
As a mother, friend and wife – you have raised the bar high

Never in my life have I met anyone as spirited as you
From climbing up mountains or hiking around a lake
To taking on projects completely out your comfort zone
Attacking them with grit and strength, refusing to ever break

Never in my life have I met anyone as determined as you
In every decision, every action and every word you say
You glorify God, and actively follow his plan for your life
For all this and so much more, you truely deserve a Happy Mothers Day.

A celebration of women

Give her a boy and she’ll create a King
Someone who is repected and loved
A man capable of overcoming anything

Give her a house and she’ll design a home
She will use any space no matter how small
Somewhere safe and warm to call your own

Give her ingrediants and she’ll make a meal
With a sprinkle of  kindness and a splash of joy
She leave you full of whatever you need to feel

Give her love and she’ll use it to lift you
To show you that your capable of
Achieving things you never knew

Give her a task and she’ll give you more than you need
Leaving you with ABC as well as XY and Z
You’ll be in awe of the places it will lead

Give her a girl and she’ll create a Monarch
Together they will fight to save the world
Shining so brightly, sharing their beautiful inspiring spark

EXPLORE THE MIDLANDS (£10-£20)

This post has been inspired for students studying in the Midlands who want to know the places worth visiting! As there are soo many great places to visit I have decided to spilt the posts into price/location catogories.

DAY TRIPS £10-£20:
Prices listed are approximates for individuals with a student discount card.

Sea Life Centre Birmingham (City Centre, B1 2HL: £10)

Now this is my personal fave as I am Queen of Penguins, make sure you get your 40% student discount online or 2-4-1 ticket when travelling by train. It isn’t as big as the one in London and should only take between 20-60 minutes depending how fast you walk!

Thinktank Birmingham (City Centre, B4 7XG: £10)

If you like Museums/Science – you’ll LOVE this place and its a good excuse to explore the city centre also.

Cadbury World (Bournville, B30 1JR: £12)

Its a cardinal sin to live in the Midlands and not go to place where the story of REAL Chocolate began! You get to learn loads about the beautiful history of the place AND get a load of free chocolate.

West Midlands Safari Park (Bewdley, DY12 1LF: £15)

Again – PENGUINS but also loads of other cool animals/rides and genuine fun day out. You will need a friend with a car though! I would avoid weekends as it gets really busy + you get a nice discount if you go mid-week.

National Space Centre  (Leichester, LE4 5NS: £11)

For a truely out of this world expierience, visit the Space Centre! (Especially fun on those typical English rainy days as its all indoors)

Warwick Castle (Warwick, CV34 4QU: £13-16)

Warwick is a lovely area, full of history and a typical quaint english town. If you want to visit the castle, book online to avoid overpriced tickets. Also don’t forget to explore the highstreet and St Nicholas’ park whilst you are there.

Kenilworth Castle (Kenilworth, CV8 1NG: £10)

Another quaint town well worth exploring and learning about the history.

Black Country Museum (Dudley, DY1 4SQ: £15)

Definitely a “Sunny Day” activity – but there is loads to do! Visit ol’ England, explore a coal mine, visit a traditional Fish and Chip Shop and become part of history for a day.

Whats your favourite Day Trip in the Midlands? Share in the comments below.
Don’t forget to check back for free activities and weekend break ideas!