Behind the scenes- The ups and downs

It's so obvious and I can't lie to you all that recently the frequency of my blog posts have been poor to say the least. But if I'm honest life just got in the way.

It's incredible how much can change can happen in such a short space of time, it's almost as if as soon as you get comfortable in your situation life decides 'Nope, get up off your ass, appreciate what you have, take challenging opportunities and beat any difficulties I throw at you'. Well at least that's what it feels like for me.
My last blog post was in June, so let me tell you a little about what has happened within the past month behind the scenes of this blog into my life:

Exams

 I hate exam season. Everyone is stressed so tempers are running high and there is nothing more you want than no responsibilities for a day so you can just chill out and watch some Netflix without feeling guilty.
Thankfully, my hard work did pay off and I got my results last week and passed all my exams with a high 2:1, yipeee!

Holiday

I was lucky enough to be able to go to the beautiful Santorini in Greece, with my boyfriend mid-July after my exams. I will do another blog post to follow on this, but it was beautiful, fun and amazing.

Placement

After a gruelling process all year I was fortunate enough to land myself a year placement within one of the largest corporations in the world. This means a year out of uni, working a real job at a real company (which means a real salary, HELLOOO TopShop). So far it has been amazing, but don't get me wrong still getting used to the 6:45am alarm and the commute everyday. I love my bed too much!

Moving house

As I am now working and taking a year out of uni I have also had to say goodbye to my old housemates (I love you guys!), and welcome with open arms my new ones.

Long distance relationship (LDR)

Although all the above are positive experiences in my life, this one is not so much. As I mentioned in my post 'Life's harsh truths; Everyone's battle' which you can click here to view, I have been mentally preparing for a situation I could have never have actually been ready for...Today my boyfriend moved to Australia for 5 months. Obviously I am immensely proud of him and 100% support him in following his dreams, but I cannot deny that this news also saddens me. Long distance relationships are hard and take alot of work. The future is uncertain and, is it bad to say I miss him already after a measly 7 hours? This situation is just hard, but I'm hoping that with a new job, being incredibly busy and having new housemates to hangout with that time will fly.

I am finding the sudden realisation of the fact he is gone hard and I would really appreciate to hear from you guys. Have you ever been in a LD relationship? How did it work out? Do you have any advice?

As I said in my About Me section, I want this to be a friendly, loving community which we can support and help each other on, so let's do exactly that!

As you can see, this month has been full of changes, and although I love writing this blog (and I hope you love reading it), I realised I had to focus on my future in exams and preparing for placement, aswell as making the most of the time I had left with my boyfriend.

So share with me your experiences below by commenting, share with any friends you know possibly dealing with a LD relationship or even direct message me on twitter @thoseyoungyears and I will be chuffed to read and reply to what you have to say. I hope you can understand my absence, but I promise from this day, there will be ALOT more content from me.

Much love,

Those Young Years

x

Handling the exam Season!

stress, Stress AND MORE STRESS

Although its Easter and I've never been happier to see the sun and have a break from University, anyone who attends school, sixth form or uni will know, although it's the Easter holidays, there is a catch. Exam season is fast approaching.
From when I started secondary school, it felt like any holiday I had (apart from Summer), was ruined by the upcoming exams. Yes, it's amazing to have two weeks off, but, suddenly the happiness gets slowly sucked out of you when you have 3 homework's due and 8 exams to revise for. On the bright-side, every student in the world feels your pain.
I often found myself internally angry at the education system, how could they ruin our holidays like this? So I'd forget about work, and enjoy my time off (even though the mountain of work was always on the back of my mind), and before I knew it, school started in 3 days and I had done nothing. Nightmare!
As I grew older I realised exam season didn't have to be this stressful, the key to it all was having a clear mind and an organised work schedule and place...

Step 1: A clear mind
Putting off work for the whole holiday and being constantly worried at the back of my mind about the mountain-load which was not decreasing, does not create a clear mind.

After a term of school, yes, we are entitled to a break. However, I realised for me it was best to dedicate a few days at the start of my holiday to not worrying about my workload, and concentrating on relaxing, clearing my head and enjoying myself. Because let's face it, after a term of early mornings and too many homework's, your brain does feel like mashed potato (Irish problems). I found that when I did then start my work 4 days later, due to actively dedicating a few days to no work, I didn't feel guilty. Therefore I had a fresh, ready to go mind, which made me more motivated and work harder after the 4 days of rest.

Step 2: The transition day- A day dedicated to preparation
It's the oldest trick of the book, taking a full day to write a revision timetable, to then realise you need the next day to buy stationary, then the day after you need to do this, this and this.... And before you know it, you've wasted 3 days on preparing to start, now your revision timetable is messed up and you're going to have to spend another day fixing it. Procrastination at its finest.
So instead, spend a morning writing a to do list for revision. One might look a bit like this;
*File block
*File dividers
*Coloured pens
*Highlighters
*Sticky notes
Then in the afternoon, go get all the stuff you need, write a revision timetable, then start your revision the next day. No excuses!

Step 3: The revision timetable 
Whether you organise your revision through time periods (2 hours of Biology revision), or topics (Finish topic 1 of Biology), find the method which suits you best in the time frame you have! Revision timetables are fun to make, and can be quite motivating. So make sure you are realistic in your goals, and I always find colour coding by subject helps!
Take breaks when you need to, there is no point revising for 3 hours straight but not being able to remember a thing because your brain is exhausted. And if you're like me, snack if it helps! Nothing makes me happier than a cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit whilst revising.

Step 4: Get revising
Turn off all distractions (Facebook, Twitter etc), until

your revision is finished or you have earned a well deserved break. Drink lots of water and get cracking!
Being prepared and dedicating a few hours a day to revising means you can still do fun stuff throughout your holiday, it doesn't have to be stressful.  So good luck, and if the beautiful, shirtless photo of Ryan Gosling doesn't motivate you, I don't know what will!

Are you stressed about exams? Have you any other revision tips?
Comment and let me know!

Keeping living and learning,
X  

p.s. I've just got Twitter! Everyone follow me at @thoseyoungyears, to find out more about everyday life and to interact with each other more!