I’ve been scarce on social media of late as it was my daughter Natasha’s graduation this week and we had several days in Brighton enjoying the seaside and celebrating her success.
It’s been a time tinged with a touch of sadness and oodles of happiness too. Sadness that she is leaving Brighton and her much-loved university – Sussex – but happiness and promise to come. I can’t believe that it has been three years. It seems like yesterday that we dropped her off at her student accommodation. Her time at Sussex University has had its up and its downs – her first year was tough, especially as she fractured her ankle early on (just before Valentine’s day!) and she lived in a third floor flat on campus, (not a good idea on crutches) at what seemed like the furthest point from her seminar and lecture theatres. More about that here: An Unusual Valentine’s Adventure!
But, she didn’t come home; she carried on, braved it out and showed great character. I admire her resilience greatly, and couldn’t be a prouder mum!
I’m so glad she studied in Brighton, as this has meant several wonderful visits there! I have a great affinity to the sea, I’m always happiest when I can walk on a beach – even the squawking sea gulls don’t faze me!
So my Tanka this week is with that in mind, and the promising future that awaits my daughter and graduates this year. Seize those opportunities guys before the seagulls snatch ’em up!
I was particularly struck by an inspiring speech that Sussex University’s chancellor, the well-known comedian Sanjeev Baskar gave. He said that he took ten long, difficult years of struggle before he became successful. More about that here:
So don’t be disheartened if you are back home living with your parents, have a pile of debt or are not successful straight away. To begin with Sanjeev Baskar @TVSanjeev wasn’t even accepted as a student at Sussex University, but look at him now. Such inspiring food for thought.
Fellow Administrators of our Authors Bloggers Rainbow Support Club #ABRSC on Facebook, myself, my good friends Colleen Chesebro and Debby Gies. Click on Colleen’s and Debby’s photos to be directed to their awesome blogs. These ladies rock!
To inspire and motivate all of you sitting exams and tests, I’m focusing on one precious short and sweet word, Shine.I know that my youngest daughter Gina is starting her mock GCSE exams this week so this is especially for her, and all of you currently studying in schools, colleges, and universities. Gina is a clever lass who excels at course work but finds exams pretty tortuous so that’s why I’m harping on about this. if you saw last week’s #MondayBlogs post you will have seen my photo of my eldest daughter, Natasha Mallon’s artwork, this week I’m featuring another piece that she did whilst studying GCSE Art, the above leaf drawing which I have entitled:
SHINE.
One word, but that is all you need. Shine.
This sentiment is also for all those #Nanowrimo writers out there who are insanely working towards their 50,000 words, you have my admiration, respect, and awe. I’m doing a bit of editing and writing short stories quite feeble in comparison but I’ve got a bit of an excuse, well sort of. I’m starting a new job this week, the day before my birthday! So at the moment I’ve got my daughter’s mock exams, a new job, and as well as this I’m waiting for feedback from The Hilary Johnson Author Advisory Service: http://www.hilaryjohnson.com/ regarding my manuscript. How Exciting!
Getting back to my birthday, don’t ask me how old I am I won’t tell you, I’ll let you guess…. I’m not a day over…. ????
I hope to work this new role alongside my blogging and writing but it probably does mean that my posts will not be as frequent as before. This is the moment when I sigh dramatically for emphasis. Such is life, how am I going to pay for Christmas and book marketing otherwise? Still they say Quality is better than Quantity so I do hope that I will still manage to achieve some Quality and keep you entertained.
I’m going to be super busy. Let’s face it pretending that I’m still fairly young takes up oodles of energy. Anyway I do hope that I will shine and remember to keep on top of everything! A friend of mine gave me a bit of a mobile phone tip – she puts alarm settings in her phone to remind her to do what she needs to do, when she needs to do them, I might have to resort to this tactic so I don’t forget anything. I’ll leave off my birthday reminder, I’m not too ancient to remember it’s my own birthday! YET !!!!
So remember to Shine, in whatever you do, achieve your very best, reach for those intellectual stars, give those exams a bit of an almighty ninja whack in the chops!
Shine, Smash, Sock it to ’em!
And same with that #Nanowrimo writing word count, whack it into submission, you’ll have it praying for mercy, I know you can do it!!
Shine, Smash, Sock it to ’em!NANOWRIMO!!
Oh and to conclude this drawn out waffle, here’s my final thought, it’s about driving. Did that topic come as a surprise? There was a clue in the title: Drive Thru Shine. Whatever is Marje @ Kyrosmagica on about now, you might ask? What has the word drive got to do with the word shine? Well they both kind of sound the same, well driving and shining do, and they both take you places. Driving plays such an important part in all that we do, it gives us freedom to go where we want, when we want, and how we want. The word drive is synonymous with ambition. There is no doubt in my mind that passing my driving test was one of the highlights of my life! That sounds a bit sad but it is true, I managed to finally get my driving licence after I got married, I wasn’t seventeen, I was a bit older. But, if you happen to be sitting a driving test right now and you are a bit dreamy like me, you have my sympathy, let’s just say driving tests, examiners and me ended up knowing each other real well. Maybe I should re-write that last sentence it sounds kind of a bit dubious!!! No matter, I like to make you laugh!
So my driving shine tips would go like this:
Don’t ninja punch the driving instructor that will be an instant fail! Not saying that I ever did this, of course not, even though perhaps I felt like it after I found out I didn’t pass.
Don’t worry about no. 1 that’s just me, you’ll be fine, keep focused, pretend that you’ve already got your licence, that the examiner isn’t right there with you by your side, watching you like a hawk, waiting to slam his clip board into the dashboard for that emergency stop.
Whatever you do don’t let go of the all important steering wheel. That wheel is going to take you places, believe me, I’m behind it and if I (the xxxx ? times failed driver can drive you sure can too!)
Don’t hit that brick wall, it really won’t impress the examiner, and it won’t make your parents too happy either, or if you happen to be a more mature learner, it won’t do much good to your bank balance!
Breathe, this is the first rule of thumb for any exam situation, if you forget it you might just pass out, and that is not to be recommended. Take deep comforting breaths, even if the examiner looks at you as if you are a tad odd, he’s not marking your personality quirks, he’s marking your competency.
Do some yoga the night before, light some aromatic candles, meditate, it really does help.
For #MondayBlogs hastag on twitter, @RachelintheOC, I’m sharing something very close to my heart, some Good Luck Wishes.
What kind of Good luck Wishes? The kind that means that your blogging break gets forgotten for a tiny moment. I’m currently on a blogging break, but I couldn’t resist giving everyone a bit of encouragement before the forthcoming exams. My youngest daughter Georgina will be sitting her GCSE mock exams next week so studying is very much a focus of my and her attention at the moment! Believe me all this helping her with Maths is driving me a bit crazy! Maths seriously gives me a headache! So, I thought I’d try to do something a bit creative to counter the logic of Maths, to balance the right and left side of my brain! I had a bit of a dilemma as I can’t draw or paint, though I do dabble in photography, so, with that in mind I’m sharing a piece of art that I photographed, a floral piece, that my daughter Natasha Mallon did while at school studying GCSE Art.
So Good Luck to everyone studying, doing coursework and exams at schools, colleges and universities. Keep focused and positive, work hard, eat well, hydrate, breathe and stay calm, remember it is just a short spell of hard work and then you can party and have lots of fun!
Next Monday I will be sharing another #MondayBlogs art post to inspire you to achieve your very best.
Best of Luck, keep on smiling. This applies to those doing #Nanowrimo too, Good luck, I wish I was doing it too but life at the moment is just too busy!!
Here’s my contribution to the exam timetable I’ve been getting up and cracking a few eggs in the morning, omelettes or fried egg and bacon sounds good!
As some of you will know from my previous blogging posts I’m on a bit of a blogging break so it will be a bit quiet here on Kyrosmagica, but I thought I might just share with you one little all encompassing post this week as I’m missing joining in on various blogging activities so here’s my entries for Ronovan’s Haiku challenge, Colleen’s Writer’s Quote Wednesday, and Ronovan’s Bewow!
To start with I wrote several haiku, the first few are about my blogging break!
The last few haiku are to inspire, encourage, and motivate students studying for exams this autumn.
Haiku’s On my Mind
A blogging break dear?
No, Haiku’s on my mind,
Three line rich story
Haiku Mind Games
The prompt words stump you
Enter imagination
Haiku mind games
My final haiku are for all those students currently studying for the mock exams, believe in yourself, you can do it, work hard, reach your starry dreams. My youngest daughter is currently looking at Sixth Forms for next year. Last night we went to an open evening and I was really impressed by a current six former in her final year who delivered a truly inspiring speech, and seemed to speak directly from the heart. This has inspired my daughter to set her goals quite high to go to this particular sixth form of her choice. Undoubtedly this will involve a lot of hard work to reach those all important grades that she needs, so this post is with her in mind and for all the other youngsters, and young people who are currently studying for their exams, or doing course work, at schools, colleges, and universities. It’s a tough time but persevere and remember to make the impossible become the possible. Draw this on a piece of paper, or chalk it on a chalk board somewhere you can see it. Make it your goal.
The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education. Martin Luther King. Jr.
Couldn’t agree more intelligence without character is pretty pointless in my opinion, we need both…
I’ve written a quote for Writer’s Quote Wednesday and for Ronovan’s BEWOW – Be Wonderful Wednesday.
I’ve housed this all important quote in the following photo that I took of my ceiling when it was all lit up. The photo made quite a spectacular pattern, which turned out all green which was a bit odd but I’d just been to see Wicked at the Apollo Theatre in London so ……. that was quite appropriate!!
My Wickedly Inspiring Quote:
This is your time to shine, believe in yourself, remember to breathe, eat and rest. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t be the best you can be, reach those all important goals, and remember all the while to stay positive, focused, happy, and encourage and motivate your friends to do the same. Make the impossible, possible.
Good luck in all the forthcoming exams. I’m casting a spell on you to do well!
A new term begins, a bit like the branches of this beautiful tree it proposes many opportunities but also separates too. We are now back to our little group of three and I expect it will take some getting used to again.
The journey to Brighton on Saturday luckily wasn’t fraught with too many issues. We arrived on the seafront, but found that we couldn’t locate the venue to pick up my daughter’s keys! We asked a local taxi driver but she didn’t seem to have a clue so we turned the car around and managed to work it out ourselves. The weather was so blustery, as I left the car, my hair was blown all over the place, and somehow the force of the wind managed to undo my necklace! Luckily I noticed and saved it from being stolen by the wind. I walked in with my daughter and she presented her form only to be told that she needed ID to pick up her keys! Back out into the wind again, no sign of my husband or our car, he’d gone to do a loop around as this area is strictly double yellow lines, no parking allowed. So we waited, and waited, and waited. By this time I was needing the toilet! At last he reappeared, we went back armed with her ID. Problem solved. Or was it? The door wouldn’t open. UGH. Luckily we spied one of the housing advisors and she opened it for us. At last my daughter was presented with a key! Success. Off we went.
Now this is when events became even more entertaining, remember we are in Brighton and in Brighton all sorts of funny things happen, I kid you not. On the way up the hill to her new abode, which by the way is a cute terraced house, with a garden, we saw a bunch of students pushing an enormous wheeled crate up the hill, full of a truck load of moving in stuff, there even happened to be a TV in there! This made me laugh, typical students! I remember once my other half and his then student pals lifted a cooker through the streets of Edinburgh up to their flat too! How times have changed, nowadays students are much more sophisticated, and inventive, none of this brawn, just brain, a wheeled crate is much more enterprising. Anyway, I do hope that they managed to get up the hill okay! After saying our goodbyes, wonder of wonders, an even stranger sight caught my eye. We were stuck at a junction waiting to turn right, the bus on the road ahead stopped, a man hobbled out on his crutches and popped into the off licence for his weekly supply of alcohol, the bus waited patiently and he hobbled back on with his stash at the ready! I’ve never seen that anywhere else in the world, that’s for sure. A Brighton speciality bus service, methinks….
So back to this tree, I sat underneath it in a pub in Blackheath, in London, with my youngest daughter and as I looked up I stared at its magnificent splendour. It must be one of the most striking trees I’ve ever seen. It was lit up with fairy lights, and its branches curved and twisted, in a dramatic fashion, as if it was saying look at me. If it could speak I’m sure it would say, “Aren’t I the most poetic tree you’ve ever seen?”
That tree summed up how I feel about my daughter going into her second year at University, and my youngest starting her GCSE’s. This is going to be some year! They will have so many opportunities, and diverse paths that they might follow which will lead them in many directions, and if they work hard the sky’s the limit for what they might achieve. I do hope my eldest daughter has a bundle of fun, makes lots of new friends, and embraces each and every opportunity with a happy heart, and that my youngest daughter will have a wonderful year with much success, happiness, and fun too. There is the prom to look forward to, I know she will love this! A new dress, shoes, makeup and hair, that will put a smile on her face after all that hard work. As for me, I may have a touch of the new term blues but I’ll be okay, the leaves of that wise old tree whispered and told me so!
Are you suffering from the new term blues too? Do you have a child who has just left the nest to go to University? Do feel free to comment and share I’d love to hear from you.
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