Half Term & Feminists or Idiots

Hey everybody,

Half term has finally started..hallelujah! (I just realised that's a religious word but I still use it as an atheist, oh well freedom of speech and all that)

Recently one of my favourite people who I'm about to meet (the one and only Tyler Oakley ofc) and he like so many other people brought up the topic of feminism. I agreed with him 100% and I just wanted to rant about it because I feel like so many people misunderstand what feminism is really all about.

In simple terms, if you say you're a feminist it just means you want females to be seen as equal to men and to have equality in the world. However the way it's promoted a lot of people tend to see it meaning women wanting the female race to be superior than men and that's just wrong! Don't get me wrong some people might believe in that but the word originated from empowering woman so men aren't seen as so superior, for example it's all about making sure that men and women who are doing the same jobs get payed equally as in some countries men get payed more than women for doing the same job, now how is that fair?!

So yeah I'm a feminist not an idiot as my title suggests you're either or (credit to Tyler's tweet for that) so I hope I've explained myself alright. Moving on as I'm just so excited to have a well deserved break from school even if it it's only for 1 week, I'm gonna take than and run with it..(not literally though you know how I feel about exercise;) Like I explained last week I do have several plans which I'm looking forward too, starting Monday but obviously I have homework and revision because god help us if we actually relax for too long..we might actually you know not permanently feel stress..I wonder what that feels like?!

For me and I presume many of you, it was recently parents evening last Thursday which I always dread and especially this time as I completed a criminal psychology mock exam paper which our teacher perfectly timed for parents evening (great right). Although saying that my teachers showed my parents my grade first but they didn't give away too much with their reaction but guess what..I got a B!! I revised and worked hard for that so I'm super happy, which involved talking to myself a lot when I was testing myself on my flashcards, hopefully I'm not the only one who learns better by repeatedly saying everything out loud.

Since the pressure of UCAS still looms over all our shoulders (if you're 17/18 like me), I wanted to find more universities as you have to pick at least 3 and the more the better as the more uni's you have the better odds you have for at least getting an offer from one of them. York has always been a favorite ever since the open day and then just Leeds as a backup although I 100% would rather go somewhere else than sticking to my hometown; especially as it pretty much is in the center of Leeds which doesn't appeal to me. My other choice is Sheffield and I went to a open day yesterday and I was nicely surprised with Sheffield as I had created a vision of Sheffield being an unattractive place but where the student accommodation is, it's actually a super cute area near the woodlands.

These two pictures are of the Ranmoor accommodation which is the smallest student area, still holding 1,500 people but compared to the other one it's smaller. Sorry about the quality of the pictures but I used my Lumix camera instead of my DSLR as it's more portable.

Above is the Endcliffe student accommodation which holds over 3,000 students but this one has catered which would suit me so much better as can you imagine me trying to cook decent meals..hmm good joke. I also feel like yes self-catered is better however I would end up paying more because I wouldn't be able to stop myself; I have no self-control oops.

I came across the university of Chester when I was scrolling through the list of the top uni's for the English language & Linguistics course. Apparently it's a small city just like York which immediately appeals to me and the entry requirements is 300 UCAS points meaning typically they except 3 B's which is very reasonable. Very typically, I've missed their open day but they do campus tours on specific days so if any of you are interested I'll keep you updated on when I go visit Chester. One thing I am happy and reasonably up to date with is my personal statement as after 4 drafts, once I've cut it down just a bit to reduce the characters (clearly I got a bit too keen) I will hand it to my head of sixthform to mark to make sure it's ready when I'm ready to send off my application..which will probably still be a while yet (as long as I do it before Christmas I'm fine so if you're in the same position as me then don't worry). 

(Quick rant on entry requirements for University) it really bugs me when most good universities have the same ridiculously high entry grades of AAB or even higher. I know some people are perfectly capable but others aren't and sometimes it's those students that deserve a place who work their butts of to get a decent grade but aren't allowed in because they didn't meet the grades (I'm basically describing me). I'm just so worried I won't get offers as my target grades for the end of next year is ABB and all the courses apart from 1, their entry grades are higher than what I'm predicted; ugh education is pretty tough.

So talk again next Sunday at the end of half term, ugh sad times but just gonna make the most of this week and get as much sleep as humanly possible, enjoy your break guys!
Sophie
♥♥