WOOOOO!

Planning of my story has started, and I think that it is going smoothly, so far!  I have ruled out two of my plots, leaving the one closest to me, and I've written both a one-sentence and a paragraph summary.  What I shall be doing next is working out thins about the characters, which is always where my problem lies.  I never really work out who my characters are before I write my story.  I suck at characterisation in general.

I'm using the first few steps of the 'snowflake method' and it's really helping me out.  Google it, because I think that it can assist any writer.  I mean, I don't consider it a strict step-by-step manual in novel writing because that's just silly.  It's only a guide, giving me ideas for planning.

Anyhow, it's been a pretty good day so far.  I've just been relaxing this morning.  I will clean my room and study after I eat some lunch (gosh, I'm starving), and then I will get ready for this stupid dinner party.

It's annoying, really.  I mean, I love this certain friend, but I don't want to go to his party.  He made the theme 'red and white' meaning I have to get a new dress for the occasion, and I don't want to because I am trying to save money.  I ended up just stealing one of my sister's cocktail dresses.  It's way too tight, so I might just end up wearing a pink one.  That's going to have to be good enough for my friend.

He also wanted me to meet him early to help him with the cooking, but I told him I can't.  Originally, I really wanted to, but for the past couple of weeks I've felt like I've barely had any me time.  So I just want my me time!  I'm still going to the actual dinner party, just not early.

There's not really much else to say, to be honest.  Oh!  I finally got my sorting quiz on myHogwarts!  Haha, I just need to get my result, but I have a feeling that I won't get that until tomorrow.  Hopefully I will be a Gryffindor!

I shall be off, now!

Money saved: -$186 (yep, even less... but at least the majority of Christmas shopping is done now.  One present to go!)

Books owned: 78

Words written: 0 (still in the planning stages)

Currently listening to: Save You - Kelly Clarkson

Currently reading: Tales of the Greek Heroes by Roger Lancelyn Green

Actually Wanting to Change

So, since my last post... I've done nothing.

THAT WILL CHANGE, DAMMIT!

Seriously, I need to get off my lazy arse and start doing things.  My room looks like a tornado has gone through it, I now flab when I walk, and the house is a mess.  The only thing I have now that school is finished is KFC (is this legal?) and that is definitely not a good thing.

I've made my writing journey blog, and I'm feeling motivational.  I think it's appropriate that my start to my new life starts at the beginning of the week - Monday - which is tomorrow.

Look out world, here I come!

I know I keep saying that things are going to change, but this time I'm going to make a real attempt.  I feel pathetic, now :P


Goals I want to achieve:

• Save enough money for a car
• Write a novel
• Own 1000 books
• Save enough money for an iPad for uni next year (or something similarly and most likely cheaper)

So, at the end of each post from now on, I shall be posting the status of each goal.

Money saved: -$150 (yes, this is horrible, I know, I had to dig into my savings this weekend)

Books owned: 78

Words written: 0 (still in the planning stages)

Currently listening to: Welcome to the Black Parade - My Chemical Romance

Currently reading: Tales of the Greek Heroes by Roger Lancelyn Green

Two Whole Months

It's funny that I think most while I'm in the shower, and while showering just then, I was thinking about how refreshing this shower was.  Then I realised that I didn't need to be refreshed if I just stopped acting like a slob.

It's been a little over two months since I last made a blog post.  I sat my mock exams, graduated, sat my WACE exams, then I turned 17 yesterday (and of course, in the wizarding world 17 is the equivalent to 18).  When I showering just then, I knew that this is the right time to change, start the rest of my life.  I'm not going to make an excuse and wait until New Year, or wait until tomorrow because just one more day won't hurt.

This time last week I was sitting my final WACE exam, and while I was focussing on the paper in front of me, I was thinking in the back of my head that after this is the real world, and while I will have more freedom with my high school studies being over, I everything will change and become more serious.

That means I need to change and become more serious.

I don't mean that I'm going to become an uptight girl who never likes to have fun.  it just means that I have to start thinking about the future, because soon I'm going to be living it.

That means no more money splurges, no more deliberately missing calls from work, no more sitting around and watching TV.  It's time for house work, doing more shifts at work to earn more money, learning how to do the washing, cook, clean and do the ironing.

Soon I'll be 18, meaning I will have responsibility for myself, and this is the year for me to practise.

And I'm sitting in my messy room, just showered, freshly painted nails, not feeling as disgusting as I felt 20 minutes ago.  It's time to change.  It's time to grow up.  It's time to face my future.

Exam Procrastination? Not Good.

Church.  I've been going lately, and it's really been helping me lately.  Forgiveness is the key here.

I have self-confidence issues, as in on-the-verge-of-breaking-down-in-tears-every-day sort of self-confidence issues.  I had come down to the fact that this has been caused by the bullying that I had been a victim of a few years back, by media, by the pretty people at school putting me down.

The sermon at church yesterday said that forgiveness doesn't let a person off the hook, it's the first step to a healing process.  That's exactly what I did!  I prayed to God, said that I will forgive the people that have hurt me in the past, said that I will apologise to the people that I have hurt.

I have been feeling a lot better because of church.  I honestly don't know how to argue that God exists, or even if He exists at all, but knowing that there is someone there guiding me is really helping me out.  I really feel like He's there, you know?

I need to stop being all preachy.

But I just want to close with a few words that have helped me for the past week:

'Passionately wait
Diligently seek
Quietly hope.'

RUOK? Day

So I woke up this morning, showered, got dressed, went to have breakfast, and then when I looked at the TV, there was a news report about RUOK? Day, which I have never heard of until now.  It's a day where you take the time to talk to someone you care about and start a conversation, asking if they are okay.  The whole point of this day is to help prevent suicide, and I think this is a really great way to do that.

To me, I think the best thing for someone with depression is for them to have a support system - someone they can talk to regularly, someone can rely on.

In writing this, I'm suddenly thinking about my friend, Bella (not her real name).  We stopped talking 6 months ago, and then the other day, she text me.  With that first conversation, I remembered the reason why we stopped talking - it was because I was sick of her complaining to me and telling me all of her problems.

She told me two days ago that she had depression, and we haven't talked since.  I was thinking: 'I really don't have time to deal with this.  I only have a couple of weeks until exams, and I can't afford to let my focus down'.

I realised this morning that I'm a bitch.

Rather than thinking this, I should be helping her out, be her support system.  Although we haven't talked in ages, she's obviously text me as a last resort so she can have someone to help her through it.  It's going to be hard for with exams, but I think that I can do it!  I will make sure that I will.  To be honest, I'm scared of doing this - I have no idea how to comfort someone, and although I'm not depressed, I have breakdowns practically all the time, so it's not like I'm a strong person to take all of this.  But I will try, and that is all that matters.

Of Costumes and... Wait, No Netball

It seems that this year there will be no grand final for my team.  It's alright, though, because the odds were completely against us.  I hate making excuses, but there was injury and rather bad umpiring in the last game.  Of course, those aren't the reasons we lost, but it certainly wasn't helping us.  The other team was simply playing better that game.

Although, it was nice seeing Gordon.  He is coaching the team that we were playing, but he also coached me and another girl on my team for TID, which is the level above normal netball.  I must say that he was the guy who made me a better shooter.  It's funny though, because I was shooting in the first quarter, and then I was switched to defense for the rest of the game, so it wasn't like he got the chance to see any improvement there!

Anyway, seeing as I'm not playing netball next week (I am incredibly disappointed about the loss by the way) there will be time to go to my sister's house warming and one of my friends birthday party.  Of course, I'm going to missing the actual party because I'll be at the house warming, but of course I am going to be there for the sleep over part, so that should be fun enough!

I will be able to see Freddo again!  He has probably grown so much!  Still so freaking adorable!

I got my costume on Friday for muck up day.  My parents picked it up from my sister's, Nicole's, house.  The Slytherin robe is... quite a couple of inches too short, but that's okay.  It's not like I could choose the measurements or anything, and it doesn't look that bad anyway!

Now, I just have to decide whether I should dress up as a Slytherin or a skanky Slytherin... I really need to think about that.  To be honest, I don't have the confidence to do the whole skank thing - it's just not me!

In other news, I have a new love for the TV show, Camelot.  Of course, tonight's episode isn't on because a 9/11 tribute, and videobb is being annoying and saying 'you've watched your 72 minutes, wait another hour before you can start watching again'.  Of course, I don't really want to watch because I want some damn sleep.

Actually, I'm getting up early tomorrow morning to do Zumba, so I should probably get some sleep right now...

Good night!

And It's That Time of the Day Again!

I'm in free period right now, procrastinating from doing Indonesian... or English... or Biology.  To be honest, now that I have so many free periods, I'm not that stressed about not getting any work done because I have so much free time to do it.

But I should be stressing, because exams are in one month, and the results of these exams go to our final mark.  Then after that, there's a week break, then we have to do another set of exams, and that determines what university we can go to or even if we can get into university at all.  It should be stressful!

The only thing that I should be worrying about is Maths and English, and I'm not even really worrying about that!

During the week between the two sets of exams, there's a week of mayhem for the Leavers!  We spend the first two days getting our results back from our first exams and figuring out what we got wrong and how we can improve.  The third day is gender swap day.  It's hilarious because the boys will be wearing dresses and the girls will be wearing the boys uniform.  Then day four is muck up day!

I have some good news.  My Slytherin robe and tie has been delivered to my sister's house, and I will be picking it up this Friday.  Guess what I'll be wearing for muck up day?!  Also, there is activities for the year 12's during the last half of muck-up day, and there is rumours that there is going to be a Quidditch tournament.  I sincerely hope that this is true, because that will be freaking amazing!

Also, during muck-up day, there are house assemblies, so each house has their own little farewell assembly.  The two PCG classes in each house sit up the front in their costumes, and the PCG tutors give little speeches about each student in the class. We also get little gifts and receive letters that we wrote to ourselves five years ago.

I am really excited for this!

And finally on the fifth day, there's the whole school valedictory assembly.  There are speeches, and music performances, this weird little annointing thing where we get blessed and get oil on our foreheads.  It's going to be so amazing!

After the valedictory assembly, the whole year group as a tradition goes down to the beach to celebrate.  So much fun!

Before, I didn't want to graduate highschool, and I was completely scared about going into the real world.  I didn't want to go to university, and start dealing with financial issues.  I didn't want to grow up at all!  Now I am thinking the exact opposite!

I want to graduate, and I want this year to end.  Even though exams are horrible and that I shouldn't want to be going through them, I just want to get it over and done with!  And then of course there is three months between school and the start of university.  That will give me plenty of time to at least get onto my second phase of my L's (L plates - learner drivers.  There are two phases.  Once on second phase you need to drive at least 25 hours before getting your license).

This is all just so freaking excited, and the whole not knowing what's going to happen or how it's going to happen is all a part of the fun!

It has suddenly just clicked how much I talk about school on this blog.  I really should stop!

I should be off.  School finishes in five minutes!