Final Sprint

I'm so close to finishing university forever. Good lawd. It's been simultaneously the most fun and most stressful experience of my life. I've met many people, had many experiences, and grown so much as a person. I'm incredibly glad I took the plunge and came to uni; it was a massively scary decision, but it was necessary. Without university, I wouldn't have become an adult. I wouldn't know how to pay bills and support myself, how to get through the day with a raging hangover, how to take a deep breath and dive head-first into anything that takes my fancy, and believing in myself enough to know that I can go places and do things. In extension to that last point, I wouldn't be going to work in America this summer or potentially teaching in Spain in October for a year, if it wasn't for getting through assignment deadlines and the university environment itself without giving up, despite wanting to a few times. I did this with the added burden of my continuously fluctuating mental health, and it hasn't been easy. So I'm allowing myself to feel a bit of pride that I've come this far and gotten to the other side - scratched, scared and £20,000+ in debt, but still standing and ready to get out there and see the world.

This month and a bit is the last push. I have around 40 hours of lectures, 5 assignments and an exam left, and that's it. It's terrifying and exhilarating and unbelievably surreal.

I'm currently looking forward to going home for the Easter holidays, though! I have a multitude of to do lists, right up until April 2nd (I go home on April 3rd), in order to keep myself as busy as possible and to get as much work as I can out of the way so I can recuperate and enjoy the break. This week involves making my video and submitting my Wordpress design for Online Journalism; 4 remaining hours of lectures; sending Mothers Day cards for Mutti and Kath; starting on my History of English and Communication & Cultures assignments; getting my prescription; sending off the forms for my police certificate for the States; and going swimming for the last time this term. Next week will be a little less hectic, with only 10 hours of lectures and hopefully I will have finished all the pre-Easter assignments I have due by then.

I'm giving blood again too! I was feeling crap because I haven't done it since my first time in July, so I was browsing to see if there would be any sessions at home while I was there. No go, but I stumbled on a session at a hotel five minutes away from me here in Hatfield on Monday, so I'm going to go to that one. It'll be good to give blood again, as I felt so pleased with myself last time, and it really is such a great way to be charitable if you're a pauper like me!

Oh, and it is 13 days until I turn 22. I cannot believe how fast that's come around. My flatmates won't stop laughing at me because I'm 'so old'. Well, except for James - he turns 22 in May so he feels all my pain!

Bonus photo of Lana and I:

She came over on March 14th, for the weekend. On the Friday night, we went on a dinner date to Frankie & Benny's as we'd never gone out for proper dinner before, and on the Saturday, we went to Camden and spent hours exploring the Stables Market. It was an all-round great weekend (obviously interspersed with boozing with the flatmates), and definitely stopped me going round the twist from being cooped up on my own, beating myself up over my lack of productivity.

Misogyny at the Pool

I was at the pool today, and I'd stopped swimming to have a breather, when I overheard a guy and a girl near me. This guy was telling the girl that she had 'put on a bunch of weight' this year, and how she needed to stop treating herself and exercise more. Bear in mind, this was in the pool where she'd been swimming for longer than I'd been in there. There was literally nothing wrong with this girl's figure - she looked perfectly healthy! Further to this, the guy berating her was legitimately very overweight, and a lot of what he told her about protein and carbs was completely wrong (I may not know tonnes, but I actually read up on things before I started trying to be healthy).

It's just pure misogyny. He had absolutely no right to make her feel like shit for putting on a couple of pounds when he clearly wasn't athletic himself. It came across like it was totally ok for him to be overweight, but if a woman dares to put on weight, it's the end of the world. It just really riled me because it was completely unfair, and I imagine it was pretty humiliating for the girl. Even if she was overweight, it doesn't matter! She's obviously trying to stay fit and healthy by going swimming, which is the most important thing.

Aside from actual, medical opinions on people whose weight (overweight or underweight) is significantly affecting their health, or a personal trainer who knows what they're talking about and has been employed by somebody to tell them what they need to work on, nobody has the right to dictate to other people what they 'should' be doing with their bodies.

Why do people still think it's ok to act like this? I bet if she'd said something about his weight, he would have been pissed off. It's completely ridiculous. And for the record, I'm not a """Feminazi""" (I hate that expression - fighting for equal rights is actually the complete opposite of the Nazi system, please go to a history lesson) - even if it was two girls, or two guys, or whatever, I would have still been pretty disgusted just because of the sheer hypocrisy of it.

Sorry about this rant, just needed to get this out because seeing people treat their so-called friends like shit makes me cross.