The days when . . . (career edition)

*awkward hello*

So I wrote a post a while back saying how I have mood swings about what to wear/listen to (you can read it here). Well I was just thinking (as you do) and I realised I do the same about future careers. At the moment I’ve reached a standstill of “oh whatever I’ll think about it when I get to that stage” but I think a week or two ago I really wanted to maybe become a dressmaker/soft toy maker/have a small hold or something along those lines. In January I re-discovered my love of all things space and wanted to work at NASA again (My dream ended in Year 6 when my teacher told me I’d have to do maths. I hate maths.). I then thought I’d like to become a computer games developer and work at a place like EA/Maxis or something. I swap between what I want to do so regularly, I’ve (sort of) decided I don’t want to go to uni. If I suddenly decided halfway through my degree “I want to do something else”, I’m either drowned in student loan or I’m feeling guilty because I don’t want to disappoint.

Once I’ve studied hard enough to catch up to GCSE level on most topics then I’ll study at the OU or something, as I find I work better by myself than with other people. Like I said yesterday in my home ed post, I don’t want little bits of paper saying what I can and can’t do, but on the other hand that’s what we need for careers, apparently.

I don’t know. It’s probably a lot to think about when you’re 16 but it is something you do have to think about, especially when A Levels get involved. Some days I just give up and think “What is the point in all this effort?” which isn’t the right attitude but you do have those days. I’ve never been the child that knew exactly what I wanted to do when I was younger (When I was in Year 1 – so about 5 years old – I wanted to be a shopkeeper (because you kept the money, obviously) or Santa) but I know that I’ve always wanted to prove that I can do something.

Okay, I think it’s time for me to go do something else now, I’m sounding way too like my mother/father/a grown up. xD
Jess

Update and spare room/learning room/day room

Hiya!
So it’s been a while since I did a proper update. Oops? I was a bit busy having my friend over (which was amazing to spend some time with him!) and having my 16th birthday. My birthday was very fun and I spent it with my family (minus my granddad as he was at work 😦 ) and my friends via the interwebs. 🙂
So what have I been doing since I last updated apart from the above? Well I now possess two very retro things:

I ❤ it. It dials properly too. 😀 It also has the ringtone like the Deal or No Deal phone xD Everyone seems to be calling as well, so it amuses me every time. 😀

A 60s/70s sideboard! 😀 I love it, it came today! It fits in really well with the room (The photo doesn’t show the size of it well. It’s six-foot six!). I hope to make some artwork to put above it, along with some posters of 60s people and maybe a geeky poster or two (Stormtrooper playing a guitar. Aww yeah.). 😀 All I need now is a desk (which will be arriving this weekend and is 60s too) and some shelving and I’ll be set to use it properly for my home ed room. 😀 I also need a sofa bed for when friends stay up but we have a bed in here anyway so I don’t need to worry about that too much. 🙂
I now need to put things back where they belong as my resources are covering the whole bed and the surrounding floor space. But it’s definitely worth it! 😀
Oh, and one last thing. You know the skirt that I said I was making in July last year that I would blog about? Well I may or may not have grown plus I can’t find it so I am making a new one. xD Expect a post on that soon. I’ve taken lots of pictures ready for it to be made into a blog post! 😀
Right, my mum is up here now to start putting stuff away so I will see you soon! 😀
Jess x

Home Ed introduction

Hi there!

So I normally write about my day-to-day life, living with M.E and other random things that pop into my head. I hope to start documenting my home ed doings and I also hope that it is of some use to you.
Home ed is great, you can choose whether you want to stick to the curriculum (but at your own pace) or just pick subjects and study them and build up on that. With my M.E I don’t have the brain power (at the moment) to keep focusing on my studies. Hence the fact I am 16 and could not tell you something from Biology or something about a text in English. I fell really poorly in 2008, just before the start of my first year at secondary school. I haven’t been in full-time, formal education since the second day of Year 7 (I managed one and a half days at school. Something I keep reminding people of!) and in 2010 my mum took the decision to home educate me.
I used to have tutors from 2009 to 2010 but because I was so poorly I couldn’t concentrate on my work, I kept having panic attacks before the tutors would arrive and yeah, it wasn’t the best education experience ever!
Part of me wishes I had been home educated earlier because I would have gotten into the swing of being at home and learning instead of a school environment. Having been at school up until secondary school makes you think you are doing everything wrong with your life because you aren’t following “the norm”. Some days I agree that it’s just a bit of paper, a bit of paper that says I can do something “up to standard” and that all I need is life skills because that is what truly matters. Other days I freak out and think “Well hang on my friends are doing their GCSEs, I need to be doing that. I need to fit in. Being a teenager sucks and it’s all down to that, I guess.
I used to be a very academic child, I’d always do my homework, hated getting in trouble with the teachers/handing in my homework late, I’d read all the time (and would choose that over playing outside any day) and I never really had a problem with it. I can’t blame losing all of that motivation on a teenager and being ill, but I’ll try! xD I do enjoy my reading and I love doing things from workbooks but I definitely just go “Urgh can’t be bothered.” much more than I used to. The thing is, I don’t learn from what is written down. I am much more of a practical person. I’d much rather learn how to cook than learn something complicated in maths. I’d like to learn how to grow my own vegetables than how to study Shakespeare properly (No offence to that guy. I love his work.). So yeah, anything I learn sets me up for my future so I can actually live without these bits of paper controlling what I can and can’t do.
Thankfully, my wonderful mother understands this and constantly tells me that I just need to learn at my own pace and not worry about what everyone else is doing. I don’t think that many kids my age have an interest in traditional lifestyle, I’d love to properly make my own clothes, grow my own veg, make homemade gifts/toys etc.. I also don’t think that many teenagers have an interest in current affairs and if they do the responses are either “Wow, you’re mature for your age.” or “You’re just a teenager. You shouldn’t be thinking about things like this.”. The beauty of home ed is you are free to learn what you want. That’s what education should be about and not all strict.
My mum and I had a conversation earlier saying that GCSEs and A Levels basically repeat themselves, only expanding a little bit on what you’ve learnt. So when you get to do your degree or get another qualification it’s completely new to you and you don’t know what’s going on with it because you haven’t been given the opportunity to properly study everything. Weird, isn’t it?

So anyway. I think that’s a good enough introduction to home ed and me. xD I could probably go on but I’ll save it for another day. 🙂
I hope you will enjoy following my home ed journey. 🙂
Jess