Observations of a Fictional Girl

Hey folks! As per usual - long time no blog posts. It seems to me that the one of the main reasons why I have come back to this blog over the past few months (even with just unfinished drafts that are building up) is because of the topics which press on my mind. That has always been the way with my writing process I think. If I have a passion for something and it berates me enough mentally it has to get put down on a page somewhere for me to even begin to move past it or make sense of it. Therefore, as part of that process, I today offer you lovely blog readers who have stuck with me over the past year or so through my various verbal diatribes and rambling rhetoric, a glance into what has been dictating my mind a lot over the past few weeks (read as year) . This is the fact - which is both simultaneously exciting and terrifying - that I am in my third and final year of university. Therefore the prospect of 4 weeks actually left of lectures and 40 days until my final piece of wo...

Hey my lovelies, Long-time no blog post I know. I’ve got about 5 drafts of posts I’ve been working on, many things I want to say, and at times not the words to say them all. But we’ll get there. Promise. As usual I’ve broken my blogging break to write about mental health, which is something I feel more verbose about than any other topic. I’ve blogged a lot about mental health issues in the past (you can check out the relevant posts here , here , here and here ), raising awareness of issues and trying to beat the stigma around mental health. In short to start, and be part of, an ongoing conversation which affects every single one of us. *TRIGGER WARNING: The majority of the blog post contains reasonably detailed discussion of bulimia, self-harm, and eating disorders which some may find triggering* During the time since Observations of a Fictional Girl came into being as a blog I have shared part of my personal experiences with mental health problems in my life so far...

Hello my lovely blog readers, I realise I've been a bit M.I.A lately and my apologies for that, life has just seemed to speed up and pile on more to my To Do lists lately and I've just really wanted to hide away from it all and press pause for a bit but one of those annoying 'adult-y' lessons I've been forced to learn over the past few years is this is as unobtainable as it is desirable. So I'll just pop into to say hi and then burrow back into my assessment attempts and ongoing world weariness whilst counting down the days until things I'm actually looking forward to.  I hope this post finds you well and provides an opportunity to sit down and relax, take time out of your busy student schedules and learn a little bit about one of the most important aspects of university life: Food. For most students coming to university is a time full of new things and independence and one of these new things can involve the first time you cook for yourself an...

* WARNING CONTAINS POTENTIALLY TRIGGERING REFERENCES TO SUICIDE ATTEMPTS AND SELF-HARM* Evening folks, I find myself as per usual cramming in far too many late night tasks before I can properly set my mind to rest and hibernate until the next day rudely beginnings. However whilst my brain perhaps does not appreciate last minute reading it has enjoyed the time for reflection on what was a long but brilliant day (which is what my life mainly seems to consist of at the moment). My third year at university at the moment seems to be filled with a never ending To Do list and not enough time in which to complete it all, and whilst it can be exciting to be involved in lots of things, I confess I do frequently teeter on the brink of feeling overwhelmed by the amount I have on personally and course wise. Yet despite this my day today involved a good kind of busyness, the kind I am happy to surrender moments of rest to because I am invested ...

Hey there my lovely blog readers :) I hope this blog post finds you well and enjoying a relaxing or exciting weekend in just the way you want to. Today I'm going to deviate a little from my 'more traditional' style of blog posts that centre around rambling accounts of monthly exploits. This is because I would like to take the opportunity to write to you about mental health, which is a subject those of you well acquainted with my blog (or me) will know is close to my heart and never far from my tongue. For me it is always important to talk about mental health as it is still a topic within our society that has far too close a link with secrecy and shame, on both a personal and public level. But considering that today is World Mental Health Day it seems even more important to use this time to  increase awareness, understanding and respect of mental health and mental health issues. Especially since as much as mental health issues are gaining more recognition the actual fact...

'Sup blog readers?  Hope you are all faring well. Surprisingly enough since I landed back on English soil at the end of the first week of September I have not really had many quiet moments to stop, relax and write this blog post. Then I suddenly realised there's only a few days of the month left and I better fill you all in on what I've been up to. So here we go. Sheffield has welcomed me back beautifully and one month on it feels like the time has flown by. 1. Saying Goodbye to Italy- As as of you who follow me on twitter or are friends with me on Facebook are sick of hearing I spent this summer Au Pairing in Italy which was a dream come true for me and despite being the most challenging surreal thing I've ever done to date it was so hard to say goodbye to my family there and the friends I'd made. I will definitely have to plan a return trip soon and despite all the tears and hugs I have Whatsapp and Skype to keep me sane and help ...