Want A Job? The Chance To Go To An Elite University? Need Experience? Volunteer.

Hey guys! It feels like it's been so long since I've last sat down and written. A-levels ... is a-levels innit? There's no other words than to say it's like going on a roller coaster which is about to pick up speed anytime from now & at this point in time, I just want to get off!
But I probably will talk about my A-levels at some other point in the future because this post is all to do with volunteering.

I haven't really been involved in charity (Yes, I donate clothes and various things I no longer use but giving a large sum of money, visiting hospitals - I haven't done charity to that extent before).
But something dawned on me recently - I've done VOLUNTEERING 💪💪

This summer didn't turn out the way I expected but I did gain volunteering experience which is CRUCIAL. When I used to do work experience for a law firm/business back in Year 10 - the lady who had been my supervisor had said the way she got her job and did what she loved was through building her CV. And the best way to build it is through volunteering😏
Again, when doing an interview with my principal for sixth form, he recommended volunteering, especially if I wanted to pursue medicine as that's what I mentioned I wanted to do as an idea (because I really don't know what to do with myself right now).

So with volunteering, you can pretty much do it anywhere - I chose my local charity shop which was like 5 minutes away if I was staying with my grandparents. And I had to sign some forms, my grandma did also because she was the adult that had to confirm I could work because I was underaged - after that the rest was history!

I did volunteering for 2 months and honestly it was great. To get up at 11am was a draaaaag but I was okay. I didn't exactly tell anyone because... I didn't feel the need to 😏 Only my family knew about it to be honest and like 2 friends - that was it. Volunteering for the summer may not be as exciting as going on holiday, going out with friends or *insert anything exciting to do for summer* but the I'm reaping the benefits from it now. I recommend that if you're still young, looking for a job, need to build your CV and don't know what to do - v.o.l.u.n.t.e.e.r❗❗
It's pretty much up to you - I did mine in a charity shop. And although I didn't know the value of giving up my time (because I had so much of it then), the people I work with constantly told me that I was doing something that was vital. So even though I'm not giving hundreds of pounds to a charity of my choice which is something I want to do in the future, at least I'm doing SOMETHING - you feel me, y'all feel me😂💖

The benefits:
-I got my first job. Volunteering is basically how I got it. After 4 months of searching, rejections, disappointments, fall-throughs and just genuine frustration - I got a well paid job, I'm working for a global brand and I actually like what I do. I don't think I even would have got if I didn't volunteer as I used my volunteering experience as retail experience.
-More universities, employers and apprentices value people who volunteer. To volunteer says a lot about your character and your skills. If you volunteer in a few charity shop compared to someone who didn't - that's you on a higher step already. Consider it.
-Ideas on your future. I'm still yet to volunteer in a hospital, office and other various places. But I have an insight into the legal sector and of course retail.
-You discover things. If someone had ask me before would I have gone in a a charity shop to purchase anything - I would have said 'Nope' because I would prefer to just buy whatever it was brand new. And I still stand by that when it comes to clothes, shoes and jewellery due to hygiene (just a personal preference, I ain't knocking anyone who chooses to purchase any of those items from a charity shop) but guys when it comes to books - I'm deffo going to have a field day when it comes to purchasing books. Books that are current such as 'Gone Girl' was in the charity shop I worked in and was being sold at a price of 50p-£2. BARGAIN!!
-You meet people. Even though I didn't meet anyone of my age, it was nice talking to people a bit older about deep, intellectual things as opposed to the daily 'Guuuuuurll you won't believe what he told me'.

So yasss! That's it for me. I didn't want this post to be too long but you get the general gist of what I'm saying. Please consider it, it will make an impact (I'm proof💁) but thank you so much for reading.
If you would like to get involved you can click on the link HERE! I love and appreciate all of you that support me with this, until next time 💗💗
"What you give, you shall receive" - CECE Winans

Simply, Jessy Tee

#FOMO – The Reason Why I Deleted My Snapchat This Summer.

Hey guys. I wanted to talk about an issue which has been an issue since, I guess the beginning of year 10 (in year 10 you're 14-15). I’ve never really had this issue previously but it became set in stone once the issue was a re-occurring thing to the point where I searched on it and the issue actually had a name – FOMO.

So what is FOMO? 

Some of you may know this term, some of you might not know this term but there's a strong possibility that you're probably going through it.
FOMO is basically short for ‘fear of missing out’. That’s pretty much self-explanatory but to develop my point further, I personally feel that FOMO is a long-extended family member of anxiety. At least I believe it is the consequence of it. Now at the beginning of year 10, I would not say I had anxiety.

Not at all.

The beginning of year 11, yes! I had really bad anxiety up until December I would say. So for roughly 4 months I had really bad anxiety. However that’s a different story.
But coming back to FOMO, this got worse throughout my year 11 experience, especially when starting exam season. I deffo had it at the beginning of year 10, but it wasn’t as strong, repetitive or ‘deep’. Plus I didn’t have Snapchat in year 10.

I did in year 11.

I created the app in February this year because my prom was coming up and I wanted to see the snapchat stories and I also wanted to upload moments from my birthday which was in March (All this occurred this current year).
Overall I just wanted to share my birthday and experience prom from different people's perspectives however this eventually led to feeling obligated to snap things to PROVE I had a social life.
Not knowing that I would end up feeling hurt or offended when I saw friends who I considered close to me, do things without me.
Not knowing I would become quite petty, jealous and bitter. And best believe that is not who I am.

What fun is an app that is causing you to think, dream or imagine certain scenarios in your head (partying, going out, "turning up") that is anything but your life?

In other words, Snapchat messed up my mentality.

I was someone who had taken 2 steps forward, only to jump 5 steps back. Imagine having to watch people enjoy themselves without you. But you on the other end is doing nothing.

It feels as if you're behind. As if you're missing out on life. As if you're not part of this big trend and you're just isolated. As if you're not good enough because you're not travelling and being successful like every blogger/YouTuber you see.
I am a sensitive person. So often to protect myself from feeling unbreakable, I give off a careless facade. And sometimes I don't care or feel anything when watching others go out and have fun. But sometimes I do care and that's the kind of thing that will make me over-think.

I began to feel distant and just pissed off.

It was annoying because I felt like most people were just not being 100% with me.
Of course that might not be the case, but that’s just how I felt. I couldn’t help it. I recently had a chat with one of my closest friends about this (if she’s reading- shout out to you girl!) And we were basically talking about the issue and I poured out most of how I felt because I hate feeling confused and out of control – like it will frustrate me to the point that's all I can talk or think about.
Now if I didn’t have Snapchat, 9/10 I wouldn’t be as affected as I am. Simply because I wouldn’t have to see that. What you don’t know, cannot hurt you. But I do have Snapchat which means I am able to watch everyone else have a great time whilst I am currently at home – watching them have a great time.

Now it’s time for Jessy to become all realistic.

I know Snapchat is legit a collection of mini clips that the person looks amazing in, they’re looking all happy and just enjoying themselves. I am wise enough to know that doesn’t represent the whole picture, it doesn’t represent the person. (The history student side of me is coming out now.) Overall, to put it simply – Snapchat is a bit joke.
It’s funny because it reveals a lot of truths. Snapchat is a platform that a person can cleverly carve and design an image of themselves for you to see. I have definitely gone through that stage.
From the party addict, to the shopper, to the ‘I’ve got loads of friends’ to the ‘I be getting money’. But what I’ve had to actually deep is that Snapchat is not all black and white. People are just showing that they have a life and what they do. That’s it.

They’re not going to show me the negatives. They’re not going to show me their boring day to day routine. They’re not going to show me the whole thing. They’re going to show me things to make me believe that they’re lives are ‘lit’ or exciting. When God knows: they could just be lounging at home in sweats watching flipping ‘Location, location, location’.
I knew it was time to delete when I was letting little things get to me. Since when did I get all salty because someone didn’t reply to my message (although that is muggy behaviour – don’t do it!)? I have never felt before having the app that I was obligated to prove that I had a life. Now all of a sudden – I couldn’t go somewhere fun without trying to catch a Snapchat. I couldn’t just LIVE in the moment. All of a sudden I’m with a group of friends – let me snap it!
Nah – that’s just not letting things take it's natural course if I feel like I have to do it to prove something.
Please do not get me wrong, Snapchat is a great app. To record snippets of your life as stories that can be watched later on, that’s great; plus the filters are just 100%. In the future, I may get it back for the long haul.

But when does getting offended, hurt, rejected or upset when witnessing somebody’s actions on Snapchat become normal?

To anyone going through this, understand that it’s not always what it looks like. From watching my prom snaps, one can believe it was honestly the best day ever. But there was a lot of things not documented. A video/image can be twisted to suit somebody’s ideal image for their own perspective/satisfaction or even insecurity. Please don’t be fooled. Understand that not everyone is what they ‘post to be’! I could write an essay on this topic because it has given me a serious 'wake the hell up' call.
Grow your mind organically by indulging in real life. As fun as Snapchat can be, it's not your life and that's where I went wrong. Of course the person could have had a great time but always remember – there’s more to the story… No pun intended *wink wink*
Until next time my lovelies xx
"Sometimes you have to lose the battle to win the war" - Lord of The Rings (I think Return of the King somewhere).

Simply, Jessy Tee

Why I Will Not Study For My A-levels The Same Way I Did For My GCSEs

Hey pretties, I wanted to throw it back a lil’ to a stressful moment in my life which is called: GCSEs. However, with the upcoming war (A-levels) approaching, I will not be using the same battle techniques. 😜

To put it plain and simply, I took my GCSEs VERY seriously. But it got to a point where I had to ask myself “When is too much, tooooo much?” Now going back to year 10, my GCSE experience was calm (the same cannot be said for my year group but that shall all be explained in good timing - but I was okay). I didn’t have a breakdown every two weeks, I was still able to do the things that I wanted to do without feeling like I’ve wasted a lot of time. I did work experience which was a funny plus great experience.

But ya girl was only doing 3 exams that year and was to only gain one GCSE.

The following year (this year) I was to complete 19 exams which will therefore complete the remaining 8 GCSEs I had left…

To say the least, it was difficult. I started from September thinking that if I start as early as possible then it will be perfectly fine. Hell to the naw it was not!! From January onwards, I kid you not, I was doing 4+ hours a night.

Within those four or more hours, I would be writing notes, re-typing them, going over endless sites that could help me with it. I did everything and anything but my mind was telling me that it wasn’t enough. I could not just open one site, I had to open another 5 more.
Imagine coming home from 6 hours of school. Spending 1 hour of free time which would likely go to chores and eating something so I don’t collapse; then going upstairs to revise for the remainder of the evening.
I couldn’t even remember the last time I went to bed at 9 o’clock. The new time was 12am. This period was hard for me because looking back, I felt like I over-exerted myself because I didn’t want to fail, I didn’t want to do ‘okay’. If I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it properly.

Social outcome:

To put it simply, I outgrew a lot of things. All of a sudden, standing outside of school for an hour was not ideal. Going out on the weekends wasn’t that appealing? Forcing meaningless friendships for the sake of friendships or people liking me was just tedious and not worth it.

All of sudden that changed because I had a goal that could actually shape my future for the better. So of course I over-exerted myself as much as I could because I didn’t want that to be taken away from me. I was hurt when people stopped talking to me, I would be thinking ‘what’s wrong with me’, and I was often called negative or moody by those around me because I was just so tired and not in the mood. Sometimes I felt really alone but I’m grateful as I had a some amazing friends who helped me through these times and they know who they are.

But as time grew – I had to kick that mentality away. Of course it didn’t just disappear. But I just stopped caring about other people’s opinion/perception of me was. They aren’t the ones writing my exams.

I know myself better than anyone. Of course I’m still growing up and finding my route and pathway, but I’ve always been real to me. If that makes others uncomfortable because I don’t want to filter how I feel for the sake of their own feeling,s without them considering mine – so be it.

Next step?

But back to my main point – studying the way I did caused me to lose weight, often have crying episodes, fits of pure anger/resentment (which some were ridiculously funny because of how petty I was being and others just awful).
Overall it really impacted the way I think now. I always say this: GCSEs are not the same as they was 10 years ago – they possess a lot of similar traits to A-levels which is just a nightmare. Especially with the new reforms we had this year, I didn’t have a balance and that’s what caused me to stop and rethink for what I am yet to do in the future.

You can study 4-5 hours straight, but whether the outcome is effective or not depends on the how you use your time effectively. I will be re-evaluating more effective methods to study for my A-levels without feeling like I have to spend every ounce of my time on them because now I have a job, two hobbies and a lot more. My time IS more valuable than it was doing my GCSEs and I just need to organise it better without pouring it ALL into A-levels because it didn't help me PERSONALLY all the time.

My main point is... to all my girls and guys starting a-levels – put yourself first along with your grades. Make time for both. Not one or the other. Because not having a balance will cause more pressure and stress in the long run – which is why I’ll be studying for my a-levels a lot differently.
Thanks for reading, until next time💖💖
"In order to love who you are, you cannot hate the experiences that shaped you" - Andrea Dykstra 
*Image from Pexels*

Simply, Jessy Tee