Beyond The Degree

So here I am at 6:52 am on December 31st, lying in my bed trying to manically be productive and get my academic life together. I realise that I probably should have started this earlier, but I think the deeper rooted point that should be taken from this is how quickly the first term of third year has flown by, and how I have not had time, up until these holidays to really stop and take a break. This is partially down to my studies, partially down to the extra-curricular activities I'm involved in, and just how busy life has been for me trying to work out what I need to do to build a career. Crazy.  The most important thing that I want to look back on this year is the mental progress that I have made. In the second semester of 1st year (2016), I was diagnosed with depression. One of the hardest things about this illness is that I never knew what to expect and when I was going to beat it. This uncertainty unsettled me further as obviously you can't be given a time...

When reports come to light that girls under 10 years old are seeking genital surgery because they are disgusted by their genital’s 'wrong shape and size', I think it's safe to say it can be confirmed that 2017's pressures of perfection have reached its pinnacle. With social media's easy accessibility and the ability to view porn at the touch of a button, it is no surprise that insecurities are starting to manifest in the minds of young children. Daily, young people are bombarded with expectations to look a certain way, but have these expectations of perfection reached a new level? Breast augmentation surgery has been around for years, nose jobs? Standard and lip surgery to get the perfect Kardashian pout has been the rage for a while now but genital surgery? This is something when I first read that completely took me by surprise and surely surgery at such a young age can be seen as comparable to genital mutilation which is illegal in the UK but prevails to be r...

Hi guys, I am prone to using social media but often I find myself forgetting it’s open for the world to see. It should be considered that when we use social media and post photo’s, these are things that we are actively choosing to share. We choose to let our followers know about the happy moments, whether that it’s our 3 year anniversary with our partner, or that we are sipping cocktails in the Santorini Sun absorbing that vitamin-D, or that we’ve got that new job which we had strived so hard to get, and if you want to share that then that is fine you have worked hard for it and that is something to be proud of. But what can often be disregarded are the sad times. In a sense, social media can be seen as a blessing. Imagine if Dr. Martin Luther King had Instagram, the protest videos he could have shared would have resulted in further global uproar. Imagine if the suffragettes had Snapchat, then we would have all been forced to watch them chaining themselves to parliament building...