It's Been A While..

Boy, did I miss this!

Firstly, I'd just like to apologise for my absence; I know several Facebook posts and tweets might have given the impression I was returning to my blog sooner than I did.. However, I'm happy to report that after almost a year and a half long hiatus, I'm back, and ready to have another stab at this whole blogging thing again.

That being said, if you're reading this and you're an artist, graphic designer, photographer or anyone who can help me rebrand, design a logo, come up with a new face for this blog, please get in touch. You can email me, or contact my social media, my links will be at the end of the post!

Before fully getting into the swing of things again, I just wanted to give you guys a quick update on how the past year and a half went for me.

As most of you know, I'm a student at University College Cork; that hasn't changed. What has changed, however, is what programme I'm in. My last post here was in November 2017; at that time, I was a second year studying French and History. Funnily enough, in April of 2019, I'm still a second year! After a stressful exam season and some not-so-great results, I made the decision to repeat second year, and change a subject. So, this past year I've been doing second-year modules in Folklore! Since I was keeping on History and passed all my exams in it the first time I did second year, I didn't have to repeat anything there. So, this past year I've just been doing one subject, Folklore, with three modules per semester! I'm so much happier studying Folklore too, I'm getting really good results and thoroughly enjoy studying it, and really feel like I have potential to do well in the subject.

I also changed programmes from the regular Arts degree to Arts International, which means I'm going on Erasmus next year! I recently found out I'll be attending the University of Sussex, so if you're a blogger based in Brighton or the surrounding areas feel free to get in touch. I know absolutely no one over there but I'm excited nevertheless!

Some of you may be wondering if I had such a small college workload, how come I didn't use my spare time to blog? One word: societies.

The societies scene in UCC is huge, and this year I was on two society committees: I was Public Relations Officer (PRO) for UCC Disability Activism & Awareness Society (DAA), and Events Officer for UCC Journalism Society. I love societies with every bone in my body, and put every spare second I had into doing society related stuff purely because it was so enjoyable and exciting. Particularly as PRO for DAA, I learned so much over the past academic year, not just from a design and communications perspective as the one who designed all our posters and monitored the society's social media, but also in terms of awareness and accessiblity. Our society's policy to make all our visuals dyslexia and colourblind friendly, and to only host events in 100% accessible venues really opened my eyes and allowed me to view things such as work, college, and social life from the perspective of someone else. It's also made me rethink the way I run my blog, and how it looks, so expect some slight visual changes over the next week or so!

Being on the Journalism Society, though I may not have been as active there as I was with DAA, still inspired me a great deal. As someone considering pursuing journalism after college, being surrounded by so many talented writers gave me such motivation, and are in part the reason I returned to my blog. Need to get the writing cogs turning again if I have any hope of a career in the field!

Though they are the two biggest life updates, a lot else has happened since late 2017; I went through a break-up, and a while later entered a new relationship. I went on a plane without my family for the first time, to see Edinburgh with the aforementioned boyfriend. I left my job in the hotel, got a new one, left that one, and got a new one again about a month ago. It's in a shop, my first non-food related job ever, and I really like it! I'm super comfortable in my role there, and I get along with everyone really well, so I'm looking forward to the months ahead. I also discovered a (not so little) video game called Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege, or just Rainbow Six Siege for short. Although I am absolutely terrible at the game, I have fallen in love with the eSports scene, and also follow many content creators within the Siege community. It became a very big part of my life very quickly, so you can expect to hear more from me about that!

I also (finally) set up an Instagram for my blog! I was reluctant when I first set up my blog to start an Instagram, as I didn't feel like my blog was the type to warrant one; fashion and beauty isn't really my thing. However, I do have a lot of different plans for the future of my blog and I don't think an Instagram account would be any harm. If you'd like to follow me, you can find me here.

As previously mentioned, I do have a lot of ideas for the future of my blog, and this time I mean it; I intend on sticking around. Of course, with April being World Autism Month, you can probably expect my next post to have something to do with that. In the meantime, I thought I'd just post a quick update for all of you to show you that I'm back, and to indeed expect more from me!

Don't forget, you can always message me on Facebook (or Instagram), ask me a question on Tumblr, or Tweet me!

Until then, see ya around, it's been a real slice!

Meagan (but my friends call me Meg)