Back to College Essentials

The bag I use for college!

Oh dear. The day I, and probably millions of other people around the UK, have been dreading is so close now; the day everyone goes back to school, work and college. Tomorrow everything goes back to normal, the christmas decorations will be down, no more relaxing or resting, just work and college for me. I've been dreading it ever since I broke up from college 3 weeks ago and despite the fact that I'm not dreading it half as much as I did going back to Sixth Form I still think holidays should be longer. Anyway, I thought I'd do a post on Back to College Essentials, this is going to be similar to a 'What's in My Bag' and an 'Essentials' post. You'll get to see what I drag around to college with me and maybe get some tips as to what you all might need to take too.Let's get started then. 

Firstly, I think it's absolutely vital that when going back to college or starting college, work, school or whatever, that you have a good quality bag, many people I know take only small ones and other bags to keep the less important stuff in. I've never seen the point in this and I like to take a biggish bag that can cary all of my things around in it. The first picture (above, left) is the bag I currently use and it was £10 from Atmosphere in a sale last summer. It's really sturdy and big enough that if I want to I could also fit in some lunch or a big book.

The image to the right shows what I keep inside my bag that I absolutely must take to college on a daily basis. As you can probably guess I study Health and Social Care and I need to take two books with me, one being a content filled book with information on each unit inside it and the other being a Study Skills Guide that we use for the Personal and Professional Development unit. I also have a large A4 multi-coloured lever arch folder that I've used for 2 years, I used it in my final year of Sixth Form but now it's breaking a little so I'm in dire need of a new one. Inside this I keep dividers for each unit, an absurd amount of plastic pockets and any and al work I've done so far. I also keep an A4 refill paper pad in there too for any notes I take in class. I bought the folder, dividers, pockets and refill pad from Rymans. I also have a Cath Kidston skinny pencil case in which I keep 4 black ball point pens, a blue, red, green, purple and pink ball point pen for any marking I need to do as my tutor often asks for assistance when marking or tutoring students. I have green, yellow and pink Sharpie highlighters for anything I need to remember or... well, highlight. I always carry a stapler and spare staples as well as a hole punch, you can never find one when you need one. Finally, I carry my 32GB Mass Storage USB with me at all times because I work a lot on computers and all of my assignments are written on personal and college computers, therefore i regularly transfer information via the USB. I got the USB from PC world, they're usually £10-15 depending on the store you go to however this was given to me as a gift as I was good friends with the guy who worked there. That is everything "college related" that's in my bag.

The Picture on the left is a few of the there things I like to keep in there also. I have my purse from Next, impulse body spray from Superdrug, some chewing gum, my iPod, an inhaler because I'm asthmatic and a little notebook for scribbling any quick notes I may need. I also take a few other things like my glasses case and lens cleaner as I can not ever function with dirty glasses, often I take a book to read in my free hours and when needed I take lady products, make up, a hairbrush and sometimes I take my own lunch. That is literally everything I can think that I ever take to college with me that I would consider essentials. 

Thanks for reading all and I hope you all have a good first day back whatever you're going back to!

Love Katherine. X

I Love Christmas! Why? Read on to Find Out!

Hi All!

I know it's a little late for a post such as this one but I feel it's really important for me to post this, even if it's just to let my readers know a little more about me. For me the Christmas seasons begins in August/September for me! Some people love the bands they listen to, the TV shows they watch, the books they read and fandoms they belong to... I LOVE CHRISTMAS! In fairness I do love the TV shows, books, movies and music I listen to, watch and read but Christmas is my thing. My friends must think I'm crazy but I can't help it, I love everything about it, I love the atmosphere when you're out shopping when the Christmas songs are playing and people are moaning that its the 1,000th time they've heard that song that day, I love seeing people buying presents for their families, I love that when you wake up on a morning you see your breath and yes, even as a 18 and 8 month year old I do love pretending I'm a dragon. Childish I know but hey! That's me. There is SO much I love about Christmas like the songs which I am listening to as I write this post (Cliff Richard's 'Saviour's Day' to be precise), the decorated shopping centres, excited children talking about Santa as their exhausted parents drag them around more and more shops looking for the exact presents they've asked for, I love everything about it. One of my favourite things about Christmas is that my family has several Christmas traditions running from my birthday, which is mid December, to New Years day; on Christmas eve I always get up very early because I will always have trouble sleeping on Christmas Eve night no matter how old I am, I make sure I look presentable for all of the family visits (nice hair, Christmas jumper on even if it is hideous, make-up perfectly applied and such),I'll drop in the last few Christmas cards that need be, me and my Nana will run around the house trying to make it immaculate while my Mam and Dad go out for last minute food shopping or present shopping, sometimes my Uncle and Aunty will visit our house with huge bags of presents for us all and sometimes we go to their house, then we visit my older Uncle who we see only once or twice a year if we're lucky and usually we get home from family visiting at 4:30-5:00PM when I sit downstairs as my Grandad might visit friends, Mam and Dad will be wrapping presents and trying not to let me see, I love that part. At this point Me and my Nana and my Mam have a break from whatever we're doing and usually I will have a Snowball with a Cherry, Mam and Nana have a Bailey's in their hand, we'll watch some TV before we get back to putting things away and oogling at the enormous tree situated in the living room next to the front window which tends to get set up around November 5th. Then we will all relax for the night and get ready for the next day. That is my favourite part of Christmas, not the presents, not the shopping or anything material based. I get extremely overwhelmed at the love I harbour in my heart for my family, it reminds me how grateful I am to have my family, to have a home, food and warmth and most importantly that I am loved by my family too. Christmas is my favourite time of year for so many reasons, love, family the atmosphere, the snow OH THE SNOW! What a wonderful part of Christmas that is (no sixth form at least once), the lights on the trees in the houses as I walk home from wherever I've been, hot chocolates with cream and cinnamon, when me and my best friend get together and tease one another about how we will never tell what we've bought when we exchange our gifts. So you can see that Christmas means a lot to me. I hope it means something to you too because it truly is a magical time of year!

Love Katherine. X