Update and Apology

Morning everybody,

Before I start I really want to apologise for being absent for so long, I'm very disappointed in myself for not making more time for blogging but family and personal life problems have been difficult to cope with. Simon is struggling with a few things and I'm trying to support him whilst working on our relationship, dealing with the huge amount of essays and a presentation at uni, as per also trying to manage my health. So, in effect, I'm not trying to give excuses just explain why I've been gone for so long, and I'm genuinely very sorry. 

Anyway, on to the crux of the matter, I would like to give everybody an update on, well everything basically because so much has gone on since my last post! In terms of university things are going pretty good actually out of the 3 assessments we have completed this year I (and my group for one of the assessments) managed to get firsts in two of them which is absolutely amazing and well done to everyone else who submitted them all! I'm helping out friends with uni work and trying to work together, a study busy kinda set up and that's pretty fun too to be honest, I've always thought that teaching others is one of the best ways to consolidate your own learning so as I'm helping others I'm learning myself. 

We have just managed to finish our first semester of year 2, despite having 5500 words to write for essays over Christmas I am definitely looking forward to the break because we don't go back to uni until late January 2018! Actually, speaking of essays once I've finished this post I'll be starting another essay which I'm hoping to finish on Wednesday night or Thursday, probably Thursday because I'll get some absolute quiet with Simon and everybody else being out of the house and I tend to focus better when I'm alone; total loner me ha!

Oh Christmas as well!!!!! I'm crazy for Christmas it's the most wonderful time of the year (ha see what I did there) and I've had everybody's presents bought and wrapped since October so definitely ready to go now, as you can see from the picture as well we have got our christmas tree up and decorated and spent a lovely night a few weeks ago watching Home Alone. Oh also it was my birthday on the 14th of December and I turned 22! one of my oldest and most lovely friends managed to get Taylor Swift's 22 song stuck in my head ha, thanks Leanne, I can't wait to meet up with her tomorrow we never get enough time to see one another being so busy. I was totally spoiled for my birthday and Simon had booked us a weekend away in a log cabin with a hot tub... pretty amazing and I'd never been in a hot tub, by the end of the weekend I didn't want to leave the hot tub either, a nice glass of wine in your hand and bubbles was absolutely perfect! The picture to the right is the view we woke up to on Sunday and it was absolutely beautiful. Honestly, though, essays or not I am so excited for Christmas this year, I'm hoping to get up a post soon as possible, probably Thursday evening all about Christmas traditions in the Savage/Simpson home. 

 

Things with my health are kind of progressing weirdly, random things are going on in my body and it feels like an uphill battle to get some support. If you can remember I told you guys that doctors were wanting to put me on Liraglutide or Saxenda/Victoza as it might also be known, I did a whole post on it and what my concerns about it are, obviously there is a black box warning on the drug as it can cause different kinds of cancer or pancreatitis, this was a massive worry despite people telling me otherwise because there is a clear history of cancer in my family anyway, my mam, grandma, and great grandma have all had a kind of cancer, my cancer levels are raises slightly anyway so in my opinion, to put me on a drug for weight loss that I might not react to and the average weight loss for a normal person is alb every 3 weeks, this would be too risky a decision for me. So, yesterday when I attended my RVI appointment I basically putty foot down and refused that option for treatment, as impossible as it might be I would rather use my last breath to try and improve my health in terms of lifestyle changes rather than do it via a dangerous, in my opinion, drug. 

At the RVI yesterday the doctor has told me that I need an emergency gynaecology appointment because I've had issues with bleeding between periods and one major issue involving a lot of pain and bleeding, the doctor seems quite worried about that. I'm not too worried about it to be honest mainly because I have always had issues with my periods, and especially with endometriosis and PCOS, sometimes weird things can happen but at least it's best to get things sorted, I remember having a phone call with my GP surgery about the bleeding between periods and I had explained all my issues and the doctor on the other end of the phone told me and I do quote "oh it will be nothing" which is an alarming response from a GP but I have to admit my surgery is absolutely appalling. It's in this instance that I'm more thankful for my consultants and specialists at the RVI, they do such amazing work and I'm happy to be one of their patients to be honest. 

Oh I am also being referred to a sleep apnoea clinic... Apparently I snore haha! That'll be interesting to say the least :)

To be honest that's all I have been up to recently it's been pretty hectic trying to get ready for Christmas and going away and essays, presentations, health issues, family arguments and a whole lot of other stuff!!! Still I'm overjoyed to be back and absolutely can't wait to get bak to blogging regularly!

Thanks to all you guys who stayed with me and keep checking the blog regularly, I'm hoping to have exciting news soon as well as I may be arranging a call with someone from Rhythm, the company developing the drug Setmelanotide! So keep your eyes and ears open for that post coming soon hopefully :)

Have a wonderful day everybody!

Thanks for reading xxx

Post Break Ramblings

I'm back baby!

Hey there everyone, as you al know I've been away for a week or so, this was just a really short break because I had a bit of work to do for college this week and I was panicking about getting all that done as well as trying to make time for blogging, it's just wasn't doable and unfortunately I can't just take a break from college, so I've been absent for a while, and I'm sure you've all missed me very very much ;). 

So, here's a little update about what I've been up to. Last weekend I made a point of getting as much work as possible done so I would have this week as pretty free, I managed to get everything done quite well and pretty quickly. So, I ended up relaxing for the rest of the weekend and finishing a couple of my favourite stories in the Skulduggery Pleasant Armageddon Outta Here book, this particular favourite was 'Get thee behind me Bubba Moon', a fantastically frightening little story I must say, not unlike the Salem's Lot type storyline. On Monday it was pretty normal, Tuesday the same and that was when I got the news that I didn't have to re-do my last assignment as I'd achieved the distinction criteria thankfully! Since then my week has been free but I've been spending quite a bit of time with friends. On Wednesday it was my friend Annie's birthday (Annie of mockingbird vocals.blogspot.com) so I went over with her pressies, we did make up tutorials together and were generally girly which was so much fun. We did a bit of singing together and I also helped her set up her blog that I help with in the day-to-day running, I also set up her boyfriends blog (pausefordthought.blogspot.com) although his is still pretty sparse post wise I'm sure it'll be up and running in no time. Oooh also on Wednesday night I helped Annie dye her hair a lovely shade of blue! It looks very mermaid-y and I really enjoy dying or watching people have their hair dyed, no idea why. 

Thursday I was back at placement as it was as wonderful as ever, I've fallen in love with each and every one of the children there and the whole team have welcomed me right into the fold of their little family as though I'm one of their own and I'm also getting much more responsibility whilst I'm there which I'm loving, I've mentioned in previous posts that I love children and I love working with children so I'm in my total element whilst I'm there. 

Now, yesterday was definitely the highlight of the week because me, Annie and Adian (her boyfriend) went down to Whitby for a day out! Whitby is my all time favourite place to visit and I'll be posting on the later on in the day so watch out for that post! Due to the fact that I'm posting al about that later of I shall keep this really brief so as not to giveaway some of the details. It was a brilliant day and I couldn't have spent it with better people. 

As for this weekend I'm ill AGAIN! So I'm going to spend today and tomorrow getting my blogging back on track reading and catching up with The Voice UK! Thanks very much for reading and I hope you're all having a wonderful week!

Love Katherine. X

Short Breaks and Blog Scheduling

Hi Everybody!

I hope everyone's weekend is going fabulously, yes? Great! This post is just going to be really brief, so not too much reading involved. 

I would like to let you all know that I'm taking a short break from blogging for a few days, 5 days possible a week, this is just because as some of you have probably noticed, I've been having some issues with the consistency of my posts... they're not basically. I have no blogging schedule which means my ideas are pretty much all over the place and my posting times really aren't up to scratch. This is mainly because I'm snowed under with college work and have been for about 3 weeks now, so I'm taking a week out from blogging in order to devise some sort of writing and posting schedule around my timetable for the moment and get as much college work done in this week as possible to make sure I do have time spare to blog! Hopefully I will get some sort of blogging schedule made by the end of the weekend and I'll spend a few days next week writing up some of the content I have stored in my brain. I shall miss blogging while I'm away but I'll still be active on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, so you won't get rid of me that easily. 

Well, that's that post wrapped up for the moment, see everybody in 5-7 days! Enjoy your week!

Love Katherine. X 

Last Week Summary and This Week's Plans

Hi All!

This post is a little late as I usually post it on a Sunday but I wasn't in the blogging mood last night so I ended up reading instead... unforgivable I know. Anywho, as many of you will know last week it was half term for those of you at college or school or whatever, and for most people it's a lovely time to rest and relax... not for me this time. I thought I'd been busy at college lately but I haven't had a minutes peace this week. No rest for the wicked I suppose. Monday and Tuesday were spent attempting to get an assignment done, it wasn't a particularly difficult one but I had to explain to job roles in the children's workforce, 4 pieces of legislation that affect looked after children and evaluate regulatory bodies al in 1,000 words; for me that was like climbing a mountain because I really struggle when it comes to writing a little about a lot, you've probably all gathered that I tend to babble quite a bit.

So, those two days were literally full of research and coursework from the minute I got up to the minute I went to bed, no lie, it was a thrilling 48 hours, I can tell you that for nothing. I had planned on spending Wednesday just relaxing and reading or cross-stitching something that involved me not moving and drinking lots of tea. Well, that didn't work out, my elderly uncle came over on Wednesday morning and I offered him a lift home so he wouldn't wait for the bus in the rain. I was about 1/4 of the way there when I was pulled over by a massive tuck, the driver got out and told me I had a flat tyre, this came as a bit of a shock because it must've gone down during the night as I had planned to take my car to the garage to get a slow puncture fixed in the tyre on Thursday, it happened a day earlier anyway. When I checked it, it was pretty bad so I thought I'd get myself through to the garage right away, which I did. In the waiting rom for 20 minutes before the mechanic came in and asked me when my last service was, September last year and everything came back perfect. No, no, no, no. Turns out all of my tyres were below the legal limit tread depth and my break pads were over 95% worn, which is not exactly safe. My usual Richard Hardie garage in Durham had either not checked my car properly (important to note it's not even 2 years old yet and I had been twice about brake issues before!) or they'd given me correct info. So I ended up going back to the garage on Thursday and having my brake pads changed and all 4 tyres changed. That took up Thursday too. Friday I went to a house party with my three closest friends and ended up having an extreme fun night in which funny videos and pictures were taken. I completely lost Saturday to sleep to be honest which was much needed after Friday. With all my work finished and myself recovered from Friday's antics I was determined to read all day Sunday... No. i had at least 7 people from my college class asking me what to do on this assignment despite the fact it had to be handed in today (GO NERDS). Lord knows why people leave things so late. So I ended up spending my day on the phone to people explaining it properly. No reading done again. I must apologise for my very long rant about my week haha.

This week is really short, today and Tuesday is college and college is closed on Wednesday for staff training so I'll be getting my cute butt down to work and spending sometime with the kids there on Wednesday and Thursday! Eeek very excited for it :)

I believe I'm going for a meal on Friday with a friend from college and no doubt I'll organise something for Saturday to keep me occupied. I'm very hopeful that this week I will actually get some reading done haha!

Thank you all for reading! I hope you're all having wonderful weeks and had a fab half term!

Love Katherine. X

Weekend Summary and Next Weeks Plans!

Hi everyone!

This week has been much busier than usual as I've had college and work, which although it has been lots of fun, has been very stressful. 

So this week I got results back from my last couple of assignments and both were fine so thankfully I didn't have to re-do any, but our class was given 3 different assignments to do, two of which are pretty heavy and we need to start referencing all of out information which is a pain in the neck to be honest. Out of the 3 assignments I managed to get 2 done within a day which I was really pleased with because it's given me this weekend off before I have to start my new assignment tomorrow evening. That was Monday through to Wednesday, I also had my first day of work/placement on Thursday which I was really apprehensive about becauseI haven't done childcare is a very very long time so I was pretty worried about that. I shouldn't have been because the whole day was just wonderful, I even ended up working on the friday from 7:30am to 6:00pm, the atmosphere at work is just so relaxed and all of the children are adorable and really easy to look after, I was even offered a permanent part time job there! I'm definitely taking that once I get my NI number sorted properly which should be roundabout August. 

So the week itself had been pretty busy and unfortunately I've not had as much time to blog although I am doing my best to blog at the very least once a day. 

This weekend has been all about relaxing and unwinding. I'm a major stress head and I've been struggling with the amount of things i've had to do lately, my tutor tends to rely pretty heavily on me to direct the class when she isn't there and she's been off a bit this week, so if any of my classmates have needed help they've come to me and it can be pretty hectic sometimes. This led me to thinking that because my last proper holiday was in 2012, that I should probably think about booking myself and maybe a friend a nice short brea  sometime in February or March just to get away for a while and really get ourselves well and truly chilled out. Basically, this weekend has consisted of me listening to Celtic Woman, Carrie Underwood, reading my favourite books and looking for holiday cottages around the Cornwall or Devon area, I've found a very nice one but it's £183 for 3 nights and 4 days which isn't exactly in my budget just yet although I'm definitely going to geek somewhere if I can't book that right away. 

Next weeks is hopefully going to be a bit slower than this week as again I have college Monday through Wednesday and work on Thursday. Tomorrow I'm meeting Aymie for coffee and starting any and all assignments I get tomorrow to make sure that I stay on the ball with them all. I believe that set of the week is just college stuff, reading and hopefully I'll manage to get out to Waterstones on Friday and buy myself some lovely new books!

So, that's m week/weekend in review and my plans for next week, what's everyone else up to or been up to this week? Thanks for reading. 

Love Katherine. X

Work Placement Hints and Tips: Making a Good Impression

Hi All!

Recently I've not had much time to post anything on this blog so for that I have apologies, as many of you will know from a previous post I'm currently studying Health and Care at college (and loving it!); well after three months of settling in, getting used to assignment formats, making friends and quickly grabbing myself the student representative position for my class, I can finally say the part I've been most excited about has finally arrived. Placement! From day 1 all of us on this course knew we would have to do at least 100 hours of practical work experience, excluding simulation ward time, so all the girls in my class have not stopped talking about where they would like to work and how excited they are. It's a really exciting time for everyone, particularly the younger girls in the class who have just finished year 11 and are being thrown into the world of health care work.

Well today I visited my place of work placement  for a taster and it was fantastic! Some of my peers have gone to residential care homes, GP surgeries, Primary schools and day care centres for severely disables and vulnerable people. Where did I go? Well I get to work in a local Butterflies Day Care Centre for babies and children between 4 months and 3 years old, and admittedly it was a difficult day dealing with 23 young children with no official training and 2 other staff members on hand but WOW it was such fun! Before the fabulousness of today got going I and the rest of my class was extremely nervous to start work placement, one girl was convinced an old person was going to beat her with their walking stick! So I thought it might be helpful to make a short post on how to deal with first work placement nerves and the best way to make a good first impression on your employers.

1. Introductions - It's always a good idea to introduce yourself a few days or even a week or so before you first start work, this gives the impression that you're enthusiastic and eager to start work positively. Get yourself acquainted with whoever it is you'll be working with so it doesn't seem as scary on the day.

2. Induction - Usually your place of work will give you an induction the day you begin work but its always a good idea to ask a few days before you first go. This will help you get to know your way around, and you should find out about fire procedures, fire exits, bathrooms, staff rooms, lunch rooms and so on.

3. Questions - On your initial visit to your place of work it would be helpful to ask any questions you need to know, what do you wear? Who do you report to? What happens in an emergency? What time do you start and finish? What is the lunch and break situations? Make sure you cover everything you can think of so you are completely prepared for the first day.

4. Look Smart - Obviously placement isn't a fashion show and you really don't need to look like a model but looking smart and professional with help give the right impression to your employers and clients you'll be meeting. Often employers will ask for black trousers, leggings or knee-length skirts/dresses if they're modest, along with pumps or appropriate heels. Depending on the work you may be given instructions about how to wear your hair, for example, because I am working with very young children and babies I was told to tie it up so it cannot be pulled.

5. Get There Early - Getting there early shows that you are alert, prepared, willing and eager to get started and you'll definitely make a good first impression if you're punctual!

6. HAVE FUN! - It's really important to stay professional but remember while you're getting your experience just enjoy the time you have, it is an experience after all and you are bound to meet some lovely people and learn valuable skills from your time. 
I hope this has helped someone out there. 


Love Katherine. X

Weekend Summary and Next Week Plans!

Happy Sunday everybody!

This week has been pretty busy but thankfully I'm healthy again, yey! Si I've been able to get myself out and about, I managed to get to college for two days this week where my class started the unit I've been most looking forward to since I started the course, Caring for Children and Young People. Unfortunately earlier in the week I got a puncture in my rear left wheel so I had no way of getting to college and I hate missing college as well so that wasn't too fun. 

Anyway, I found out on Thursday that my college placement has been approved so I'm able to start that this Thursday, when it hit Friday I had planned to spend a quiet night at home just relaxing with the family as I had taken my Grandad to a bus station where he was going to be picked up by a cache to take him and his friends down to Blackpool for a weekend. However, I ended up having an impromptu sleepover with Aymie which was definitely unexpected but lots of fun, at this sleepover we did some blogging together, talked about anything and everything and we actually found an old SD card with pictures of us both from about 6 years ago so we nada good laugh at those.

On Saturday we spent the day together and did some baking, see my previous post to see what we made, that was cry interesting as we didn't exactly follow recipes but the teacakes that were made tasted very yummy. 

Saturday night I was with my Grandma watching a concert of Celtic Woman: Emerald and I've completely fallen in love with their music and their voices, Lisa Lambe is an absolute Angel and her voice is stunning, as is her hair and her accent and I just love that woman. I think it's safe to say Irish Folk is porbablymy favourite music genre now and Celtic Woman is just wonderful, I personally don't hear that many female Irish Folk vocalists, I mainly listen to Foster and Allen, The Dubliners and so on. It's truly refreshing to have stumbled upon such fantastic vocalists (and violinist), I've actually spent quite a lot of this weekend listening to music, artists such as Fletwood Mac, Celtic Woman (obviously), McBusted, Olly Murs, The Beatles, Queen and Demi Lovato have been my favourites this week. I think I'm obsessed with the Celtic Woman song Téir Abhail Riú at the minute, find that video below.

I actually have quite a lot planned for next week, hopefully I should be able to get everything done! Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will conist of the usual routine, 6am start, college, assignments and I'll be reading a couple of new books in-between whenever I get time. However, Wednesday will be quite busy for me as I have college from 9am-12:30pm, a dentist appointment later in the day (ugh, I hate dentists), because i have a very painful wisdom tooth that I could do without to be honest, then later in the evening I will be attending a Yoga class from 6-8:30pm which I'm actually rely looking forward to, as I've said previously I really enjoy Yoga, it should be quite fun. 

Thursday is my first day at work, I get to work with babies (YEY!) which I am genuinely so, so excited about as I adore children. Also I'll be scheduling a post for later in the week on how to prepare for your first placement or day at work, so be on the look out for that. Friday I believe I'll be meeting a friend for a coffee if both of our schedules allow and Saturday will be taken up with going for a catchup with another good friend from Secondary School with Aymie I think. Also I may be going ice skating later in the week if that can be organised. Hopefully Sunday will be my day off and I'll get to relax at some point haha. 

Thanks for reading guys and let me know some of your plans for next week, I'd love to hear off of you guys!

Love Katherine. X

Waiting to go to University and Gap Years

Hi All!

Recently I've been doing a lot of research into universities, courses and personal statement information because I'm off to uni next year hopefully and I just got thinking about why I chose to not to go to uni right away and why some other people might choose not to. This post is just a few reasons why people may want to take a gap year or why it might be a good thing to take a gap year, and a few reasons it isn't a good thing. So lets get right down to business, I hope you find this useful.

There are a number of reasons that people might want to take a gap year and a number of reasons why people don't want to but it can't be denied that, if spent productively, that time can be really helpful for University later on or just life experience in general. Gap years or choosing not to go to university right away gives you the opportunity to:

• Travel and experience new places
• Teach or study abroad
• Work or live abroad
• Save some money for university
• Prepare yourself physically and emotionally for university
• Get work experience

Personally, I took time out before Uni to try and get my health improved, in sixth form I was constantly ill and I was in and out of hospital a lot so I thought that it would be a good idea to take some time out to get my body and mind into a better place before I went to university as it can be a stressful time. I also took the opportunity to undertake another course and gain some more qualifications in the subject I'd like to continue at university, health and social care. If you're thinking of taking some time out before university there's a few things I would recommend you consider.

• How easy would it be for you to settle back into your studies? Some people find it much harder to get back into the routine of revision, coursework and exams whereas others have said that gap years and time out made them feel refreshed and revitalised before getting back to the hard stuff. You don't need to make life any more difficult for yourself so really consider how that period of getting into a routine would affect you.
• What would you do? It's a good idea to have some thoughts on what you'd like to do in your time out, learn new skills? Travel? Earn more money? At least that way you will have less chance of just wasting the time that could've been spent productively. 
• Why are you taking time out? Are you doing it simply because everyone else is or because it's what you truly feel will be best for you? You may find that if you do it to follow the crowd and you end up easting that year/s you'll regret it.
• Are you prepared? If you're thinking of travelling or going abroad to study/work are you prepared to leave home and be completely independent? Lots of students tend to go on gap years and while they eventually end up enjoying it they find that leaving home for such a long period of time is unnerving or worrying. Think, would you be okay with long times spent from home? Are you financially prepared to travel or work unpaid in order to get experience? Is that a realistic goal for you?

Overall gap years aren't always a good idea definitely not if you're only doing it because A) Everyone else is B) You think tattoos or piercings will be cool from some exotic land C) You simply can't be bothered with uni just yet D) You want more time to party. 

However, gap years or time out can provide you with so many new opportunities you can gain life experience, work experience, earn your own money, explore the world or your home country and one of the most important factors for me personally, that time can give you an awful lot of scope to truly consider what you want to do with your life. Since I started college I've been shown hundreds of jobs I never even considered for myself, I went into that course determined I would become a midwife, I've swapped to wanting to be a dentist, health visitor, social worker and now I believe I have finally settled on a career I wish to pursue. I want to eventually become a university lecturer of health and social care. I hope you all enjoyed reading this and have taken something useful away from this post. 

Love Katherine. X

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