18/10/2010
I have been toying with the idea of writing a blog for too long now but last night I realised I really want to write one. It was my birthday yesterday and I had an absolutely awesome time (I will do another blog post about that later…). But one moment that really stood out for me on this birthday was speaking to a friend who I really don’t see enough off; he really, really inspired me. He told me to pretend that I will die on my eighteenth birthday and live this year like I would if that was the case.
Yes that may seem corny and clichéd but there is more! He also said to set myself some goals to achieve over the year and to tell people about them so people would ask me about them and would repeatedly inspire me. I wrote down last night all the things I really wish to achieve and there turned out to be 17 goals, hence the title “17 things I want to do while I am 17.” I decided to act on the 17 goals today at college and half way through my first lesson (R.S) people were already noticing the change in my attitude. It seemed to be working although I think the effect loosened off over the day but still it’s a start, a good start too.
Also I have a lot of stuff I need to get across and if I do die this year at least I will have got some of these things across in this blog. Which is some thing I really want to do and is one of the “17 things I want to while I am 17” So yeah, enough rambling so here in no particular here is what I hope to achieve in the next year…
1) Write a blog. Yes this is the blog but I would also like to keep it going throughout the year and beyond. Hopefully somebody will read it and if you are reading it leave me a comment otherwise I won’t have a clue if you are reading this blog or if nobody is! So I have sort of done this one now, but I want to continue it for a while longer before I can tick it off my “magic list”.
2) Learn to drive. What do you think of when you think about turning 17? I imagine you think about learning to drive. Over the year I want to learn to drive. I was going to try and have my first lesson this week, but it was just too short notice so I have booked my first one for November 13th, this seems ages away but it would have been sooner if I wasn’t going to Venice… So yeah hopefully over the next year I can learn and then past my test. Most people I have talked to about learning to drive (Oliver) claim that I will be rubbish and crash all the time, so no pressure!
3) Make the most of the WSJ Jamboree. This summer I am going to Sweden on the World Scout Jamboree and I want to make the most of this, I spent the last weekend with the people I will spending a lot of time with this summer and they are all awesome! I can’t wait for it; I will post a blog solely about this in the next few days since I have a lot to tell you about it! So this year I want to make the most of the Jamboree since undoubtedly this will probably be the greatest trip of my life!
4) Write a novel. Yes that is write I want to write a novel or should I say finish writing one! I started a few months ago writing it after planning out what I want to say in it. That is all I am going to say for the time being but I do need somebody to proof read some of what I have written for me so if you would like to help and get an early read of it please email me at: octopusox@gmail.com thank you! Also keep you eyes peeled since I want to post a few sample chapters on here in the coming weeks.
5) Learn to play acoustic guitar better. Well I already can play guitar but over the last few years my acoustic guitar skills have vanished and I played an acoustic for the first time in a while this weekend at the campfire and I have realised how much I miss it so I am going to relearn it all I hope and get better over the coming year. And this one sort of links with the next goal I am setting…
6) Record some of the songs I have written. Over the last years I have been writing a lot of songs but despite encouragement from loads of people I have never got round to recording them, so this year I will record them and when I do I will post the recording on here some how…
7) Do well in my exams. I am now at college studying: History, ICT, Psychology and Religious Studies (Philosophy and Ethics). I have exams in January and in the Summer sometime and I hope to do well in them, my ALPS are B, B, C but I hope to get quite a bit better than that, so this year I want to do well in my AS’s and basically study hard but not let it hinder all my other goals.
8) Get a girlfriend? This is one thing my friend who I spoke to last night suggested I set as a goal; he described me not having a girlfriend as “Being the missing piece to my puzzle.” Personally I am not to sure about this but I suppose it is something I have been putting off for too long, so I will put some serious thought in to this one before trying to get it ticked of my list I think I will have to take some time and not rush in and think about what I do very carefully especially since this one particularly involves somebody else’s feelings. This may be the hardest goal on my list, by a very large margin… But it will definitely be interesting!
9) Do a random act of kindness everyday. For the whole year I am going to try and do a very random act of kindness everyday and keep a record of what I have done to look back on at the end of the year. I may post some on here but I am not certain yet. Today’s random act of kindness was dropping my study period to go and search for my friends lost cat. Despite my hatred towards cats (I am allergic to them!) I really wanted to help him find it since I could tell that this lost cat was bothering him. Anyway after the walk to his house we soon found the cat was sat there waiting for him in his garden so despite the fact I did very little searching I still think it should count as today’s! So everyday I hope to do a random act like that for the rest of the year and hopefully this will slowly make the world a better place!
10) Become a Scout Leader. I have been a beaver leader for three years now and I think I need a change so this year I hope to become a scout leader (once my brother has moved to explorers, it would be havoc with him there still!) and once there I hope to have a great time and create many great experiences for the people involved just like the leaders made many great experiences for me when I was in Scouts.
11) Stay true to myself job-wise. Basically I believe that I shouldn’t do a job unless I would be happy to do it for free (very communist like I know…). This is why I want to become a teacher once I have finished my education since I would happily do this for free! So this year I don’t want to be pushed in to getting a job I don’t want to do. I don’t think I have explained this particularly well but I will try and explain it better in another blog post since I have quite a bit more to say about this…
12) Embark on a sea bound sailing voyage! No I don’t want to become a pirate but I do want to sail on a big boat on the sea. This summer my parents and brother are going away to the Mediterranean again but I have decided not to come this year I am hoping that in this time I can sort out doing some sailing on the sea which is something I have wanted to for ages. So hopefully I can spend a week or so out at sea, I have seen an opportunity already so hopefully I can involved with this voyage which is from Amsterdam to Ipswich. I will keep you posted about how applying for this goes…
13) Have many more great days out hiking. This last year I have spent some great days out doing the three peaks of Yorkshire challenge and also climbing Mt Snowdon plus many others. This year I hope to climb more mountains and have many more great days out in the awesome countryside.
14) Make more progress towards becoming a Sailing instructor. This past year I have become an assistant sailing instructor however in the coming year I want to make some progress being actually doing an instructor course or just being an instant instructor on courses. Teaching people to sail is something which I really enjoy and hopefully I can make further progress this year.
15) Change peoples view of “The Youth of Today”. Young people really do get some really bad coverage in the media however this year I want to spread the news of all the good news that young people are doing and try and persuade people that young people aren’t just hooligans as suggested by the media. I hope to challenge the media directly on this problem and work with them to promote all the good things that young people are doing. The first step for this will be to contact my local paper “The Lancashire Evening Post” so starting from there, lets see what happens. I will try and keep you all informed with what I am doing since this is quite a hard task I think.
16) Randomly help a homeless person directly. This is something I want to do, quite selfishly to prove to myself that I can through small impacts change the world even if it is for one person by buying them food so they can eat. I suppose this could come under “My Random Acts of Kindness” but I think that this is different since it isn’t a random act it is a planned act where as the random ones aren’t planed they are just impulsive acts. I would be hoping to spend £10 on the person I choose to help which may not seem a lot but considering how broke I am it is quite a lot for me! This one should be quite easy but it is something I really want to do.
17) Live to the age of 18. I want to live to the age of eighteen since I think if I die in this year it will mean I won’t get to help many people who I plan to help and also believe it a lot selfishly I quite like living. But I guess if my numbers up there is not a lot I can do. I suppose it would be quite nice to have lived to that age at least....
So these are the seventeen things I wish to achieve, if you think you can help me please email me at: octopusox@gmail.com Also please give me feedback about what I have written on this blog, be it in person, by email or commenting on this blog, I guess I would like to know if someone has read it and what they think since this has taken me a long time to write! So yes once again and thanks and I hope you are all part of everything positive I achieve in my life as a 17 year old!
Thanks for reading.
Chris :)
I enjoyed reading it Chris. I have wanted to write a novel ever since I was 17! 23 years later its still
ReplyDeletein the pipeline! I have wrote one in my head (a kids novel). I told it to George over several bedtimes and
he really liked it. I still haven't written it down. I wonder if your novel would be as surreal as your poetry?
Interesting that you are a beaver leader, Georgegoes to beavers, he has been to the beaver camp in Bibby farm Chorley (in caching terms very near Thirlmere Aqueduct). He'll be 8 soon so will start cubs.
Its a good blog but I would say you have already done number 15.
I would also add that because of this blog I now know how to use OpenID. That is almost a random act of kindness!
ReplyDeleteI would also add, my experience of number 8 is that it happens when you least expect it.
ReplyDeleteNice to get a mention Chris...and thanks for helping to look for poor Harrison the cat. In terms of the whole learning to drive thing, having known you for 5 years I can almost certainly imagine you crashing into a hedge or something, if not, i can almost guarantee that you will take a while to learn or be very slow!! Either way, I am determined to be better than you at driving, your bound to hit a fence post whilst lumbering around in that big clumbersome volvo!!!
ReplyDeletePersonally, I agree with points:
2, 7, 8, 12, 14, 15 and 17
and possibly 1, 4, 6 and 13
Obviosly we all hope to do an act of kindness everyday and i think i usually do but it isn't something i will think about too much. I am allready doing point 14, i cannot play the guitar and i cant say i'll help a tramp. I am not going to the jamboree and I do my best to change to views of old people on the youth of today, though i think old people have always had similar views regardless of the generation for centuries!! I terms of the job thing (nazi) i think that everyone works to earn money, and happiness isn't always the priority when it comes down to money!! Personally, I am much happier with my situation after two years of potwashing summer jobs - I wouldnt have been happy doing it for free!! Tell me if I've missed any but thats about it:
Good blog and it will be good to see how many you manage!! (And you will crash in some form or other I'm sure...and when you do...you'd better blog it!!)
Oliver
Thanks Paul, I am glad you enjoyed reading the blog. "Surreal" isn't something I would assosiate with my novel since it is actually fairly serious! Basically I am trying to write something that a teenager would want to read since there is quite a lack of books made for teenagers.
ReplyDeleteI too have camped at Bibby's Farm quite a few years ago, it was quite a memorable camp as it rained for the whole time so we spent most of it playing cards in the tent!
I am glad you consider me to have begun doing number 15 already and I hope I can come up with a way to change the views of people in mass!
As for number 8, I only put this one on because aparently according to my friend Myles getting a girlfriend will change me for the better. I suppose I am not too fussed if I don't achieve it but it has certainly made me think about it. Who knows like you say Paul this might happen when I am not expecting it!
Gnlad you got Open ID mastered Paul it is quite useful I find for when commenting on peoples blogs you ca link all your details together without making tons of accounts for everything. If I get time tonight I might do another blog since despite having only two followers so far I know of quite a few people who are reading this.
Chris :)
Nice one Oliver, I WILL NOT CRASH! Who was the one who kept on staling the car? If I can start one I can't be all that bad ;) Glad you thought the blog was good, hopfully I will get another one uploaded as soon as I have got all the homework of my back. :D
ReplyDeleteIts interesting that you say there is a lack of books for teenagers. Obviously as you are one you are more qualified than me to judge but I thought it was a big market. Harry Potter,Twilight, Artemis Fowl etc.
ReplyDeleteAlso is the blog title a Beatles reference? All those fantastic Lennon/McCartney songs and you choose Ringo's cheesy offering!
Yes Paul it is named after Ringo's song! However there is a little logic behind it! I made the blog on my 17th birthday and ten years to the day I recieved for my 7th Birthday 'The Beatles' 'Abbey Road' album and I spent the whole day listening to that one track!
ReplyDeleteAlso on teh internet I am called the 'octopusox' (I chose it because I had one minute to choose a quiz team name one time and that it was what I came up with in one minute. I then won the quiz so the username has sort have stuck.) So the username now vaguely fits the title. But anyway to answer your question yes it is named after that song!
As for teenage books... Harry Potter isn't really a teenage book, well at least I don't think it is baring in mind I started reading it when I was about 7 I would more call it a childrens book despite it being suitable for all ages. Twilight is targeted for girls really with the themes of romance also the way it is written in the first person also doesn't appeal to males.
As for Artemis Fowl, I have never read any of Eoin Coilfer's books since whenever I go to the libary they are always taken out (or I forget to check...), I here they are similar to 'The Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy' sort of so I may have to give them a read.
Personally I think that these books aren't in The Teenage market since it isn't actually teenagers who read them. In fact I think very few teenagers read at all anymore which is a shame. I debatably think that the World might be better off without T.V's...
The only books which seem to be a read hit with Teenagers from observations is Robert Muchamore's Cherub series. For some reason these actually seem to be bought and read by teenagers. I went through a stage where I was addicted to them, I think they are good since they actually appeal to males which is a very limited audience at the present. Personally I don't think schools do enough to make teenagers read adn I count myself lucky that my Mum is a Librarian. And if teenagers don't read, then I am guessing they won't write either which means that even more gaps in the market will grow potentially. Which gives oppunities to people like me.
Wow that's quite a long answer almost a blog post length! Maybe I should have written a blog post instead of writing this big long answer! Or alternativley got on with my Plato homework!
Glad to see that people your age like the Beatles. I loved them when I was a teenager. Even back then it was unusual because they broke up when I was a baby. Don't listen to them now much but I am still a fan. I got married in the church where John met Paul. There is a cache there called Eleanor Rigby because there is a grave with her name on it. Only yesterday I learned that George's class are learning the words to "Obla di Obla da".
ReplyDeleteYou remind me very much of myself when I was your age. I was the same way on number 11. I did become a teacher (maths teacher your favourite) but I gave it up in my late 20's and went into industry!