Tuesday 27 March 2012

Why Teenagers Act Their Age

Right, hello!
I'm firstly going to apologize for the radio silence these last couple of weeks, been quite hectic - but hey, it's Easter holidays soon, and I promise that I will be writing at least once a week, more if I can manage. That's not totally my fault though - I need stuff to write about! Email me your topics, or leave a comment below, but anything would be very handy!

However, IRL I have actually been having a very busy life! I had GCSE's, and Sport Relief, and people to see, and places to go...well, you get my drift. However all these things have actually been useful to my life, and some of them actually helped come up with the idea of this blog post.
I wonder, as I write, and possibly as you read, how many of you are a similar age to me - a teenager, that is. And I wonder then how many of you get bad press for being who you are, or how old you are or how you like to dress. I often find that these questions simply refuse to be answered - so today I am going to answer them myself.

Teenagers. It's in the name. TEEN-AGE-RS. We're supposed to act this way! We're supposed to have fun and screw up and make mistakes sometimes, because otherwise how can we learn to make our own way in life. It's all very well saying that parents are trying to stop you from making mistakes that you'll regret, but sorry - isn't that the point? Isn't that our decision to make? I'm not saying that all our decisions are right, or that our actions won't have consequences, but it's from our own lessons that we learn the error - or successes - of our ways, and there isn't a thing that could change that. I want to be happy in life. I would rather be happy than right, and that's the truth of the matter.

That being said, I do think it's a tad strange how teenagers have evolved throughout the generations. It used to be we'd go out to the park with a boy, hold hands, maybe go dancing or out to dinner on a Saturday night. From what I can tell, nowadays it's who can get off (or "snog") their boyfriend first, short dresses, parties, and getting drunk. Sorry for being so brutally honest, but I can't help but feel that this is currently how many people view us. Don't you think we should change that? I'm not saying cut the drink or the partying, that's your decision and I've just written a whole paragraph about that. I'm not saying become a complete introvert, and basically one of those people who will live sheltered until their late twenties - but enjoy life, don't forget it because you were too drunk to remember anything.

But perhaps I'm being too harsh. Teenagers have accomplished so much, and our generation will have both the most the prove, but also the most to offer. Who says that we will never amount to anything? Who says we'll all end up living in terrible accommodation, with little or no money? The people who think we can't succeed. Our generation will produce Presidents, royalty, Prime Ministers - people who WILL change the world. We are capable of everything and anything, and I don't think it's fair to expect us to fail instantaneously. Some teenagers have become world famous through the years - Justin Bieber, Charlie McDonnell, Alex Day, Greyson Chance, child actors, artists, dancers, singers - the list is endless. We cannot expect to have an easy life, I know that  - on the contrary, we'll be inheriting a troubled planet, with war and global warming and population increase and so much more. But it will be these same circumstances which will make us become the generation that people will remember. The generation that will change everything.




Wow.
I can't believe I just wrote that.
Crazy stuff, man.
Anyhoo, that's my post for the day, probably the rest of the week. I know this is a controversial post - believe me, I'm not looking forward to tomorrow's school day - but I created this blog as a place for opinions to be heard and for a single teenage girl to finally be listened to.

Lots of love,
ScotsGirl x 

Sunday 11 March 2012

The Great Joys of English Weather

You might think, when you hear the word England, of croquet lawns, Mr Darcy, Colin Firth, BBC, and "good ol' London Town". You might think of a sunny countryside, or of dark, mysterious nights filled with fire, hoodies, and police. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

However, I can safely say that as a British citizen, one thing that will always remain British is the constant change in the weather. I have known, in a single day, for it to rain, snow, hail, and finally give us some sunshine. Forgive me, but I do think that's a tad strange.

Another thing about British weather is its ability to render one completely and utterly incapable of going, or doing, anything outside one's house. The great snowfall of February 2012 - although shortlived, many people were stuck inside their own homes, almost completely unable to even step outside their front door to put the cat out. Indeed, snow is extreme in Britain. Here's an example from good old Scotland:


Of course, there's no denying that although extremely dangerous, snow is excellent fun. However, rain - well, just see for yourselves...



But perhaps I am not being totally fair on the great phenomonon that is British Weather. Here in the UK we have sun - for those readers who do not know, we're currently in the middle of a hosepipe ban, which means DROUGHT TIME! So happy that that happened...

However, it's not just the British Weather that people seem to find so interesting about England. I find it curious that so many people have so many different stereotypes about us. Here are a few quotes from people who were asked what they thought was the stereotypical image of England:

"That you drink a lot of tea, drink a lot of beer, get in huge hooligan fights, are calm under pressure. Oh almost forgot - you love to play football."
"Bad food, worse weather, dry, cold and calculating, good manners."
"The stereotype at the moment is pretty rough hooligan!, chav!"
"Witty, colorful, coarse, oblique way of speaking, sweater-wearing." (I'm from the US)
And of course, my personal favourite:
"You all drink tea and live in castles."


I'm afraid that's just the Queen who does that. However I am a big tea-drinker - I HATE coffee - I drink it every day, it's nice, it's BRITISH.....good grief, I am officially stereotyping myself right now.

I think that's it for today, bit of a ramble, sorry :)
If you want see more comments like the one above, dear reader, please click here!
Seeing you around the interweb,

ScotsGirl x 

Tuesday 6 March 2012

KONY 2012

Right, this seems cryptic but PLEASE KEEP READING!

The film you (hopefully) are about to watch should make it all clear to you. This man, Joseph Kony, must be stopped. He is the most wanted person by the International Court of Justice. He has turned over 30,000 children - more than the number of people you can fit in the O2 Arena, London, UK (or more people than the Madison Square Gardens, for you Americans) - into child soldiers, abducting them in the night and forcing them to kill their own parents.

Guys, the people who read my blog - YOU - are in 5 different continents. We can spread this everywhere. Take the link, share it, Tweet it, Facebook it - the best part is that it still counts as views for the original YouTube, so InvisibleChildren aren't missing out. Together, we can change the world.

I've taken the pledge. Will you?





Thursday 1 March 2012

Why Lent Can Be Dangerous

I bet you saw the title of this blogpost and thought, "Lent?  Dangerous?"
Well, in some cases, yes.

Lent, for those of you who don't know, is the period of 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Holy Thursday. This period comes from the Christian Bible, where Jesus Christ fasted for 40 days in the desert. Typically people also give something up for the 40 days (excluding Sundays) in memory of this.

However, this is not what I am here to talk to you about today. So, I present to you my personal list of funniest, craziest things to give up for Lent.

10) Breathing.
Believe it or not, this is actually something people intend to give up for Lent. Personally, I wish them the best of luck, and failing that a RIP.

9) Sleeping. 
Did you know in 2010 someone DIED from not sleeping? Yeah, there was a MMORG player from China, known only as Snowy, who died from exhaustion after just 3 days! Curiously enough, the MMORG game in question held a virtual service, in a virtual chapel, on a virtual island, in a virtual world. Seems like the internet does give back after all.

8) Eating.
Believe it or not, some hardcore people try and give up EATING ACTUAL FOOD! for Lent. May I just take this moment to tell you we can only survive 21 days without food? However, chocolate, snacking, and sweets can also be taken as baby steps towards the real deal.

7) Being Mean.
A friend of mine is doing this, and so far she's managed to stay straight, so well done D! However, if you want to make this a regular thing, Alex Day (www.youtube.com/nerimon) decided to try and break a habit, of whose example you can follow!  You do this by wearing a bracelet which you have to wear for 21 days (21 days is how long something takes to become a habit). Every time you say or do something you shouldn't, you have to swap the bracelet onto the other wrist and begin again. Take it from me, it's trickier than it looks.

6) Wearing Clothes.
Oh yes, you may laugh, but this is an actual Lent. Around 5000 people each year give up wearing certain garments, including shoes, hats, scarves, underwear (all sorts), and indeed, around 550 people actually become nudists for the entirety of Lent. So, if you have them living near you, lucky you!

5) Lent.
Oh, you clever people, you! Yes, some people decided to be smarty-pants and beat the system by giving up what they're supposed to give up for. Giving up Lent, for Lent, basically means you don't have to give anything up at all. So if you're one of those clever people reading this post, I salute you - I just wish I had had the same idea.

4) Religion.
This isn't exactly odd when you think about it, but I was researching this post (yes! I have to do research for you, dear reader!) and I came across several posts of people actually changing faiths. Catholics were becoming Protestants for the duration of Lents, others were becoming Buddhists - the Interweb can be so weird, honestly.

3) Technology.
This includes mobiles - bye bye BBM! - and the wonderful world that is TOWIE, Made in Chelsea, Eastenders - the telly, basically. Personally, I'm not sure that losing TOWIE is such a bad thing - the show is terrible, and gives us English girls a bad name.

2) Friendship.
I did actually see this one post, where this girl decided ( I think it was a girl ) that she was going to become a hermit and not see any of her friends  for the entirety of Lent. Whether she has succeeded or not, I do not know. However, the idea of silence, or solitariness, is definitely one I will investigate.

1) The Internet.
Strangely, this is one of the hardest things to do. By no Internet, I mean no YouTube (sorry Charlieissocoollike), no Facebook, no Twitter, no Tumblr, no BBC, and worst of all, no blogging from yours truly! Which is a good reason why I shouldn't be doing that this Lent.

So, there you have it. ScotsGirl's top ten Crazy Things of Lent. I would just like to apologise for disappearing off the Internet recently, actually. Here in the UK we have these exams - not very important - called GCSE's, which basically determine what we can do later in life. So I kind of needed to study for them..

Oh, and THANKYOU THANKYOU THANKYOU! Last weekend I hit 1000 views on this blog. No idea how that happened, but a MASSIVE thankyou to everyone. Just really made me happy.

Actually, I ended up doing the Conga round my living room in glee, but I won't go into that. But hey! Have fun in life!

Later's y'all,
ScotsGirl x