“Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.”

Seen as though I’m on a roll with all of these introductions to my life I suppose I should tell you about the place that takes up most of my time: York. I don’t know where you guys are all from and how much you know about the UK so I’ll give you a few fun facts about York.

1. It’s a historic city with medieval walls that enclose the centre (I like old stuff so it’s cool to me)

2. The name ‘York’ comes from Old Norse ‘Jorvik’ (who doesn’t like the Vikings?)

3. The minster is the largest Gothic cathedral in Northern Europe (I just found this out today and I think it is awesome, no?)

4. Guy Fawkes went to school here (the level of history has no bounds!!)

5. Everywhere you go (I mean everywhere) there are geese. I see them walking across roads pretty much everyday.

So there you go, now you can tell your friends some fun facts about a tiny city in the north of England. How cool is that? I feel like the only reason I’m writing this post is because I just spent the day acting like a full-on tourist (camera never left my hand) rather than a resident. I’ve just come back after Easter break and decided that before I finish my first year I need to actually walk around the walls and go in the Minster (because it’s huge and beautiful?!). I’m basically a massive fan of York today and want to share that love with you all so that you can google it and see how beautiful it is.

I study English Literature which basically means that I read about 4 books a fortnight (take a moment to cope with that as most people do). I love reading because you get to experience so much…life 100 years ago, life 50 years in the future, characters good and bad. I have fallen in love with so many books and each one has helped me grow and learn about life. I think that I am the luckiest person because I am doing the thing I love most for the next 3 years! This is where the title quote comes in.. if you don’t love what you study you won’t ever learn.. so thank you Leonardo da Vinci for that advice.

xoluceee

“A friend is, as it were, a second self.”

I feel like I need to introduce you to my best friend (the ridiculously beautiful blonde) because she is the best person I know and the world deserves to know who she is.

I’ve known Megan for about 17 years, we were best friends all the way through primary school, then we had a 5 year gap during secondary school (the school split our year up and I was in no classes with her). Thankfully (and I really really thank the universe for this) we reunited in college and once again became inseparable.

We spent our 2 years at college laughing. Literally. We were talking the other day and I told her how this guy in our class had said that we were known as ‘the laughing girls’ (we actually thought that no-one knew who we were). We spent the next hour talking about all the things we got up to when we were supposed to be doing work. Here are just a few examples: singing/dancing to Gwen Stefani in the college library (we were promptly banned from entering), learning all the words to Benny and the Jets (lets be honest, who doesn’t though) and dancing in front of an apparently see through mirror (it went into the heads office, he never let us forget).

Not only did we have the best 2 years of our life but we still managed to get into university (we don’t actually know how we managed this). We ended up going to the same uni but she’s a year ahead (my gap year separated us) and I barely see her which sucks big time but we get long holidays which we spend together doing what we do best: laughing (and occasionally dancing in the wine bar until 4am but we can talk about that another day)

Anyway, that’s Megan. She’s blonde, doesn’t go a minute without smiling and knows me better than I do. I think the quote (Marcus Tullius Cicero) in the title was written for us because she is my other half, we are one and the same. It’s scary how alike we are but I love it. I’d love to hear about your best friends and funny stories you share with them!

xoluceee

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”

Hello. Bonjour. Aloha. Hola. 

So I recently did my first ever piece of creative work (a book review) as part of an assessment at university and I was so worried about it that I lost sleep. I powered through, handed it in and forgot all about. The marks came in yesterday and after a good few hours of preparing myself to look at my grade I finally opened the file. I think the shock almost made me cry because I actually passed and with a pretty decent mark. Apparently I’m not the world’s worst creative writer (who knew?!?). After a few brain thoughts I decided why not start a blog and see if I can build on my writing. 

Long story short- I started a blog and here we are hopefully not being a train wreck. 

The quote is from the one and only (and personal favourite of mine) Mr Ernest Hemingway. I love his words and I felt this was a good quote to start with. 

Let’s see where this journey takes us!

xoluceee