Lorna Cole

So, it’s safe to say that it’s been a while since I’ve posted on here! The last time I posted I hadn’t even started university and now I’m sitting here, a few weeks into my Second Year.  I moved to Brighton last September and I love it. It was a place I was drawn to for years, so there wasn’t much deliberation once I knew there was a course I liked and so began my journey as a Media Studies student.  I’ve met so many new people in the past year and a bit and it’s probably been the busiest I’ve ever been. There are always things on in Brighton and I’ve definitely made the most of what it offers! Brighton has a crazy amount of pubs and whilst I can’t say I’ve visited them all I’ve definitely found some favourites and look forward to trying our new ones over this next academic year. Just recently my housemates and I went to a pub quiz at one of our local pubs which were great fun! Some of the other things I’ve got up to in the last year include karaoke, mini golf, an escape room,...

I'm not really sure how we're already halfway through the year but here we are! I thought I'd take a look at the plans/goals I wrote in January and have a think about the latter half of 2021. You can read my initial 2021 goals and plans post here ! Goals & Plans I set in January The first goal I shared was to choose a university course and I'm pleased to say I did that and am now really looking forward to starting at The University of Brighton to study Media Studies in September! Going on from this, are the ongoing university preparations but things have definitely progressed! I've sorted my student finance loan and applied for accommodation which I'm currently waiting to hear back about and have got a few things that I'll be taking with me. I'm glad I joined a few university group chats with others starting at Brighton, it's been great getting to know people and it's nice knowing I've connected with some people before moving somewhere ne...

I've been seeing people post 'photo dumps' on Instagram a lot recently and since I take a lot of photos, I thought why not share some of them on here! Also, this means I can write a bit more about them as well, I don't think anyone wants to read a blog post as an Instagram caption! Sunsets are one of my favourite things to see and also photograph. I've found that my iPhone often can't quite capture the colours so recently I took out my camera whilst on an evening walk. All of these photos were taken on the same day and from a few different points along a field near my house! The sky was pretty cloudy but I really think it added to the photos, it was definitely a moodier sunset in comparison to the lighter pink hues below. Although I'm writing this on a very grey and rainy day, we have had some sunny days and I made the most of them by getting outside and going for walks. What's not shown in the photos above is the state of my shoes after I found myself w...

At the beginning of 2021, I started using Notion and I wish I'd done sooner! It's a productivity/planning/organisation tool but can be used to store any information - from study notes to meal plans to finances and lists for pretty much anything you need. There are loads of tutorials on YouTube to help set up your Notion which I definitely used for inspiration, as well as tips and ideas on TikTok, These videos from Unjaded Jade , Twirling Pages , Om & The City helped me particularly! I've also added some quick videos of my Notion pages at the bottom of this post if you want to see what it looks like in use. This post isn't an ad but as you'll see pretty quickly, I'm a fan of Notion so far! App & Quick Notes Notion also has an app that is compatible with iOS 14 - this makes it even easier to access any daily to-do lists or whatever content you want to access quickly. I have a widget that takes me to my Notion homepage, it has links to any of my pages so I...

Well, it’s definitely been a while, in fact, this is the longest I’ve not posted on here! I wanted to come back with a post talking about what I’ve been up to and why I’ve not posted for a bit.  There isn’t a big reason, I think it’s mostly because I’ve been dedicating a lot of my time to my Creative Arts degree. I actually have to upload my work to a blog and since I’ve been trying to work consistently and maintain that, I ended up neglecting this one sadly!  Another contributing factor is the fact that I wasn’t feeling too inspired with new creative ideas for this blog and didn’t want to write for the sake of it. Also, we all need to take a break sometimes! So, what have I been up to recently? Well as I said, a lot of my time goes into studying. I feel pretty productive and so far it’s going well as I’m making a lot of progress. I’m actually really enjoying learning and developing my knowledge again!  Something I've been trying to improve for...

It's so weird that we're getting close to it being halfway through the year already and I know it's a little late but I do have a good variety of things to share so here are my monthly favourites for April!  Movie Like a lot of people, I recently went to see Avengers Endgame at the cinema. Technically I went on May 1st but as it was released in April and I didn't want to wait for my May favourites I thought I'd just put it in here! Anyway, I thought it was a really great film, I enjoyed Infinity War so was definitely intrigued to see how it panned out! Personally, the 3 hours went by pretty quickly and I liked the action you expect from a superhero film, alongside snippets of humour and of course the deeper story (no spoilers here). If you've not seen it then I'd recommend it for sure! Music I've been a fan of Bastille pretty much from the beginning and I'd probably say they're my favourite band so it's certainly not a new thin...

Everything else has taken a backseat lately as I recently started a course with the OCA, I knew I wanted to get a degree but had no clue what and didn’t want to rush into something after school. I’d always planned to something based around creativity but could never decide on a certain aspect. The Creative Arts degree that the OCA offers allows you to study a range of topics, to begin with (Contemporary Art, Creative Writing, Visual Communications, Photography, Textiles) and then you choose 2 of these to develop further. This is perfect for me as I’ll be able to explore the different avenues and can make a better-informed choice on what I’m more interested in. Right now, I think I’ll choose writing and photography since I enjoy them both and think they could be pretty useful in terms of the potential careers I’d be interested in - another positive being the fact that hopefully, this will open up new job opportunities too. So what is the OCA? Well, the Open College of the Arts is...

Since the academic year has recently started I thought I'd do a quick post to share some tips that I used or wish I knew at the time! I often found myself feeling pretty prepared and motivated at the start of the year but hopefully, some of these will help that to continue all year round, or more at least! Attitude and Behaviour >  Put in the effort now - when you get further into the year you'll thank yourself for putting in the time to learn everything properly, especially when it comes to revision as you'll already have materials to look back at. > Mistakes are good - it can be disheartening when you make mistakes or don't get the feedback you hoped for but learning from them is a really productive and useful way to help improve. > Strengths and Weaknesses - everyone has things they are better at and things they may struggle with, finding that out now and setting time aside to focus on the things you find harder will help reduce stress. You could als...

A little reminder that our year left for the School! So I'm assuming that either you're finishing school or that you will be in the next couple of years and like me, have no idea what you want to with your life! You've got your teachers asking you, parents, grandparents and you just have no clue! I know that can be a huge worry and can leave you confused about what path to take, I was exactly the same and sometimes you don't want to admit that you have no idea where your life is heading! Over the last couple of years during my time in Sixth Form however, I researched into the different paths you can take - some of which are obvious and some may be new to you! First off I recommend that you do a couple of tests that are designed to help narrow down which careers you are most suited to. There are many available, such as the website - https://www.prospects.ac.uk/planner  If you are currently in school, sixth form or college then your institution may have signed up t...