Saturday 20 August 2016

A letter for 2010 Sinéad.

East-side Gallery, Berlin Wall, 2014.



It's 2010.
I'm 18.
I have just finished repeating my Leaving Cert (something I'll never regret...)
 I am all packed up and moving to Galway to live with complete strangers. 

If I knew the things that I know now back then, would I do it again? 
Well honestly, probably, but with some small changes that is.....(see point 4.....)




__________________________________________________________________________




20.8.16


Dear 2010 Sinéad,


This is future Sinéad here to give you some warnings for your time in college. It's 2016 and yes you started a blog. Yes, your still single and no THAT thing your thinking, that never happened, MOVE ON. Anyways on to the more important stuff.....


1.STOP!! EATING!! PIZZA!! THE FRESHERS 15 EXISTS. It will be the last time you are a size 8 and you thought you were fat then HA you haven't seen anything yet.

2. Never. EVER. EVER. drink Tesco own brand vodka, it will scar you for life.

3.Stop beating yourself up for not getting enough points for Journalism (you get the masters in it eventually!)

4.do NOT have a boyfriend in college. *I REPEAT DO NOT HAVE A BOYFRIEND IN COLLEGE* it may seem like a good idea at the time, but you will regret it almost immediately. avoid at all costs.

5. You'll meet a rude boy called Eoin. Laugh at his fat jokes the first day you meet him, he will be your bestie in college and you'll need him. In-fact you still put up with him six years on....

6. You'll get evicted in third year. it won't be your fault. but Clare will egg the neighbours house for the both of ye.

7. Failing an exam does NOT make you a failure. It teaches you a lesson.

8. Appreciate Galway more: the city, go explore, take more photos of it, don't follow the crowd, go somewhere different to everyone else.

9. BUY AN ALARM CLOCK!!

10. You'll be a class rep in third year. and you'll be very very very shit at it. (but you get a free hoodie)

11. Your doing a degree that deals with politics, LISTEN IN CLASS AND LEARN ABOUT IRISH POLITICS, IT MATTERS.

12. Some of the friends that you are friends with in first year, ya they don't exist in your life anymore. They actually won't even be your friends in second year, you can blame Rachel for that one.....

13.DO A FECKING J1! You'll regret it foreva-eva...

14. That McCanns girl from Sligo you had to sit beside on the bus to Galway with that one time and talked the whole way too, ya chat to her more, shes your bestie now...

and finally, enjoy every minute. it goes by too fast.

Yours,

2016 Sinéad

x







Wednesday 17 August 2016

relationshit.


@psychogeneration


WHEN did I suddenly become 'that age' were all my friends want to get married/engaged?
while I'm here unsuccessfully Tindering, failing at the single life, but doing so happily.
 Toxic past relationships have confirmed that I want to stay single for another life time but I'm perfectly happy with it. ME first after all.










I found myself lately talking to friends in long term relationships about how they want a ring on THAT finger, planning hen parties when they haven't even gotten engaged.
I'm sorry but WHO HAS STARTED THIS MADNESS?I'm living week to week, looking for all my single ladies (they're are none left....) to go for nights out while my other friends are off saving for their weddings. 

I've already been to one friends beautiful wedding this summer and I don't think there is anything wrong with someone getting married at this age. 
And I'm a bridesmaid (foreva-eva...) next year to my best friend and I don't think I've ever been so excited to stand beside her and watch her get married.


But still.


when did we all grow up?



EXCUSE ME, BUT WE ARE ALL 24 HERE. 



Next thing you know they'll all be wanting babies and THAT is one thing I will surely be keeping well and truly away from.  


just invite me to the christening sesh.
     







x



Wednesday 10 August 2016

Limerick Loving, happened so fast!



What a year it has been. 

This time last year I was getting myself all geared up for the big move to Limerick City to begin my masters in Journalism.

I didn't know anyone moving down but I didn't care, I needed a fresh start.




A lot of people from where I am from and I am sure from around the country have pre-conceived ideas of what Limerick is like and I hold up my hands and admit that I had them myself. 

When I would tell people that I was moving to Limerick the usual jokes ensued:

"be careful you don't get stabbed"

"be careful you don't get shot" 

"stab city kid"

Limerick had gotten itself a very bad name throughout the years, but after spending the entire year here working, drinking, learning and living it couldn't be further from the truth. 

The transition from Sligo to Limerick went quite smoothly for me, the day I moved down I handed my CV into the infamous Chawkes Centra in Castletroy and the following few days I had a job making chicken fillet rolls like they were going out of fashion to the 'jibs' of college students.

I worked four days a week and did my Masters in between. 
I don't regret working throughout my Masters, because if  I didn't I wouldn't have met the people and made the friends that I did this past year.
Plus I did pretty well in my college work considering.

I had the pleasure of working and learning with 12 of the nicest people who are no doubt going to be big names in the future of Journalism, regardless of what Paschal Sheehy has to say!!!








When I first moved to Limerick I was weary of my surroundings, taking the bus into the city I clutched my bag in fear of being robbed because this notion that it was a bad place had been portrayed to me from outsiders who had never even visited the place.
  
It's like when you go to Dublin and there are so many people hustling and bustling around you and you can hear your mother's voice ringing in your head to "watch your bag" and to "be careful".

 It's hardly just my mam that says this, is it?

But that feeling about Limerick quickly faded, when I realised how nice the city was and how friendly the people were. 







Now that's not to say that there isn't some crazy people: if you ever want to meet them just get the buses around the city and surrounding areas and you are certain to meet a few....
and there was a few crazy incidents, my housemates car did get stolen from outside our house and burnt out and there was a murder in the housing estate I lived in but sure look now where is perfect...

 I worked (and lived) with some of the craziest human beings going,  but it made it all the more enjoyable.


 



 




All things considering I got out of this year unscathed and I have a new city that I would be comfortable and happy enough to call my home from home.





 




 That feeling of escaping home and spending time in a new place was the fresh start I needed after spending a full two years living in Sligo working (without any school/college etc....). 

Galway will always be my favourite place to have lived, Sligo being second as it contains most of my favourite people (.....some have escaped to England), but I can defiantly say that Limerick has made a lasting loving impression on me and I am sad to have to say goodbye to it so soon.  

But this year was always going to be one year, no more no less and it's about time I put what I've learned and paid for to the test in the big bad real working world of Journalism. 


Wish me luck.


I'll need it.


x


Curraghchase Forest park: 9.8.16










Wednesday 3 August 2016

Speak only if it improves upon the silence.


19.7.16




Sorry?
What?
WHAT??
Sorry, what did you say?
Can you say that again?
I didn't hear you?
Can you repeat that again?

*nods, smiles and agrees even though you haven't a damn clue what they said*


My usual catchphrases.
Its not something I usually like talking about because it makes me self -conscious, even though it is something most of my closest friends know about but nonetheless I hate it.
I have bad hearing, is that what you say? Not deaf, but hard of hearing?
I'm 24 and I have two hearing aids. There I said it, it's out there. 

It's not the same as wearing glasses I don't think, not that I wear glasses but wearing glasses is something that seems so much more common than wearing hearing aids.
But everyone has their insecurities and this just so happens to be mine.
 Hearing aids are associated with elderly people, but here I am in my prime (HA) of life wearing them. Or sometimes (most of the time) not wearing them....it's so bad they should be like a second limb for me.

But wearing them is like hearing things for the first time, every movement is amplified 10 times more, my breathing, my voice is like hearing it in my chest, a scratching noise behind me, a car door slamming sounds like it's right up close beside me. But it beats having to constantly struggle in conversations, nodding and smiling like I know what you are saying. 

Do you know how many conversations that I have missed out on because I couldn't hear. Loads. 

some people do speak low, and god do I despise those people. followed by the sentence, are you deaf? when I say yes and then say I wear hearing aids it makes them retreat. 
Then there are the people that get frustrated because I have to ask them to repeat themselves.
In groups of people I often zone out because I can't hear what is going on, its annoying but its better than asking everyone to repeat themselves. People have often noticed that I zone out and don't pay attention but it's not that, its me not hearing what's being said and just giving up trying to figure it out.
 A bad habit I am forcing myself to get out of.  



anyways life is now a little louder for me and I guess it's something I just have to get used too. But if you are finding yourself struggling defiantly get it checked out. It's something that is heredity in both sides of my family so there was no escaping it, CHEERS FAM.  

also interesting new thriller film on Netlfix called Hush. It involves a deaf, mute woman and a killer. so.good.


chow. 

Sinead