Summer Time

As I've stated in previous posts, I have been working alot over summer and not had much time to myself. I wish I could have gone abroad or gone to a musical festival, but I couldn't. Instead, I decided to work alot to earn money to pay for the likes of Freshers and for New York in January! 

I'm so grateful that I was able to get a job for summer at the place that I already work, Guildhall. It wasn't the most exciting job to be involved in, and it was a lot of hard work. Myself and five other people had to strip six dressing rooms, sand down, wash and then paint. It was tiring and when it was done, I was happy to not be covered in paint! From doing this work, and helping out Guildhall higher staff, they decided to then promote my normal bar job from bartender to bar supervisor. Meaning I now run my own bar, which is amazing. 

Obviously, I didn't work constantly, even though it felt like it! I did manage to go back home, to Hastings, to see my family for a week or two. While there, we went to visit the zoos, go to the beach and do normal family days out. I'm pleased that I did make the time to go back home because I would have regretted missing out on all them trips out! During August, my friend from Uni, Cath, turned 21. So all our housemates & her friends from home arranged a surprise party for her in her home town of Chippenham. It was so good to see everyone over the summer as I missed them all so much! Once everyone was back at uni, we went to a day festival called Soundclash in Southampton. It was such a good day and the best event of freshers! It was truly amazing to experience something like that with my uni family. 

Reflecting on what I did over the summer, I do regret not doing more with family and friends. Everyone seemed to be doing something from going on holiday or just general plans for days out, and I couldn't go because I had to work. I made the sacrifice of not going out with them during the summer so I could have an amazing time once back at Uni. Like I previously said, I'm saving for freshers and New York. If I didn't do all the work I did, I would be missing out in the months to come rather than right then in the moment. 

Here are a few photos of my summer, or what I did with the little of it I had;

Conclusion & The Future

Not only has the past year made me change as a make-up artist, I have changed so much as a person. And it's all down to taking to plunge to move to Southampton last year for university. I've always been in Southampton, and would call it my second home, due to having very close family friends live here. So the actual move last year for me from Hastings to Southampton wasn't that hard because the place was so similar to me. Before I came to uni, I worked as a carer going to each individual clients home. Morning to night. Working 12 days in a row before I got a day off. It was hard, but so worth it. I met some amazing people and heard the best stories through this job, but, it made me grow old before my time and I wanted to be young again, and have to opportunity to do so, Solent gave me that opportunity. 

I've met some amazing people over the past year that I know I will stay friends with forever. Obviously it's not been easy, and I have had some conflict with a few people along the way. But those negative people were soon out of my life because I didn't need any negative thoughts. Just the other day, myself and the 3 girls in my group on my course, Jas, Jay & Naomi, were walking home from out first class back. We all turned to eachother, smiled, started laughing, all for no reason. But it was because we said that we might have just been apart for 4 months, but it's like we've never left eachother. I loved that feeling so much! I'm now in a house, opposed to halls and I'm already loving my studies alot more. I'm finding it so much easier to do my work and really get concentrated. Apologies Sharon, I know this was meant to be done over summer but I've been working none stop! However, it's made me remember that I really enjoy writing my blogs!

Last year was difficult for me. Moving away from my large and noisy family, getting back into the swing of education and meeting so many new people. I have a slight social problem and sometimes stutter and trip on my words when saying them. So meeting alot of new people made me very anxious. Looking at where I am now, and where I was back then, I am so grateful for all the things Solent have helped me with. I'm alot more confident in myself and don't struggle with as much things as what I did before. I couldn't thank the staff and people around me enough!

In regards to my studies last year, I could have put in more effort, but I did find the work difficult. I hadn't had much experience in make-up or hair and thought I'd be a bit lost in lessons, but that wasn't the case at all. I fitted right in and this year has really made me change my opinion of make-up and hair in general. I realised that I'm enjoying hair alot more than the make-up side to it, which surprised me! I know I still have alot of practising to do to get to the level of quality that I would like, but I'm only going into second year, so I've got time. I'm really going to try hard this year because I want to see myself achieve grades and creative things that I didn't think I could. I want to shock the people that said I had no talent or couldn't do something. I want to prove it to them and myself that I can do it!

I'm so excited for this year of uni, and got alot to look forward to! I chose to take Wig Work & Postiche for our optional study, going on all the trips that are planned for days out and mainly.....


NEW YORK! 

Our uni has decided to be the best uni ever, and take us on a trip to the Big Apple! I'm so over the moon. I've always wanted to go and in 3 months, 3 days, that dream will be a reality. To make it even better, my best friend and house mate at uni does Fashion Styling, so we're going on it together and sharing the most amazing experience! 

Overall, I so pleased that I passed first year, because at one point, I didn't think that was going to happen. I know what I have to do this year, and I'm really determined for it to happen. I haven't really set myself any goals for this year, I just want to soak everything up that I can, like a sponge. I'm going to do better than last year and make the effort. As long as I can see that I'm pushing myself, I'll be happy. 

Critical Thinking

'Think critically about what you are doing well and what needs to be changed as a result of the experience. Talk about the skills, responses and actions that have been strengthened by the experiences this year, and then move into a discussion about areas that need work. What would you have done differently given the chance, and what factors influenced the decisions you made this year? What would you have done differently given the chance? Why? How would you have done it? What factors influenced the decisions you made this year Have these changed since then? What were the most successful moments in your year? Why?' 

When it comes to my work, I believe I am good at analysing my work and picking out the good and bad within it. I think I have a good balance for being critical with my work as some people can be over critical and some can believe their work is the best. I would say my work last year was pretty average due to many things and I could have done better in some aspects. One thing that took me a while to get into, was the blogging side of the course. Now, I love it, but at first, I just couldn't get used to it as I've never done it before. I was completely new to it all. I found it alot easier to do work on blogs as it's informative yet informal, so I feel like I have a stronger connection to whoever reads it. I also like the fact that there's an app for Blogger, so I could do my work on my phone wherever and whenever. 

I believe I need to book and attend more 1-1 meetings with my tutors this year to help me with more feedback. They aren't afraid to tell it how it is, and sometimes I really need that honesty to improve my work. With their opinion on my work, I can further my skills and really push that boundaries of what I want to do and create. Sometimes I would take an easy option because I knew I could do it, but it wouldn't always push me as far as it could have. I think this year, I need to be more creative and take in what people are saying about my work more. Timing is also a big part of this year for me, I need to do the work as and when I get it, not leave it all to the last minute. I really regret doing that last year because I didn't always get the grade I think I could of actually achieved. I'm excited to do this year because I'm looking forward to it more than last because I already know people in my class, I've been back in the education system for a year now and I also know what to expect along with getting to chose one of my own subjects. 

One of my main achievements from last year was that I was able to recreate someones face chart and idea for them, as the make-up artist. I really liked doing this as I've never done it before. Learning to be a make-up artist means that you need to realise that you wouldn't always chose what work you do. Majority of the time, you're going to have a make-up artist and a make-up designer. I'm not sure which role I prefer right now because they're both something I like doing, obviously. But to actually recreate someone elses idea onto the face with make-up is rather remarkable because sometimes it can look to same but at the same time, will look so different purely down to the personality of the make-up artist. 

Reflection

'How have you changed in your attitudes or actions, and what have you learned. Explain what you think has caused you to change. Have you improved?' 

Before I decided to take the next step in life of university, I chose to take a year off to work. Mainly because I thought I was an adult who was independent and didn't need to be in education any more because I wanted to earn my own money. I was wrong...  I found it so hard working full-time, I was not ready for it, and I actually missed learning about new things. So I knew that when I got the next opportunity, I would apply for university, and it's been the best decision I've ever made. 

Coming to uni has made me grow and develop as a person. The people I've met have changed me for the better and helped me to over come things. The girls on my course have helped me to develop in areas that I used to struggle in. I never studying make-up before at college like most of the other girls on the course, so I was so nervous that I was going to get left behind and it made my anxiety develop further from this. But all the students and teachers helped me to calm down a bit and realise that I can do some of the things that I was afraid of before. 

I'm still unsure as to what area of make-up and hair that I want to go into, there's so many that I really can't decide yet! But then again, I am only going in to my second year. So far, I have learnt that I've been more interested in the hair side to the course than the make-up. This surprised me as I've always been so into special effects at halloween or face painting, along with actual make-up. I like how this has happened though, because it shows that I've really been getting involved and its making me change as a person. Who knows what this year is going to make me start to like? 

I've still got a lot to learn from this year and need to tackle the areas in which I find difficult to develop on. I believe my weak areas are will power, concentration and timing. I'm really lacking in will power, I believe this is because I had a year off and worked, so didn't really get back into the swing of writing blogs constantly and getting homework. I'm actually excited to start writing again after this summer so hopefully I'll pick it back up quickly. I feel I didn't concentrate as much as I could have last year. I chose to go out with my friends and spend time with them instead of working hard to get my work to the best possible standard that it could have been. When it comes to my timing of my work, this links in with my concentration too. Because I didn't concentrate enough, that meant that I had to do my work in a short amount of time. I hated doing this and I am not going to let it happen again this year. I have learnt from this and I am going to change it. 

I loved my first year at uni. There are somethings I would have changed when it came to my work, but at the same time, I wouldn't have changed thing because I had the best year, had some very good times and all while still passing my course and carrying onto the next year. I must not have done as bad as what I thought. I couldn't add possibly add all my favourite photos of what I've produced within this year, so I'll add a few that from the last year. 

Contemporary Elizabethan design

Contemporary Elizabethan hair

Gothic Horror - Quentin

Gothic Horror - Miss Havisham

Here We Go Again.... Round 2.

So the summer has finally come to an end, and we're all upset about it....

 But one thing that this means is that I'm going back to Solent! 

I've been working in Southampton over the past 4 month of summer, at O2 Guildhall, repainting the stage dressing rooms. I already work at Guildhall and have been for the past year, achieving a bar supervisor roll too (little praise to myself there), so I easily got some work there. There are so many different reasons why I'm so excited to go back to uni. All my friends will be joining me in our new house, freshers (of course), getting back into a normal routine, but mainly getting back onto the path of learning about the thing I love the most. Make-Up & Hair. 

From moving to university last year, I have grown so much as a person through new general life experiences and also through my education. My knowledge on make-up & hair products and techniques have obviously grown but I never would have thought my knowledge on history would too. Back at secondary school, I passed all my GCSEs apart from one, History. So this past year has helped me to gain further knowledge in a topic that used to make me upset for failing. Looking back, I believe there was alot more I could have done to better my work last year. I felt as though I was so wrapped up in the 'Uni Lifestyle' and making new friends, that I let my work down because of that. 

My reflection blog post is going to look at how I've changed from the last year, my highs and lows over the past year, my improvements, and also why I've changed. 

I'm really looking forward to starting this new year as it'll all be new topics in different areas of media, and also we got to pick one of our own optional topics. I chose Wig Work and Postiche, along with the three girls I'm friends with the most in my class. 

I can't wait to get back into it!