I usually receive a pretty similar reaction when I tell people I did a History degree.
“Oh, what are you going to do with a degree in History?”
“Do you want to teach?”
“I hated History.”
Like, O K, C O O L S T O R Y B R O.
Open your minds a little bit please. It always reminds me of days when I would unpack my sandwiches at school to find mum has put tuna in them. Fine with me, I liked it, but everyone would make comments, “ew,” and just general facial expressions of disgust. Please get over yourselves, I’m not asking you to eat it. In the end, I asked mum to stop making me tuna sandwiches because if people behave like that it puts you off of your food.
It’s the same with my degree but you aren’t going to put me off. I completed it and I’m proud of what I achieved. I’m not asking you to read a really long History book on the success of Elizabeth I against Catholics, nor am I going to recite the events of the Battle of Hastings – neither of which I actually studied. Hell, I don’t think I actually read that many books cover to cover over the 3 years any way – sorry Mark and Sinead!
My point is, stop turning your nose up at my life choice – thanks.
Thursday 15th March 2018
I went to an interview on Thursday (last week) for a job I’m not entirely keen on but really considered as my ticket out of my current place F I N A L L Y.
It was supposed to be a group interview, so when a few of us worked out we would be together, we got chatting to break the ice.
Naturally, asking what I’d studied at university came up when I mentioned I’d just graduated. The response from one guy, is as follows…
“History’s in the past. It doesn’t affect my life.”
L O L, O K A Y
Stop right there mate, that’s wrong.
I know everyone’s entitled to their opinion and opinions can’t categorically be wrong but this is, ok.
I decided to just do one of those polite retail laughs that you give to the old guy who comes into your work, telling his bad dad jokes, “here again, eh?” or “Do you just sleep here?” or “Bet you wish you could be outside in the sun instead!”
Yes Paul, I bloody well do and your jokes don’t get any funnier, week after week.
So any way, this boy was wrong. Correct, history’s in the past. Incorrect, it doesn’t affect your life. It HAS affected your life and it will continue to do so.
- That war that altered the country and your life.
- That decision to have a Parliament, not just a monarchy, altered your life.
- That King that made divorce possible, altered your community.
- That law passed to say women could vote, altered your life.
That news story, last week, that day we voted out of the EU, the day Steve Jobs thought about a piece of fruit becoming one of the biggest tech companies in the world, including the product you’re probably reading this blog on – that’s HIS device. That’s HIS piece of history. THAT piece of history altered YOUR life. You might still be listening to music on an MP3 player or a Sony Walkman if iPods hadn’t become a thing.
ALL HISTORY.
A.k.a, it has effected your life thus far, and will continue to do so.
My degree might surprise you
I’m not aiming to bully you into enjoying history, or even take an interest in it. Hell, there were times when I decided I hated doing a History degree, but just please don’t be so narrow minded.
I don’t expect you to ask for details about all my modules, just don’t be rude because I worked bloody hard to gain my degree, just like any other student. And actually, if you did ask, you might find out some things. I mean, I did a module called ‘Popular Culture, Aesthetics and History’, even a whole lecture on NWA!
There was a lecture in which we spent a whole hour talking about Beyonce’s Superbowl 50, 2016 performance, or there was the time we talked about Eurovision – thanks Nikkita. There were the times we had to produce exhibitions, in which I talked about Banksy’s work and in another, looked into tampon advertising throughout history (100% more interesting than it sounds, it got a lot of discussions going! I’m actually going to include some of the images that I used within my exhibition, down below.)
(I wrote this blog post last week and apparently I didn’t bother to finish it…good one last weeks Ellie, annoyed at my own HISTORY now.)
My whole point is, why do we make people feel crappy about their life choices, even if we don’t mean to, why can’t we just act or actually BE supportive? I know most people aren’t trying to demean my degree but when you get certain comments constantly, it doesn’t feel great. Take interest in my degree or don’t but please be polite. It’s hard enough to have graduated with a Humanities degree that could take you in any direction you want, especially when you don’t know what direction you want to go in yet, so please don’t add to the knock backs.
Yours Sincerely,
History graduate who’s doing her best!
xx
Like how fucking rude are these, it sparked lots of conversation for sure!!
From B to C…
‘From B to C’ - that’s the saying, right? New alphabet dating post!!
“I’m dating myself!” was a blog post from a few weeks ago, in which I discussed alphabet dating. The idea is that you work your way through the alphabet thinking of a new date for each letter as a way to spice up your dating. Following this idea, I wrote about alphabet dating but for yourself – a bit of self-love. You can read that blog post HERE. B is for Bath I’ve actually done this twice but I…
A is for…
“I’m dating myself!” was a blog post from last week, in which I discussed alphabet dating. The idea is that you work your way through the alphabet thinking of a new date for each letter as a way to spice up your dating. Following this idea, I wrote about alphabet dating but for yourself – a bit of self-love. You can read that blog post HERE. A is for ASOS It wasn’t the biggest delivery I’ve ever…
I’m dating myself
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about self-care. When all you’re thinking about is money and saving up for big plans, it’s easy to find yourself too busy to look after yourself. I’ve recently been talking to Josh about doing alphabet dating again. We started it a few years ago but never finished it. I started making a list that we could follow with multiple ideas on it so that we couldn’t say…
I know I haven’t posted for about two weeks, sorry. Truthfully, I’ve struggled to be motivated and lacked inspiration of what to write about.
So, what have I been doing??
- I have worked A LOT.
- I have tried to encourage my healthy eating and exercise again.
- I had dinner with Erin and then 3 days later she left for Australia.
- I left my brand-new scarf at said friend’s house.
- I booked a hair consultation for my hair to be coloured.
- My car had its 1-year service – my bank account cried.
- I did some more job hunting.
- I started a new Netflix series called ‘The Good Place’ which I am in love with.
- I panicked about money.
- I fixed my issues with Vodafone, which went on F O R E V E R.
- I contacted my doctor’s surgery about my jabs for Bali.
- I had multiple baths with Lush bath bombs – absolute life savers.
- I wrote a blog post that took a really deep turn so I decided not to post it.
- I tried to think of a business I could start when I had a crushing realisation that there were no jobs in my local area or even slightly wider area for me.
- I debated starting a YouTube channel because who doesn’t want to work from home.
- I looked at blog help but they were all American and asking me to spend dollars.
- I changed the dates that my car payments come out of my bank account.
I just did a lot of really boring, really adulty things and, to be honest, that sums up my February. Potentially shitter than January.
Upcoming plans include:
- Dinner with some lovelies from work.
- HOPEFULLY 2 trips to the cinema to F I N A L L Y see Black Panther and also Coco.
- HOPEFULLY getting my hair dyed the colour I want.
- Money to do all of this and get my eyebrows waxed and tinted.
- HOPEFULLY be seeing Imogen when she’s home for a few days.
- HOPEFULLY have some funds to go visit my friends in London.
Having nothing to say.
I asked a friend to read over what I had written today because I was getting to my wits end with what to write. All I had at that point was the above lists. She said that she liked the idea of writing about nothing. Doing nothing and having nothing to say isn’t necessarily a bad thing, you can’t be busy all the time.
Recently I’ve found that I don’t have much to look forward to and it’s made me feel a bit low and that’s something that’s hard about doing nothing because it makes the nothing more noticeable. Some days it’s actually just the most perfect thing to not do anything, I am more than happy to spend the day in baggy clothes watching Netflix but I can’t do that every day. People keep telling me I’ve got Bali to look forward to, and I do, I am super duper excited, but it’s so far away at the moment and I need some short-term, affordable things to look forward to.
Every company has a blog these days
I read a blog today about ‘Why it’s okay not to have your life together,’ it’s about not comparing what’s going on with yourself to other people and why it’s ok to take a break and actually 100% worth a read for graduates or anyone in a little bit of a career break/rut. So, thank you Milkround! (If you could just help me find a job now, I’d be extremely grateful.)
I’m so glad I read that blog post today because it helped a little with feeling a bit low. I’m going in and out of low phases at the moment, I think I’m just ready for change and for the next thing but it’s proving so hard to move on since graduating.
A visit from my brother and our dogs getting haircuts cheered me up tonight though. The dogs look hilarious and Harry came home and we got to chat for a while.
They’ve gone from raggedy fluffy balls, to soft little doggies whose eyes we can now see!
Another post
This whole blog post actually kind of links to the post I originally wrote. So if I change my mind about posting it, I’ll link it here.
All in all, it’s ok to do nothing but definitely find some little fun goals to set yourself.
Being an adult doesn’t have to be an empty pit of boring.
Netflix and baggy clothes is perfectly ok.
Remember you have been productive and be happy with what you’ve done.
xx
New blog post - I’m baaaaaaack!! I know I haven’t posted for about two weeks, sorry. Truthfully, I’ve struggled to be motivated and lacked inspiration of what to write about.Interview - 6th Feb ‘18
I panicked, I cried, I had an interview, I ate a huge cheese burger and I went home.
This is my response to an Interview I attended and follows on from my previous post, Honest Job Interview, which I hope you’ll find honest and amusing. 6th February 2018 After attempting not to cry about three different times, including in the car, outside the train station with all my make up on, I finally got on the train to my interview. The stress started when I realised I had spent an hour…
Honest Job Interview
Job Interviews have got me thinking about honest answers that I’d give!
I spent all my spare time last week applying for jobs, I had the opportunity for two job interviews this coming week and decided to only go ahead with one. Therefore, In the spirit of my current job hunting, below are a few answers that I would potentially give. (more…)
