Xtreme

On the 20th of May 2015 our year travelled to Swords for our last trip of Transition Year. We were split into groups, our started off with rock climbing, which I was awful at. Afterwards we started on the obstacle course. Our group only went onto the medium level but it was so terrifying. It was a really windy day so all of the ropes we had to grab onto were blowing out of our reach, there was one point where I was convinced the rope stopping me from falling was about to untie, it was really scary...

We had to use the ropes to get ourselves around the course, but for most of it I just dragged myself across, I was too lazy to make an effort to grab them.

After the obstacle course we went up to the very top level to do the drop zone which essentially was a rope hanging from the highest point of the whole structure. We were attached to the rope and then we had to step over the edge and drop to the ground. I managed to land on my feet but I fell over again because I'm a very clumsy person.

 Our final activity was archery. Again, I was not very good at this but I tried... 

We were finished at the adventure centre at about 1 pm so we spent the rest of the day at Liffey Valley.

Retreat

On Wednesday the 13th of May we went to Maynooth University for our annual retreat. this year was very different to years previous as it wasn't religion orientated. We started off by all sitting on our chairs in a circle whilst we were told what our first activity was. We were told to all stand up and link arms with the person beside of and clasp our hands together so that the link wouldn't break, we were given instructions to almost kneel down and bend our knees so that we were only barely balancing on one foot. The first four to fall were then brought to the middle. Afterwards it was explained to us that the four people in the middle would be the "dentists" and the rest of us that were sitting down on the floor normally were the "teeth". The dentists had to pull us by the legs so that the links would break. if you were torn from the link you automatically became a dentist. I feel like I was an easy target because I'm small and come across as weak but I managed to last until near the end he he. It hurt our arms a lot, I had red marks on my arms but some people had cuts from other peoples nails but nothing too serious.

We moved on and played a game where we had to pretend we were on the Titanic and to get on a lifeboat but only a certain amount of people could be on the boat or it would sink but if there wasn't enough people it wouldn't be released from the boat, so basically if you didn't get into a group with the correct number of people you would drown. I think we all found out today that we are all extremely competitive people.

We were also read a passage called "What we have left" which in my opinion was not fun, we were basically told how many days of our lives on average we spend eating, sleeping, watching TV etc. and theoretically we only have about 2000ish days free to do whatever we want like go travelling or to a party.

We then had a small break but after we split ourselves into eight groups of 10 and were all given a topic to discuss in our group and our groups final opinion on the topic. For example some of the topics discussed were "If you could change one thing about your parents/parent/guardian what would you change?" and "Who has it harder men or women?" We discussed all of these for hours until it was time for us to leave.

During our lunch we were allowed get Starbucks from the college library, I got a hot chocolate that tasted really weird but was still nice, it resulted in an in depth conversation between Emily, Laura and I.

I was expecting this retreat to be really hard and emotional because people said we all had to tell each other our deepest fears and secrets but it was nothing as bad as what I had thought and I really enjoyed it in the end.

Hip-Hop

Every Friday during our P.E. class we have been learning a hip-hop dance to Ariana Grande - Break Free and Beyoncé - Who Run The World. We're learning this dance so we can perform it on our TY Graduation night on the 25th of May.

The dance is mostly easy because a lot of us have never done dance before. Honestly it's much better than regular P.E. 

We spend one half of the class learning the steps and the other perfecting it. We have all been given places, I'm at the back which is probably best considering my dance skills are at a very low level.

Driving

On Monday the 27th of April our class Aurora traveled to the Leinster Driving Campus for a short driving lesson and mock theory test.

We were split into two groups, mine started the day off with driving. I was in a car with Olivia, Laura and Liveta. Olivia was the first to drive, then me, Laura and last Liveta. We each spent at least half an hour driving. I didn't crash the car in the end which came to a surprise to probably everyone I was in the car with.

When we finished we went inside and did our theory test in the same groups. Ours got 34 questions right so we failed...

Afterwards we went outside and each took turns in wearing "beer goggles" that showed us what our vision would be like if we got very drunk. We had to try pick up one cone and put it on another one handed and then give the instructor a high 5. I failed miserably...

Schizophrenia

On Tuesday the 27th of January, we traveled to Mullingar (Niall where you at) to compete in a drama competition. Everyone in our year contributed to an individual play, in our class their were four different dramas entering but in the other classes there were only one or two.

The drama that my group wrote was called 'Schizophrenia' it was based off a short story Laura and I read so we were the main writers of the drama. Schizophrenia is a long term mental disorder which is commonly known as an unawareness of what is real and what is imaginary. It is about a girl suffering with the mental illness schizophrenia and is refusing to take her medication because her illness has caused her to create an imaginary best friend in her mind that she believes is real. This figment of her imagination threatens to leave her if she takes the medication. This is only causing the disorder to get worse so the main character 'Grace' takes her medication to make the confusion go away. When the figment of her imagination starts disappearing Grace has had enough and gives in to Lucy's (her imaginary 'friend') demands to kill her mother, so the audience think.

The performance went well over all, we got feedback such as it was short and sweet but we needed to use the stage more and focus on our projection, I personally think it wouldn't have been a problem if we had gotten to practice on an actual stage first rather than just in the classroom.

It was our best performance of the play in my opinion as Laura only had to prompt one or two lines.

After we had performed Laura, Emily and I went to McDonalds and Euro Giant where we found a hell of a lot of One Direction merchandise (surprise, surprise) 

Unfortunately our quest to find Bobby Horan failed miserably but One Direction stationary is close enough I guess.

BT Young Scientist

On Thursday the 8th of January all Transition Years and all 2nd years in our school traveled to the RDS to view the Young Scientist exhibition. There were 550 projects from around the country that qualified to be a part of the exhibition, including one by students in our year. It was a project based on the ideal conditions for learning. 

We spent most of the day looking at the projects and talking to the guy who did a project with a guitar that could potentially help people who have had strokes get movement back into their fingers.

Work Experience

Yesterday the 3rd of December was last day of our first term of work experience. I spent my first block week of work experience at FM104 and then moved onto Waltons music shop in Blanchardstown. I worked here almost every Wednesday for the last 8 weeks. It was a lot of fun, i was with two other guys from schools in Dublin for the majority of my time there, if there was ever nothing for us to do we were always busy, I ended up attempting to teach one of them guitar which did not end well.

Most of our time there was spent in the delivery room breaking down boxes that once held all of the products we had bar coded and put onto the shop floor. Its fair to say that all three of us are sick of even the sight of boxes.

Playing and testing out the instruments (mostly guitars and keyboards) was another thing I loved to do there. 

Over all it was a great experience and i would go back again if i could.