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.

Fashion Show

This week was a busy week for everyone in the school, St. Wolstan's held their own fashion show in the Celbridge Manor Hotel. It was on for two nights, Tuesday the 25th of November and Wednesday the 26th of November. 

Models were selected from each year to model clothes from different shops in the area such as Oasis in Liffey Valley and Catch in Manor Mills, Maynooth. 

There were  entertainment acts such as Ballet, Irish dancing and many musical acts.

Mini-Companies in our year were also given the opportunity to sell our product outside the entrance to the fashion show.

"Art" Trip

On Tuesday our year went to Carton House in Maynooth to visit the "Vanishing Art" exhibition held there. There were two parts to the exhibition, the one indoors which included smaller pieces of art and the outdoors one which included larger pieces of art that would not fit indoors.

We saw many sculptures such as a pink T - Rex, dresses made completely from bronze and an owl made from paper.

Everyone's favourite part of the trip wasn't the art but was the Irish rugby team who happened to be training in Carton House while we were there. Unfortunately I didn't get to meet any of the team but a few people in our year did and I am extremely jealous.

Hey Laura i finally updated my blog so you have something to read in I.T.  you're welcome, btw act my age is on rn and I'm Irish dancing in my head okay bye #liara #ashaura

Walk in My Shoes

Last Friday our school had a no uniform and 'funky shoes' day in aid of the charity "Walk in My Shoes". Walk in My Shoes is a fundraising charity set up by St Patrick's Mental Health Services to help raise awareness and support for people with any form of mental health issues as it is a big issue in Ireland. Here are some statistics...

1 in 4 young people in Ireland will experience a mental health difficulty.

Ireland has one of the highest suicide rates in the 14-24 age group in the EU.

Suicide is the leading cause of death among 18-24 year old men in Ireland.

Mental health isn't talked about as much as it should. Doing charity events like this can help people to become more aware of these issues and help combat them.

Everyone came into school in our casual clothes and a few people wore unusual shoes to wear to school like high heels and slippers. If you did not wear your uniform you gave in €2 to help support this charity. 

I'm happy our school decided to hold this event in awareness of mental health because it is definitely overlooked in our country

Work Experience

I wasn't in school for the week 29th September to 3rd of October. I missed many things such as the fun walk and the beep test (thankfully). I was on work experience in FM104, I applied for a placement their early last year so I was lucky enough to get a place.

I was with two other TY's from other schools in Dublin. On our first day, we were given a lot of sheets asking us questions about our favourite music and our ideal radio station which I presumed to be free market research for them. We were also brought into the music studio where they bring bands and artists when they visit the station. We got to see how they play songs on air and how they edit conversations they have with callers.

We got to take a lot of old CDs that were going to be thrown out. I took complete advantage of the free CDs and ended up with about 20, I managed to find some of my favourite bands like Green Day, Good Charlotte and Foo Fighters.

On our last day we were brought out in the cars to deliver prizes to different competition winners around Dublin. We were given a FM104 bag full of Haribo and FM104 pens, pencils, paper and keyrings. 

FM104 "Beetle Bugs"

It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I was given this opportunity

Carlingford

Day One

On Monday 15th of September, our year got on the bus at 7 am to leave for Carlingford. The journey was about two hours long, and because we were traveling on country roads, the service was awful, we couldn't get any YouTube videos to load. I sat beside Laura on the bus and we both realized that we hadn't listened to One Direction in a few months (disgraceful I know) so we decided to have a One Direction jam session which helped pass the time.

We got started in our activities almost straight away after arriving. We sorted out our rooms first and then went straight to the beach to do kayaking. This was one of my least favorite activities if i'm honest, the sea isn't my thing. We did it anyway, Aislinn, Laura and I we're in the same kayak, we weren't very good at it, we ended up miles behind the rest of the group. 

Our next activity was Laser tag in the forest. We were dressed in camo-onesies and walked up a mountain with the laser guns in our hands. It felt like we we're in an army but with less of the actually killing people stuff. We then went back to our rooms to have a 2 hour break for dinner, we we're allowed walk around the small town so we decided to go to the sweet shop. We found the 10 cent lollipops, couldn't get any better than that. 

Our final activity of the day was "Nightline" I think it was called that anyway... We walked up the same mountain as before at around 7 or 8 when it was getting dark. We arrived and we're told we were going to be blindfolded and that we had to get into a line and hold onto the shoulders of the person in front of you so we wouldn't all get lost. The leaders tried their best to scare us, it didn't work on me they'd have to try a little harder if they wanted to scare me. We then went back to our rooms for the night where we demolished our food stash consisting of Pringles, Terry's Chocolate Orange, 10 cent lollipops and A LOT more.

Day Two

Wake up call was at 7:30 am. Way too early if  you ask me. We were woken up by music playing really loud, that music was What Makes You Beautiful - One Direction, even I'm sick of that song now. We had breakfast and went to the beach to do "Canadian Canoeing". There were three canoes boarded together with a wooden plank and some ropes, We all basically had splash wars between each other while we were going out to get to the trampoline, I didn't go on the trampoline in the end but it looked like fun.

Our last activity was the Challenge Course. Each team had to complete as many challenges as possible in two hours. Each challenge awarded gems based on how long your team took to complete the challenge and whether or not you broke any rules. My team completed around 4 challenges and got about 10 gems. We ended up second out of the four teams.

We then packed our stuff and made our way back to Celbridge. Everyone was really tired because we had two very long eventful days. Laura and I passed the time both snapchatting our friend and listening to our favorite band (not One Direction surprisingly) It was a good couple of days.

GAA Memories :')

In our first week of TY, we spent most classes getting to know what we will be doing for the rest of the year. We were split into our classes, which are all named after Disney Princesses, Aurora, Belle and Ariel. I'm in Aurora. Wednesday, we have no classes. Wednesdays are for our work experience and workshops. Last Wednesday, the 3rd of September, we had three different workshops, First Aid to start. We were taught how to do CPR, bandage a cut and to put someone in the recovery position if they happen to pass out. In groups, one person was to bandage up another's arm or hand to the best of their ability from what we had learned in the workshop. I was with Aislinn and Laura. Aislinn attempted to bandage up my wrist, it was a funny experience, I better leave it at that...

Our second workshop of the day was an etiquette workshop. We were told to bring in our heels the previous day, we ended up strutting down a red carpet in the second year mall, without heels the first time, but with our school journals on our head. When we finished that we put on our heels, most of us had heels probably over 6 inches high. It was really strange being back in the second year mall, but the fact that the reason we were back was to walk down a red carpet in our school tracksuits and heels just made it a little bit weird, but a funny story to tell i guess.

Our final workshop of the day was a "Positive Party". The first thing I can remember doing at this workshop was getting lollipops that made me like the workshop straight away, give me food and I'm happy :) The lady running the workshop went through ways of how to stay positive. She made us dance to the Cha-Cha Slide which brought back memories of the bants at GAA. We also did a thing called "laughter yoga" which was doing a movement as you would in yoga, but laughing to it. I have to admit I found it weird at first but in the end we all just ended up laughing at how weird it was.

In our second week of TY, we didn't have any workshops on Wednesday because that was the day we got our Junior Cert results. We came into school that day at 10 to 12, all nervous, we collected our results and made our way back home to get ready to go out to Wrights or Mantra or wherever. I went to Mantra, it was a really good night.

The first two weeks of TY have been good so far