There's Always Light at the End of the Tunnel

Back in July I choose to take a much-needed break from blogging. It was a break I needed in order to help reduce the pressure I was feeling and to give me a chance to begin to feel like I wanted to blog and allow me to find enjoyment in my blogging once more. It has been a ling two months without my blog but it was a much-needed break. I have struggled during the past two months and I am back receiving treatment for my BPD so my break from blogging has allowed me to focus more on myself. As I find myself trying to figure out who I am and what I want to do in life I cannot help but describe myself as a blogger and find a desire within me to write and who knows one day it may become my career. I have decided that it is time to get back on the horse but I want my blog not to be written with the sole purpose of helping and supporting others but also as a means of helping and supporting me. I have removed all pressure I once felt in regards to my writing. The desire to remain at th...

I haven't been keeping the blog updated very often recently and there are a number of reasons behind that.I have become worried about my blog and about my readers. The blog isn't what it used to be and I feel I have let you all down as a result of that. I've been blogging for close to six years and right now I have come to a stage where I am in limbo, am I keeping the blog going because of the expectations that come with having won awards or am I keeping the blog going out of love, passion and desire to make a difference in peoples lives through my writing? Ideally it would be the latter but I'm not sure at this moment if it is or not. I feel an overwhelming sense of pressure to try and write, to try and get something up so as not to let you all down but that pressure has become too great and it is deterring me from doing so. As the pressure build I loose my passions, writing begins to feel more a chore, and that is not what I want. It's hard to put myself out t...

Every now and again someone will suggest I get into the area of journalism. It has been a reoccurring theme for the past 4 years, around the time I had to look at what I wanted to do in college. In the beginning I liked the idea and I even entertained the idea, researching the points required, what would be involved in a journalism course but in the end I decided that it wasn’t for me. Why? Well I guess the number of points required in the leaving cert was a big issue, I knew I wasn’t able to achieve the points required and while some people might say well why didn’t you try, I didn’t try because for me it wasn’t an attainable goal. Why would I just upset me self when I end up disappointed? I guess another reason was I wasn’t really sure if that was what I wanted to do although even now in my final year of college I’m still not sure what I want to do! I guess now that someone has mentioned doing my masters in journalism I have been questioning is it time I take my writing to the n...

On Thursday I had my first social event since my corrective double jaw surgery and I have to say this event both met and went beyond my expectations! What was this event you might ask well it was the 2015 Blog Awards Ireland hosted by Ashville Media Group. I have been apart of the blog awards since 2011 when it was formally know as the Irish Blog Awards and since then my blog has been a finalist each year with me attend 4 of the last 5 awards. Now over the past five years there has been changes to the organisers and each year the awards have grown and improved and this year was no exception. I was a bit hesitant when I found out that the awards were being hosted by a company worried that the personal touch might be lost and indeed part of the personal aspect was lost in my opinion with the winners not being given as much time as before to accept the awards but besides that everything else met my expectations. When I heard the food was "street style" was was confused about how...

I recently found out that one of my blog posts has been nominated into the category for the best blog post in the Blog Awards Ireland this year. This is a huge honour especially because the post which has been nominated is one which focuses on self-harm and the devastating effects it can have on a persons life, have a read of it here . In order to get your blog post into the top ten for the final you must secure the most votes you can possibly secure. I'm currently at 160 votes as a a result of bombarding people on social media sites to vote for me but its not that I just want to get into the final, its much more than that for me, its much more important that just a few clicks here and there, it is this post which has the power to create a better understand of self-harm, encourage theses who engage in self-harm to speak out and it also focuses on a topic which is still very much a taboo in Irish society. Getting people to vote for my blog allows them to read the post, encouraging ...

There’s always light at the end of the tunnel, 9 small simple words that have the power to brighten up my day, give me strength to get out of the bed on my darkest days and that give me the courage I need to keep living my life! These 9 little words describe my blog, a place where I have written about some of the hardest things in my life, a place where I have begun documenting my journey to gain the perfect bit and a place despite being virtual that I can be myself and feel comfortable. There’s always light at the end of the tunnel is more than just a blog to me, its more than just a space for me to write things down, There’s always light at the end of the tunnel is my chance to make a difference, share my story and most importantly show people that no matter how bad things are they can and do get better. I recently got told about an opportunity to take part in a therapy programme to help me deal with my borderline personality disorder, a programme which requires commitment and...

Today I got mentioned in a tweet by Ciara who writes the blog, such a silly sausage  . I was told that I had been nominated for the shine on blog award. This is basically where bloggers nominate other bloggers for this award in order to recognise other blogs by passing on the award. This is the first time I have ever heard of this but it was nice to see that someone reads my blog and actually likes my blog and thought enough of me to nominate me for this Shine on blogger award. So thanks you Ciara for this lovely gesture, it really does mean a lot to me! I learned that there is actually rules for this award which I thought was strange but after reading what the rules were I thought it was actually a really good and interesting idea. So the rules are: Display the award logo on your blog Link the award back to the person who nominated by thanking them State 7 things about yourself Nominate 15 other bloggers for this award, and let them know they have been nominated So ...

Last Saturday I made my way to Nass.... it sounds like its miles always from where I live but it’s not really. It only about half an hour away but I wanted to make it sound a bit more dramatic. As I explained what I was trying to do I guess it didn’t work! Any way it’s time for me to get back on topic!! Last Saturday I went to Naas to attend the Irish blog awards for my second year. This year however was run and organised by a different group of people. It was amazing to say the least. I was in the finals for the best youth blog and beginning with Y I had to wait until the end of the night to find out if I was going to win or not. I have to say that it was well worth the wait without a doubt. As there were 30 awards to be given out it went a bit like this: 10 awards were given out followed by our started. Another 10 awards given out followed by our dinner. The final 10 awards given out followed by our ice-cream :) In between all of that there was a few little other things going on s...

Well I’m not sure if many people know how much my blog means to me. I don’t know what I would do without it. It seems a bit silly saying this but my blog is my life. It has helped me through the hardest times of my life and I am sure it will continue to help me far into the future. My blog is a place where I can go and share my experience; get all the crazy thoughts I have in my head out but in a good way. My experiences are on my blog for a reason, not to get page views or to win awards but to help others and show people that there is always hope. I guess in a way blogging has let me come to terms with my mental illness and it has also helped me to being to recover. I mean many people don’t think that something such as a blog has the power to do something like that but it does and it has for me. I am not going to lie; it was amazing when I won the blog award in 2011. It was an unforgettable feeling but that is not the best thing that blogging has done for me. Helping me to get t...

No I haven't fall on the face of the earth just yet I'm still here. Sorry I haven't been blogging a lot I haven't really been up to it lately with being sick and in hospital but I thought as I had time I would write a quick post. So today Mrs L and three transition year students when to DCU for the junior spider web awards and well they won the award for the best class blog. So I wanted to congratulate them on my blog. Take a look at the Ty blog here . Its amazing and leave a comment congratulating them for all of their hard work and efforts since the start of the year. I don't know when I will get the chance to write again but hopefully I will get another chance before the end of the week.

It’s hard to believe that I have been bogging for the past 11 months. It’s not July and I started blogging last September. This all started as me blogging about what I did in T.Y I never thought my blog would become more than anything other than a reflection of T.Y. In the beginning I never thought I would take to blogging like I have done, at first I thought that it was weird kind of like I was talking to myself because I didn’t think that people would read my blog. It’s hard to believe that I have blogged so much during the past 11 months this is going to be my 364 th post. And when my blog reached 10,000 age views I was very amazed and surprised that I had reached 10,000 page views. Blogging has done a lot for me, it lets me share my experiences and give my opinions on things, it’s a great reflection tool, and I think that it has in some ways helped me to improve my English. But it has not helped me to improve my spelling no matter how many times I spell check a post there is alwa...

So I decided today that it was time for a change of scene. I was getting kind of tired of the template that I was using for my blog and I felt that it was really a time for a blog makeover. I didn’t find any of the backgrounds on blogger very appealing to me so I went onto Google to see if I could find any websites that you could get some blogger templates. To my surprise there were loads of websites and even more temples. I spent a good while looking at different websites and looking at different templates before I found the background that I liked the most. It was really easy to put it onto my blog too. I had to find the instruction first because in the beginning I did have a clue what to do but the instructions were easy and very simple to follow and it only took a matter of minutes to get the new template for my blog. This was the website where I got this template. Take a look and see if there is anything that you like. There are lots to choose from.

I received an e-mail today form a guy called Ben. From the sounds of his e-mail he seems like a really nice person. He was e-mailing me about my blog. He was telling me that he had a blog and how he thought that it was really good that Mrs L encourages us to blog in school. He told me about this website that he made sometime last year with two of his friends. It’s called irishstudentsblogs.com he asked me if I would like him to post my blog onto the website and I say sure why not. It’s a really good website and there is loads of different blogs. You should go and take a look at it. You never know your blog could end up there next. Its a really good idea and you get to read blogs form people all around Ireland in so many different schools.