A Very Long, Overdue Update

Hi!

So, it has been absolutely ages since I posted on here! I think my last post was in March or February. Either way, I'm back to update you on everything that has happened.

Let's start with March.

So as many of you know Peeves, from previous posts. I must inform you of the sad news that unfortunately Peeves passed away in the middle of March. We think that he fell off a ledge in his cage and damaged his spine. I found him in the morning as I got up for work and he was struggling. My fiancé took him to the vets later on, where unfortunately he deteriorated and he was advised to put him to sleep to end his suffering. We were devastated as you can imagine, in fact I was so upset I was ill at work and had to go home. My fiancé couldn't stop crying all afternoon, he'd had to make that awful decision by himself and it broke him, more than I could imagine. He later went on to work a night shift, where he was nearly sent home. Luckily he wasn't.

There may be those people out there that will be like "it's just a hamster." Yes, Peeves was a hamster, but he was our comfort, our baby and we were his whole life. It's the same feeling as if you lost a dog, cat or even a family member. Peeves was like our son, and he was my companion when my fiancé was working night shifts or working away.

A few weeks later we decided to open up our hearts to another hamster named Aurora. A beautiful little baby girl who we believed was the runt of the litter because of her size. She loved running around, and hiding from us, and every time my fiancé called her baby girl, she would bite him. Then, exactly one month after we got Aurora I discovered that Aurora was in fact a boy! This led to us renaming her Rory. So, I'm happy to report that now that Rory is referred to as baby boy, he no longer bites. Rory is such a spoiled baby, and we've modified the cage so that no injuries can happen again, although Rory likes to jump off the top ledge rather than use the ramp that sits near enough next to where he jumps. Because he's a genius *eye roll*.

Now for April.

April is my birthday month, not that I'm one of those people that uses a whole month to celebrate. April was also the month were my contract expired at the nursery I was working at and I qualified as a Level 3 nursery nurse. Not to mention this whole Covid situation which I won't mention too much, if at all, because I know we've all heard about it.

Because of the situation it meant that I was unable to get a new job, and rightly so. At the time of knowing my contract was coming to an end I decided to apply for university. It was a long shot I would ever get in, as my previous attempt after I'd graduated in 2017 failed, but I still remained hopeful that maybe I could.

My contract ended and the next day I turned 24. Honestly it was a bit of a rubbish birthday. My fiancé had come off a night shift so was in bed, and I wasn't able to celebrate with any friends or family because of the situation as afore mentioned. I've seen memes where people are saying that birthdays this year don't count and I don't know if I should jump on the bandwagon or just embrace my 25th. Who knows, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Time for May.

So, May is where it mostly happened. Life was good, yes we were worried about money because I was no longer working but we could make it work if we were very careful. May was the year I connected with a new best friend, who I'll call M. So now I have two. It means that I'm incredibly lucky; if you have two best friends you will understand.

The weather was gorgeous so I took the time to top up on my tan and start my own business with M. I sell jewellery now! It's called AmBri Jewellery and you can find the shop on Facebook (not that I'm trying to market myself or anything). It was also in May that I saw a post on Facebook from a woman asking for somebody to watch her little girl, collect her from nursery and so on. I, of course, being the poor qualified Nursery Nurse, said yes. And so came the next stage, freelance babysitting.

The little girl, I'll call her I-E, became part of a family I don't have. She's started school now and I still get texts from her mum telling me I-E keeps asking about my fiancé and I. We took her on day trips, she met Rory, she just loved it. Honestly I did too. It was nice to have that responsibility again and making money doing something I loved.

It was also in May that I found out my application to university had been successful. Yey! Celebration!

I was elated. I called all my family, and I think I cried on all of them I was so happy. So then it was get ready for university, do the pre-university tasks and prepare for a year of full on learning. This is all in aid of doing something I've always wanted to do: teaching. So currently right now I am studying PGCE Primary and this time next year, hopefully I'll have a teaching position, educating the future generations.

June, July, August........

Honestly these months went by in a blur. I spent a lot of time preparing for university, babysitting and spending time with friends (safely). M and her husband went to America to visit her family then had to obviously isolate when they came back.

Yeah, honestly August was a pretty crap month. I lost two family members to cancer, within 3 weeks of each other. It was hard because when I got the news about one I was by myself so had to grieve alone. With the second it came with family drama so there wasn't really the ability to grieve. That, and the funeral was happening on my first day of university.

I won't say anymore than that.

SEPTEMBER!

Ooh this was exciting and nerve wracking. I started my first day of university on 7th September and was honestly so nervous I was shaking all over and thought I was going to throw up. But it was amazing. It confirmed I was doing the right with my life (even if I had taken the long route to get here), and that I had amazing support from my family and friends. But there was that sense of doubt.

September came and went in a blur again, it was pretty full on. Learning all the modules and re-learning subjects I hadn't done for years. It was incredible. At the end of September I found out where my first Placement was going to be.

October...

At the start of October I handed in my first essay. It was just an assessment, basically to see how our essay writing was. In my degree, I only had to write like two essays and of course the format and the topic was completely different to this assessment. I handed in what I thought was a brilliant piece of work, getting at least 40-50, purely because my writing skills would have been rusty. This was a pass mark.

I got 30-40. A fail.

I was devastated.

I felt awful about being at university and had no confidence in my ability to write anymore. This isn't a good thing to have because we have an essay per module to submit. I talked with my course leader and my tutor and they gave me a renewed sense of confidence, I would just need extra support, which I am now getting thankfully. Shortly after this hand in the class began their placements. I was once again very nervous because it was a completely new situation and I really didn't know what to expect. Once again because of confidentiality I will say this: I FREAKING LOVE IT! I feel very lucky with the class I am with and the teaching staff I am learning from.

There have been a lot more things happening in life, but I'm afraid I won't be mentioning that until later on.

Until next time...