Wednesday 28 December 2016

2016 Review

Hi guys! 2016 has been a pretty weird year  -- it feels like the Leaving Cert stole 8 months of it from me. I'd say March, September and October were the best months. Look out for some brief thoughts on the year at the end!

January

January featured spending the Christmas holidays in school helping the Young Scientists and attending the BTYSTE, studying really hard (I actually studied more for the Mocks than I did leading up to the Leaving; it meant that slots for the information already existed in my brain by the time I started revising hard again in April. Highly recommended.), and some cool time with friends at reunions and such. I also spent a lot of time in January creating my website to help Irish people of all ages and interests find opportunities, Tigertunity




Here's my face for much of January but also for most of January-May (bored studying long hours every day. Yes, that is raw spaghetti I'm holding).




February

Honestly haven't the foggiest what happened in February, and I didn't write a February review for some reason. I do know I had the Mocks, which were exhausting. I got 540 points in them though, which was reassuring because it was 25 points over what I needed and people usually go up from the Mocks. I also did a lot of work on that month's project, which was studying experimental design. That was fun.

March

Finally, some excitement!

March was pretty cool. I went with Chloe and Gabi to speak at the World Youth Organisation's International Women's Day Summit in London, then to Birmingham for a meeting of the Youth Panel of the British Science Association. I also attended a Particle Physics Masterclass in UCD. I did my Irish and French mock orals and studied LOTS, and did some cool freelance writing work. I also worked on my Scifest project, and had some fun with my whiteboard. I spent a lot of time with Ben, Alice, Chloe and Gabi.


April

April was an unexciting month, again full of studying. I felt I did pretty well in my French and Irish orals (overall, ended up with an A1 in French and an A2 in Irish). I spent the month doing a ton of labwork for my UVC/bacteria/antibiotic resistance project. I also found out that I'd won National Runner-Up in the Drugs.ie writing awards for my age category, but since I won it the year before...

May

May was essentially two things: studying for the Leaving Cert (and being stressed about it and then less stressed when I started powering through exam papers), and Scifest. Scifest was at the start of the month, and I won the highest prize I was eligible for being in 6th year, which I think was the best senior biological project prize. Study study study. 

June

Yet again with the Leaving Cert stealing my year! Obviously the Leaving Cert, which went well, dominated my month. After that, highlights included hanging out with Ben, speaking at and attending Inspirefest, and working on stuff in an international collaboration of talent centres for high-ability students as chosen representative of my national talent centre, the Centre For Talented Youth Ireland. The lowlight was the massive burnout I experienced days before the Leaving Cert started, which took months to start to lift.




July

July held the end of Inspirefest and a lot of resting and recuperating from the Leaving Cert. That said, I did get to see a lot of friends, including reuniting with some Outbox pals and an English CTYI friend, plus I crashed CTYI, attended my Debs and was voted Most Likely to Become a Billionaire, redesigned the blog, read several books, did a bunch of freelance writing, got into the final round of consideration for a TEDx talk and partied quite a bit.



August

Things are more exciting from here on out, I promise.

In August, I got my Leaving Cert results (600 points), celebrated my 18th birthday, celebrated Gabi's birthday, went to an Ireland 20 under 20 meetup at Dogpatch labs, was offered and accepted a place in Trinity, did lots of prep to speak at TEDxDrogheda, Zeminar and TY Expo over the next few months, hung out with friends plenty, went to CTYI reunions and figured out my goals for the next year. 





September

Good month! Spoke at TEDxDrogheda and TY Expo. Taught 80 kids about antibiotic resistance and what they can do about it. Won a Naughton scholarship and went to that awards ceremony. Started college. Moved out. Was elected to the Physoc committee. (Lowlight was my planned accommodation falling through at the last second; highlight is hard to choose.)





October

Also a good month! Flew to Manchester for Think Digital Manchester thanks to the Emerging Talent Fund. Flew to Budapest for a meeting of the European Talent Support Network representing CTYI. Spoke at Zeminar. Attended an event with Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft. Went to CoderGirl Hack Day briefly. Went to a TEDx preview party. Hung out with my wonderful new college friends.


 November

Obviously, the world, and by world I mean US election, went to shit. Apart from that -- academically, college went pretty well. I had a fun time with my friends. I went to Pink Training in Cork for a weekend. Got promoted on my main freelance writing platform. Was awarded my Trinity Entrance Exhibition scholarship. Got some exciting news that is currently under wraps. Went to the MathPhys ball. Wrote for Trinity News. Tried sports and got a genuine diagnosed concussion (not the most co-ordinated).


December

Academic stuff improved further so I now have straight 100s in my last 7ish college assessments. Friends continue to be great. Went to Dunsink Observatory with Physoc and hung out on a friend's boat. Worked with squad on Syndicalab (soon to be renamed) survey, which is now out in the field. Was reelected to the Council of the Youth Platform of the European Talent Support Network. Went back to the family for Christmas.



Thoughts

2016 has been, in the words of many, the Year from Hell in terms of world politics. It was a bad year to get engaged in politics, as we were delivered disappointment after crushing disappointment, from the small-scale (Aodhán Ó Riordáin not being re-elected to the Dáil) to the global (Brexit and the US Election). 

Personally, though, it's been a pretty different story. Professionally, this year has been pretty good, with lots of new experiences, including 8+ conferences, work-related trips to Birmingham, London, Manchester and Budapest, the start of my antibiotic resistance project, freelance writing progress, developing a love of public speaking, good results in various competitions and more. Personally, it's been pretty rocky with family stuff and battling perfectionism and anxiety but I've definitely grown up and I've loved moving out and becoming financially independent. Academically, it's been good, with 600 points in the Leaving Cert, receiving a Naughton Scholarship and Trinity Entrance Scholarship and getting (almost exlusively) firsts in college. Socially, there's been a lot of change with the transition to college, but I have wonderful, wonderful friends in my life and I really appreciate what they've brought to my year. 

I suppose, more than anything, this feels like a year of getting things started. I think I've laid good groundwork this year -- I'm going to take the last few days of 2016 to (a) figure my head and plans and priorities out for the year ahead (b) have some fun.

Happy holidays, everyone!

Wednesday 7 December 2016

Review: November 2016

Hey guys. 

This month has mostly just been normal college stuff, which is fun but not particularly interesting for other people. So I'll keep it short.

COLLEGE:  College has been going well - I've finally gotten used to the level of challenge and am enjoying it and doing decently. Stats has clicked at last, I'm loving matrices and, weirdly, Chemistry (Thermodynamics) is now the hard one. It was weird adjusting to a place where I'm not "the science one" or "the academic one" because that's almost everyone, but now it's kinda cool because we help each other work through things and then chill together.

EXTRACURRICULARS: I tried sports (trampolining) and literally gave myself a concussion so I can't go back to that for 4 weeks. Oops. Physoc Committee stuff has been going pretty well, with a post-Halloween party at the start of the month and regular Brain Foods and prepping for the observatory trip we held at the start of December.

FRIENDS: A+ best squad ever don't argue with me on this. Probably the best part of college. Spent a lot of time together this month, and long may that continue.

PROJECTS: The squad (I know, that word is so 2k13) have joined me on Syndicalab and we brought it for a first meeting with Launchpad this month. We're now working on market research and then Lean Canvas stuff. Also, my TEDx went up on the TEDxTalks Youtube channel. Hoping to do more antibiotic resistance stuff in December. Attended an interesting Leadership & Campaigning workshop held by TCDSU (here's my article on it in Trinity News).

PINK TRAINING: I spent the weekend of 25-27 November down in UCC learning about gay stuff (queer history, activism, different identities, gender politics) . Was pretty cool, and I liked getting to know a cross-section of Trinity (my article on this with Rory Codd in Trinity News).

WRITING: I got promoted to a Level 2 seller on Fiverr, meaning I did a lot more work than I remember doing. Also, cool/exciting but secret upcoming stuff.

SCHOLARSHIP: I had my Trinity Entrance Exhibition ceremony for getting over 585 points, but then so did half the college so y'know. 

WORLD: [screaming] I went to the Hist Lockin with Will on Election Night in a good though nervous mood. Ended up crying. Very glad Will was there, for both moral and physical support. I'm still sickened by the US Election result, and can't help noticing all the recounts and efforts to persuade electors even though I know that realistically Hillary is not going to become President. 

Overall:

Not a great month for major things, but day-to-day life was pretty cool thanks to my friends and getting used to college.

Monday 5 December 2016

GlassesShop.com Review

Hey guys! 

A few months ago, someone from GlassesShop.com reached out to me and asked if I was interested in receiving a pair of glasses from their site in return for a review. I said sure, I'd love some glasses, I'll give you an honest review. So now that we're all on the same page, let's go.

_________________________________________________________________________


Here is a photo of my friend's plant wearing the glasses, to demonstrate that these glasses don't discriminate based on taxonomic kingdom.

THE SITE

I found the site easy to use, with a wide range of glasses (prescription glasses, sunglasses and glasses frames) and lots of filters for simple sorting. One thing I really liked was that the site let you virtually try the glasses you were looking at on a variety of models - so you could find the one that looked most like you to see what the glasses would look like on your face. 

THE GLASSES

I won't say too much about the glasses because I was able to pick out a pair that I wanted, so obviously it depends on what you like. But I've been wearing these glasses around all day for the last few weeks and they seem to be high-quality. The large frames took some getting used to, and they're quite heavy, but they seem well-made.


DELIVERY

Delivery is where glassesshop.com is not great. My glasses took weeks and weeks to deliver from China, to the point where I wasn't sure they were coming at all (although, in their defence, they do offer tracking). That said, the glasses did arrive all wrapped up safely in a cute box with a lens cleaner. I had been doubtful about them - I had no idea what level the quality would be, having just ordered them off the internet - but they're actually very good!

PRICE & DEALS

Glassesshop.com have lots of deals going on all the time, but one interesting one is 50% off a pair of glasses for readers of this blog with the code GSHOT50! You can also get your first pair free (excluding shipping) with the code FIRSTFREE, and besides they're all pretty inexpensive anyway.

OVERALL

I had a good experience with these guys. Browsed the site, sent them my prescription, pupillary distance and address, and got high-quality glasses with lots of choice. So if you want good glasses for a reasonable price and can afford to wait around 6 weeks, I recommend GlassesShop.com.