Little Miss Rendell

5 years ago something happened in my personal life that changed who I was. If you have been reading my blog for a while then you'll know what this is, if you haven't take a break from this post and skip through and have a read. Everything that happened then made me a stronger person, something I am grateful for at this particular moment in my life. Everyone around me said at the time that everything happens for a reason. Losing the person who was closest to me at the time, not through a circumstance out of our control but through them voluntarily walking away from me was the worst thing I could imagine. I ignored everyone who said that to me. What was the reason behind me losing my brother, my confidence and my family unit as I knew it? I think I've finally figured out what the reason was for this: to make me a strong and independent person. Now if someone hurts me I can deal with it, knowing that even when the most important person was taken away from me I was able to su

As you all know I suffer with anxiety. Not so much social anxiety, I'm okay in a room full of people but if I'm put on the spot or made to do something new I freeze up and get so nervous. For example, when I was in my first year of University I had to take the train and I would have had to change trains along the journey. I started to have a panic attack and didn't go. That's why my break through yesterday was a big step in the right direction. I've been thinking about doing a masters in Journalism and the best place for this, in terms of contacts and location, is City University of London. I booked a place to the open evening and tried to persuade my friends to come with me. They didn't have the money to spare which meant that I had to go by myself. Alarm bells went off in my head. Having to go to London on my own, negotiate the tube by myself and when at the open evening I would be put on the spot to ask strangers questions I needed answers to. I reassured m

Christopher Nolan is the director that brings this historic event to life in the new movie, aptly named, 'Dunkirk'. Dunkirk. A small French town that to many is just a geographical spot but to 400'000 men it was hell on Earth. For those who know nothing about this landmark event in World War 2, Nolan enters you into the deathly experience which is enabled by the wonderfully chosen cast. Many stars feature throughout the 80 minute spectacle, such as Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance and Kenneth Branagh, all doing extremely well to capture the fright and grief these men would have experienced 77 years ago. I will delve deeper into my thoughts of the movie but don't worry I won't reveal any spoilers. The biggest surprise from this movie is Harry Styles. Admittedly as soon as I heard that he had a part in the film I was doubtful, from being in a boy band to portraying a soldier in a blockbuster movie was quite a big leap. In any war movie there's a pressure to do the pa

My usual introduction does not seem appropriate for what I'm about to talk about, so I'll start with: his name is Zigi Shipper and he has changed my outlook on my everyday life. I am currently studying at University of Southampton and next year I have chosen a module called holocaust literature. I chose this as I love history and as this would be the last module of my course I thought I'd finish uni on a high. How does this tie in with Zigi? Well I received and email saying that Zigi was coming to give a talk and all the students taking the module next year were welcome to listen. I jumped at the chance as I have never met or spoken to a veteran let alone a holocaust survivor and i thought it would be eye opening. Photo credit: Holocaust Education Trust. Of course Zigi's story was harrowing and moving but what resonated with me was his positive attitude towards life. I'm the type of person to hold grudges and let the littlest thing annoy me and here is Zigi, so

Hello lovelies! It's been such a long time since I wrote a post, but I like to write about something that I find engaging and know enough about to talk about and nothing has grabbed my attention. This was up until I binge watched the new Netflix series 13 reasons why. The series takes the audience on a journey of going through the 13 reasons why the protagonist, Hannah Baker, killed herself. Now I could criticize some of this series from a creators perspective but I believe these discrepancies are easily forgotten when you conclude the series, the last two episodes are very powerful and discuss difficult and serious issues. Due to this there wont be any criticism here but a focus upon those last two episodes and what I took away from the series. (picture credit: Google) Obviously there will be spoilers ahead, so if you haven't watched the series yet or haven't finished it, come back to this post when you have! I am so pleased that Netflix is the platform that has th

Hello lovelies. Yes today I'm talking about that dreaded but highly discussed topic, President Donald Trump. Even as I write this now I still cannot believe that he is the President. One the most important and powerful men in the world, it baffles me. But here we are one month on from his inauguration and what a month it has been. I say that in the most negative way possible. I studied History at A level and one topic we looked at was the progress in America; the women's movement, African American progress and the rights of Americans. I feel as though we've transported back to the late 19th/early 20th century with the changes that Trump has implemented since Obama's departure. It is as though Obama was never President. This great change in history for America, this great progression of having a black President has come crumbling down with the introduction of Trump. Let's run through the last month. We begin, of course, with the powerful worldwide women's march

Hello lovelies. If you read my last blog post you'll know that I have anxiety, I've never been to see a doctor about it so I'm not diagnosed with it but it is what I identify with. This isn't a post to make anyone feel sorry for me or to get attention, I just wanted to tell my story. One of the major things that I have issue with is paranoia. A key example is the last sentence of my introduction to this post. I was so afraid and paranoid that anyone reading this, people I know or people I don't, would think badly of me for writing this that I had to justify myself. This occurs all the time in my life. In social situations if two people have a conversation by me and I'm not included I'll think that I've done something wrong for them not to include me. Or if I'm in my room at Uni and I hear some of my friends laughing together and I'm not there to join in I'll feel like they don't like me as I'm not included. I know this may sound sil

Hello lovelies, it's quite topical that my last post was about sexual abuse and violence awareness week as this week we're talking all things Fifty Shades Darker. This movie was supposed to show a transformation in Ana and Christian's relationship as, at the end of the last film, Ana left christian due to his strange pleasure he got from abusing her. So I believe many critics were expecting a film they could focus on as an artistic piece or a run of the mill romantic movie but Fifty Shades once again demonstrated many abusive tropes. Before we dive into the nitty gritty I'll start off with what was good about it. The only good thing about this movie for me were the actors who played Leila and Jack. We'll start with Leila played by Bella Heathcote. This character, who gets less airtime in the movie than she does in the books, makes a great portrayal of Christian's deranged ex sub. Her accent is believeable (the actress is an Austrailian actress) and she doe

Hello lovelies. This week is sexual abuse and violence awareness week and this is what this weeks blog post is going to be about. The reason as to why this week is so important is that sexual abuse/violence victims often feel as though they cannot speak out about there ordeals and by raising awareness and sharing these ordeals with people who have gone through the same experiences as you can help and support the victims of this assault. I took a survey for an online social newspaper at my uni and it was from here that I got my inspiration for this post. One of the questions was 'have you ever felt sexually assaulted in a nightclub?' and I answered yes to this question. It happened in Jesters (a club in Southampton), I was wearing a skirt, I was on the dance floor. Just a note, in Jesters, when the dance floor is busy it feels as though you're being pushed around rather than dancing because of how many people are crammed onto it. So I was dancing (being pushed) and the per

Hello lovelies, the topic I want to speak about in this post is that of the womens march that took place across the world on the 21st January. To start I want to state that I am a feminist, not the man hating ideal that people believe feminism to be, but one of equality between men and women. This needs to be abundantly clear as critics such as Katie Hopkins have labelled the individuals who marched as 'man haters' but on the contrary they were all just showing their love for women and emphasising the need for equality. An event that would have spurred many citizens, especially Americans, to march was Donald Trumps inauguration that happened a day previously to the march. The reason for this is on many occasions Trump has belittled females, we can all remember his 'grab them by the pussy' remark. But what emphasised the need for this march and, what will silence its critics, is the changes Donald Trump has made in America today. He has reinstated the gag rule of all U