Friday, 29 September 2017
My A-Level Choice
In one of my previous post I explained my situation with having to drop an A-Level. Out of the four I was doing, I chose Biology, Chemistry and Government & Politics. That means I dropped Mathematics. I was sad that I would no longer be having Maths lessons, but I feel like I've made the right decision! I'm really enjoying Gov & Pol (let's see if I still think that by next year!) and I still get to do some maths in Chemistry and Biology! Thank you for reading and goodbye until next time! ~Jay
Monday, 18 September 2017
Self Care For When You Hit Rock Bottom
About two weeks ago, I posted a picture on one of my instagram accounts about self care for when you hit rock bottom. I wrote in the caption that I would make a blog post with several more tips...I forgot to do that. Luckily, somebody commented on that post with another self care tip and that reminded me to make this post!
The tips on the original post are:
The tips on the original post are:
- Can't shower or take a bath? Dry shampoo can make your hair look and feel cleaner and baby wipes or makeup wipes work great to get the top layer of grime off your skin.
- Can't wash your sheets and make your bed? Push your blankets out of the way and shake the crumbs off of your sheet. It will at least be a bit more comfortable.
The tip given to me by a follower on Instagram is:
- You can also use a flannel and some hot water and soap if you can't use baby wipes for whatever reason.
Here are my tips for you:
- Having trouble with brushing your teeth? Take a piece of tissue or cloth and gently wipe off any residue off of your teeth. You can also put a bit of toothpaste and a bit of water in your mouth, then swish them around. This will neutralise any acidic stuff on your teeth.
- Struggling to brush your hair regularly? Run your fingers through your hair regularly and try to give your hair 1-minute combs to get rid of the surface knots when they begin to appear.
- Is cooking a proper meal just too much for you right now? This tip takes a bit more effort but it's less effort than cooking a full meal. Add a can of chopped tomatoes or passata to a pan. Add some frozen vegetables if you have them. Add a can of beans if you have any! Beans are great in soups! Maybe add a few herbs. Then you just let it sit on a low-ish heat and stir occasionally. It should be ready in 15 to 20 minutes.
- Another food that's easy to cook is scrambled egg. Crack an egg into a saucepan or frying pan (before turning on the heat) and mix it around with the fork. You can add a little splash of milk if you want. Also, if you ever see 'season all' spice mix in the supermarket, I highly recommend this! Add a little bit to your scrambled egg or your soup and the flavour will be even better!
- Had trouble sleeping last night? Try half a cup of green tea, or a full cup if you're used to caffeine. This will give you a little extra energy to get through the first part of the day. Although, the caffeine means that it's definitely not the best idea for everyone.
- Never have anything for breakfast? Try saving a bit of last night's dinner for the morning and reheating it.
I really hope these tips help someone! If you think of any others, please comment down below! You can also email me tips and I can add them to this post! My email address is on the 'Contact Me' page. Thank you for reading and goodbye until next time!
~Jay
My Gender Experiences Pt.2
This time I'm going to talk about my gender identity in the past and how I discovered my gender identity.
I'm an AFAB (that means I was assigned female at birth). Growing up, I never questioned whether my gender was different from what I was assigned. However, as long as I can remember I've known there was something 'different'. I always just put it down to me being weird. I was always a little isolated from other people. I had friends and I wasn't lonely, but a lot of my childhood memories are of me on my own. I think this is why I don't recall having any strong gender stereotypes imposed on me whilst growing up.
This has just reminded me of the time that my mum bought me some new pajamas. My mum realised once giving them to me that she'd accidentally picked them up from the "boy's" section. She didn't take them back or give them away. She just said something along the lines of, "Oh well!"
This isn't the only example of not following strict gender roles that I have. I've always had a mixture of male and female friends, and growing up I wasn't restricted in what toys I could play with. I used to have a lot of toy cars. One of my favourites was an old model of Ferrari which had openable front doors and headlights that could be flipped up. I was more interested in nature documentaries and science books than I was toys growing up, both of which aren't really the sort of thing people would associate with being for one gender or the other.
During my early teenage years (12-14) I still had that feeling of being 'weird' but I now felt 'different', too. I was the sort of person who would share "I'm not like other girls!" posts on Google+. Spoiler alert: That's because I'm not a girl! Another type of post I used to share was those "Option A or Option B" things. One of them said "Tomboy or Girly Girl." My answer to that one was that I definitely wasn't a girly girl but I wasn't really a tomboy.
When I was 14, I met a new friend. After several months of getting to know this new friend, they came out to me as genderfluid at the same time as a few other people from my school. They explained to me what genderfluid meant. I didn't relate to this term myself but this was basically the start of me figuring out that I was part of the LGBT+ community. A week or two later, this friend suggested that I get an Instagram account, so I did. Because the first person I followed was my genderfluid friend, this meant that Instagram suggested LGBT+ pages to me. This was when I first started properly learning about the trans community.
I started finding more trans people via Instagram and learning about what it feels like to be trans. YouTube became a source of education on trans topics around about late February 2016. I related to trans men quite a lot. After considering my gender for quite a few weeks, I finally came to the conclusion late at night that I was a trans man. Five minutes later, I had doubts!For the next few weeks, I was rather confused, uncomfortable and unhappy. I related a lot to trans men, but calling myself a man just didn't seem to fit, as much as I wanted it to. I even considered whether I was genderfluid, but I knew I wasn't because I didn't feel like my gender was fluid at all. Luckily, I stumbled across a few videos on YouTube about being non-binary. I can't remember who made the video but I remember them saying that you can transition and be non-binary. This struck a chord with me. I could identify as non-binary and yet still transition like I felt I wanted to. I discovered that some non-binary trans people could have the same feelings as binary trans people, yet still identify as non-binary.
This discovery was quite a relief for me. All the 'weird' feelings I'd had within the past few years started making sense. It was great to have a label. Eventually I realised my gender identity was agender (genderless or gender-neutral). I knew that it was okay for me to want to transition and not have to identify as a binary (or even non-binary) trans man.
Over the past two years, I have doubted my identity at times. Upon addressing these feelings, however, I always realise that these doubts were caused by me thinking too much about what other people may think about trans and non-binary people. One day, I might make a post in this series about self-doubt and how I overcome it.
This post is a brief overview of my gender identity in the past and discovering my identity. I plan to make more detailed posts on certain topics to do with my past and discovering my gender identity, such as dysphoria, self-doubt and how my gender expression has changed. Thank you for reading and goodbye until next time!
~Jay
I'm an AFAB (that means I was assigned female at birth). Growing up, I never questioned whether my gender was different from what I was assigned. However, as long as I can remember I've known there was something 'different'. I always just put it down to me being weird. I was always a little isolated from other people. I had friends and I wasn't lonely, but a lot of my childhood memories are of me on my own. I think this is why I don't recall having any strong gender stereotypes imposed on me whilst growing up.
This has just reminded me of the time that my mum bought me some new pajamas. My mum realised once giving them to me that she'd accidentally picked them up from the "boy's" section. She didn't take them back or give them away. She just said something along the lines of, "Oh well!"
This isn't the only example of not following strict gender roles that I have. I've always had a mixture of male and female friends, and growing up I wasn't restricted in what toys I could play with. I used to have a lot of toy cars. One of my favourites was an old model of Ferrari which had openable front doors and headlights that could be flipped up. I was more interested in nature documentaries and science books than I was toys growing up, both of which aren't really the sort of thing people would associate with being for one gender or the other.
During my early teenage years (12-14) I still had that feeling of being 'weird' but I now felt 'different', too. I was the sort of person who would share "I'm not like other girls!" posts on Google+. Spoiler alert: That's because I'm not a girl! Another type of post I used to share was those "Option A or Option B" things. One of them said "Tomboy or Girly Girl." My answer to that one was that I definitely wasn't a girly girl but I wasn't really a tomboy.
When I was 14, I met a new friend. After several months of getting to know this new friend, they came out to me as genderfluid at the same time as a few other people from my school. They explained to me what genderfluid meant. I didn't relate to this term myself but this was basically the start of me figuring out that I was part of the LGBT+ community. A week or two later, this friend suggested that I get an Instagram account, so I did. Because the first person I followed was my genderfluid friend, this meant that Instagram suggested LGBT+ pages to me. This was when I first started properly learning about the trans community.
I started finding more trans people via Instagram and learning about what it feels like to be trans. YouTube became a source of education on trans topics around about late February 2016. I related to trans men quite a lot. After considering my gender for quite a few weeks, I finally came to the conclusion late at night that I was a trans man. Five minutes later, I had doubts!For the next few weeks, I was rather confused, uncomfortable and unhappy. I related a lot to trans men, but calling myself a man just didn't seem to fit, as much as I wanted it to. I even considered whether I was genderfluid, but I knew I wasn't because I didn't feel like my gender was fluid at all. Luckily, I stumbled across a few videos on YouTube about being non-binary. I can't remember who made the video but I remember them saying that you can transition and be non-binary. This struck a chord with me. I could identify as non-binary and yet still transition like I felt I wanted to. I discovered that some non-binary trans people could have the same feelings as binary trans people, yet still identify as non-binary.
This discovery was quite a relief for me. All the 'weird' feelings I'd had within the past few years started making sense. It was great to have a label. Eventually I realised my gender identity was agender (genderless or gender-neutral). I knew that it was okay for me to want to transition and not have to identify as a binary (or even non-binary) trans man.
Over the past two years, I have doubted my identity at times. Upon addressing these feelings, however, I always realise that these doubts were caused by me thinking too much about what other people may think about trans and non-binary people. One day, I might make a post in this series about self-doubt and how I overcome it.
This post is a brief overview of my gender identity in the past and discovering my identity. I plan to make more detailed posts on certain topics to do with my past and discovering my gender identity, such as dysphoria, self-doubt and how my gender expression has changed. Thank you for reading and goodbye until next time!
~Jay
Sunday, 17 September 2017
Apologies!
Once again I have forgotten for a lengthy period of time to post more blog updates! I don't really have much of an excuse, other than forgetfulness.
So, what have I been up to these past two months? Well...not much at all, really! I've been on lots of bike rides and have taken many photos. I can't remember much else of what I've been doing! However, I do remember that on the 6th of September I started my A-Levels! I'm going to a sixth form and it's at the same school I've been at for the past 5 years.
I've decided to take Biology and Chemistry as two of my A-Levels. Many people have told me that A-Level Chemistry is incredibly difficult, but I enjoy Chemistry and both of my teachers are great! I'm sure that I'm going to have a fun time learning Biology, too!
Now, about my third A-Level...it's a bit complicated! When I applied for sixth form, I chose Government & Politics as my third A-level. I also chose to do Core Mathematics, which is an AS-level course and so would only last for a year. However, upon looking at my time-table, I noticed that I didn't have many free periods in which to do extra study. This meant that I would have to do a lot of studying at home. I was considering dropping the subject after a week or two, but my first lesson was incredibly fun.
On Friday morning (15th of September) we were told during form time that we had until the end of that day to make any changes to our time-table. At this point, I had made up my mind that I wanted to drop Core Maths and I was now having doubts about Gov & Pol. So, during my 20-minute break, I went to the person in charge of changing and dropping subjects (I'll call them Mx. A so I don't have to mention their real name) and asked if I could drop Core Maths and swap Gov & Pol for Mathematics A-Level. My next lesson would have been Core Maths, so Mx. A found an A-Level Maths class which runs at the same time as my Core Maths class did. Even as I walked to the other end of the school, I was having doubts about my decision. At the end of that maths lesson I felt like I may have made a mistake by swapping. It was then that I remembered that some people had decided to pick 4 A-Levels and drop one after the first few weeks. These people have to decide by next Friday which ones they want to take. This gave me an idea; I went back to Mx. A and asked them if I could do Gov & Pol and A-Level Maths for one week.
I now have to make a decision...Mathematics or Government & Politics. I only have until Friday to decide! If anyone has done either of these subjects for A-Level, please contact me and tell me how you found the course!
Thank you for reading and goodbye until next time!
~Jay
So, what have I been up to these past two months? Well...not much at all, really! I've been on lots of bike rides and have taken many photos. I can't remember much else of what I've been doing! However, I do remember that on the 6th of September I started my A-Levels! I'm going to a sixth form and it's at the same school I've been at for the past 5 years.
I've decided to take Biology and Chemistry as two of my A-Levels. Many people have told me that A-Level Chemistry is incredibly difficult, but I enjoy Chemistry and both of my teachers are great! I'm sure that I'm going to have a fun time learning Biology, too!
Now, about my third A-Level...it's a bit complicated! When I applied for sixth form, I chose Government & Politics as my third A-level. I also chose to do Core Mathematics, which is an AS-level course and so would only last for a year. However, upon looking at my time-table, I noticed that I didn't have many free periods in which to do extra study. This meant that I would have to do a lot of studying at home. I was considering dropping the subject after a week or two, but my first lesson was incredibly fun.
On Friday morning (15th of September) we were told during form time that we had until the end of that day to make any changes to our time-table. At this point, I had made up my mind that I wanted to drop Core Maths and I was now having doubts about Gov & Pol. So, during my 20-minute break, I went to the person in charge of changing and dropping subjects (I'll call them Mx. A so I don't have to mention their real name) and asked if I could drop Core Maths and swap Gov & Pol for Mathematics A-Level. My next lesson would have been Core Maths, so Mx. A found an A-Level Maths class which runs at the same time as my Core Maths class did. Even as I walked to the other end of the school, I was having doubts about my decision. At the end of that maths lesson I felt like I may have made a mistake by swapping. It was then that I remembered that some people had decided to pick 4 A-Levels and drop one after the first few weeks. These people have to decide by next Friday which ones they want to take. This gave me an idea; I went back to Mx. A and asked them if I could do Gov & Pol and A-Level Maths for one week.
I now have to make a decision...Mathematics or Government & Politics. I only have until Friday to decide! If anyone has done either of these subjects for A-Level, please contact me and tell me how you found the course!
Thank you for reading and goodbye until next time!
~Jay
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