The Land of Laura

Fear.

That all encompassing feeling that stops us in our tracks. The dark cloud that we all try to ignore but we can't, because deep down we know there's a storm overhead. The feeling that consumes you so much you can't escape from it.

Fear.

The weakness of man.

No matter what you are told, everyone is scared of something. Everyone. Whether its the monster under their bed or the fear of losing the one they love, their fear is real. It exists. Sometimes it presents itself in the most violent of ways, and other times it creeps up on you so slow that you don't feel it until you're doing the thing that scares you most. You could be up in a plane about to do a skydive and then it hits you when you here the word 'Jump'. You could find yourself trapped in a small space and it makes you want to kick and scream and panic until you're free. Fear. It's a funny thing. The same feeling that stops a little boy going to bed at night, also brings a grown man to his knees. We are all scared of something.

Me? I'm scared of flying and spiders. Small spaces and big crowds. Failing and Death. Loving too much and not being loved at all. These are my weaknesses. Some stop me in my tracks, others are like a quiet niggling that will destroy me in my sleep if I let them. They consume me all at once, and then not at all. Sometimes I think I've conquered them, and then they prove me wrong when I least see it coming. It's an ongoing war that won't be won on either side. Thats how fear works. It plays tricks on you until you think you've won, then it shows you who's boss. It doesn't want to win, it just doesn't want you to win either. It's your own personal little joker.

But here's what fear doesn't know - It can be channelled. Let the fear that stops you in your tracks become the adrenaline that gets you moving again. Let your heart race for the right reasons. Fear was designed to stop us. Adrenaline was designed to keep us going. So, I guess that's the real war isn't it? Do we stop and walk away, or do we jump? Either way we'll be scared out of our skin, but only one of those ways do we get to conquer our fear, if only for a moment, before we're crippled by the next thing that scares us.

Hello lovelies,

Top 10 Relationship Tips (Not necessarily in the right order)

1) Compromise - I know I said these weren't in the right order, but this is probably my absolute number 1 tip! Compromise is so important in all aspects, whether its fro

Bonus Tip From Ross!

As a little bonus I asked my boyfriend for his number one bit of relationship advice and can't believe I didn't think of it myself! Ross' top tip is to never try to change a person and love them for all their positives and well as their negatives (which i have bags of). I have to say I 100% agree with this one. Love them for who they are, never change them and never let them change who you are!

Hi Guys,

Welcome to the first official post in my new series "Lets Talk About:"! To see what this series is all about check out my previous post (although, its fairly self explanatory). To kick things off I wanted to talk about something that I've wanted to do a post on for ages - university! I kept putting off writing about university because I wanted to wait until I was close to my graduation (which I now am, go me!), so that I could truly impart some proper wisdom, rather than just saying "jaegerbombs are grim after the second one", which is truly the only advice I could have offered as a fresher. I've broken it down into categories and given you my top 3 pieces of advice for each topic, although not necessarily in the right order! I decided to focus on advice for when you're actually at University, if you'd like a post offering advice on the application process and choosing where to go, let me know!  So here it is....

Books
 - don't go nuts buying loads, they cost a bomb and you most likely won't need half of them ! Try taking them out of the library and see which ones are worth getting first !
- for books you do need to buy, try getting second hand ones, university forums and social media pages are great for this, there is bound to be people in the year above you that don't need their anymore.
- for books you need from the library, get in there early! The library will only have a limited number of books and if it's a core text book for the course, they will run out !

Accommodation
- stay in halls in your first year (if possible), it's a great way to meet new people and make friends. Be careful about what accommodation you use though, look at what you can realistically afford. For example, my student loan wouldn't cover me having an en suite room, so take this into consideration!
- if you choose to move into a student house, NEVER GET 12 MONTH CONTRACTS. They seem great at first because you don't have to move all your stuff home at summer, but if your in my position (I.e you get basically the minimum loan) you won't be able to afford rent over the summer. Look at the cost of renting and see if you can afford it, but realistically, most people don't stay at uni over the summer, so it becomes a waste of money anyway.
- If you do live in a student house there will sometimes be a downstairs bedroom, if this is the case, avoid it like the plague! You'll be woken up constantly!

Work
- get a part time job (even if you don't need one), it looks great on your CV and it's a good way to meet new people.
- get into a habit of starting your uni work early. Getting into a good habit with this will make your life much easier later on ( I didn't do this, and boy do I wish I had)
- any extra things you can do such as volunteering will look all go on your academic record and look great on your CV, anything extra you can do makes you more employable when you graduate.

Social
- be yourself, literally anything goes at uni and you're pretty much guaranteed to find someone who likes the same stuff you do, so there is no need to pretend to be into stuff you're not.
- depending on where you go, there is a pretty big 'drinking culture' at University and it is ABSOLUTELY FINE to not be in it. If your not a big drinker (or you don't drink at all) do not feel pressured, you can still go on nights out if you want to and people will like you just as much!
- Join a society. Societies are massive at university and they range from the academic (such as the medical society) to the down right wacky (my university has a Quiddich Society!). There's bound to be something for you and they're a fantastic way to meet people and escape from work every now and again.

Graduating
- If you're not graduating until June, start applying for graduate job before Christmas, since this is when a lot of the application deadlines are for graduate schemes.
- Even if a company isn't advertising a job, drop them an email and your CV anyway, it shows passion and initiative - I got an interview from doing this!
- Don't promise loads of people that they can come to your graduation, there is normally a two person ticket limit!

Money
- Live within your means. It may be nice to have an en-suite bathroom but if you cant afford it you will begin to resent that bathroom more than anything. Nothing stresses you out more than not being able to afford your rent - shared bathrooms honestly aren't that bad! (depending on how many people you're sharing with).
- Food shopping is extortionate. Make a rough meal plan and a list before you go shopping, try to buy things that can be used for a lot meals (chicken breasts for example) and buy things that can easily be frozen. Its horrible spending a fortune on food and having to throw it away because it's gone out of date.
- When choosing where to bank, don't be drawn in my by the massive overdraft limits and freebies. I went with Santander for the big overdraft and free railcard. BIGGEST. REGRET. EVER. Setting up their online banking is a nightmare and their mobile app is shit. Mobile/Online banking is fantastic at uni for when you inevitably have to pay your housemate for your share of the Dominoes.



There is probably a million things I've missed but these were all the main things I wanted to cover! I hope if you're thinking of going to University or are at University already you found at least some of these useful! I had a fun time writing this, laughing to myself about all the stories that inspired each piece of advise. I'll be back on Sunday with another post and next Thursday  with another "Lets Talk About:". What would you like me to cover next?! Leave a comment or tweet me @LauraCharlotteG!

Until next time loves,

Laura xoxo

Hey Guys!

Just a quick post to tell you about my new blog series called "Let's talk about:..." where every week I talk about about a new topic - some serious, some not so serious, just a variety of things I feel I could offer insight, advice, or opinion on. First post coming to you Thursday!

As well as writing about things I want to talk about it, i also want to address topics proposed by you guys ! I'd love you hear your ideas ! To have your topic featured on "Let's Talk About:" simply comment or tweet me; @LauraCharlotteG.

I'm so excited to start this!

Back Thursday,

Laura xoxo

Everyone has a dream. You know, that thing you long for more than anything, the one thing you know will make you the happiest you've ever been? We all have them, all different, some bigger than others, some more obscure than others. Whatever the dream, we all want to achieve them. From reading this you probably have your biggest dream in the forefront of your mind, so let me tell you mine.

New York. Cliché I know but nothing makes me happier than the prospect of one day living in the Big Apple. I say nothing makes me happier, although at the same time the idea makes me so incredibly sad. Without sounding too over dramatic, I cannot hear about friends trips to New York, or see TV shows with beautifully panning shots of the New York city skyline without feeling a slight twinge of sadness. As much as I'd like to believe my dream is realistic, when I see these things, I can't help but think that perhaps my dream is just a bit too big. Doubting myself is one of my biggest flaws, so when it comes to potentially moving to New York it is not surprising that I doubt my ability to do it.

I have a lot of dreams and ideas, and I realised that now I am 20 I need to start working towards pursuing them. Not because I'm scared that I am getting old or anything dramatic like that, I just have so many that if I don't start now I couldn't possibly ever accomplish them all. Which brings me to my point. I want to use this blog to document my journey towards reaching some of these dreams through a blog series. While I haven't got all the logistics of this series worked out I want to make it a fairly regular things, potentially monthly. My plan is this, at the end of every month I will write a reflection on what happened that month, and from that I will set aims to achieve for the following month so that I can look back at whether or not I achieve these aims in that months reflections. I know it sounds complicated but if everything goes to plan all will be revealed shortly.

Sorry this post has been a bit haphazard and not make much sense, but roll with it, this is just the beginning.

Dream Big

Laura

xoxoxo

Twitter: @LauraCharlotteG
instagram: @lauragee95

Hello darlings,

Why am I writing a blog post at 2am on a Monday morning? Because procrastination, that's why. Plus, i have a snoring Ross-osaurus sleeping next to me that is very rudely keeping me awake! After a  chat and some blogging inspiration from my bestest chum we ended up looking at our blogging stats, and while I'm not overly concerned with the amount of views my blog gets, it's nice knowing that it is being seen somewhere. To my surprise, i realise that my blog is being viewed all over the place; America, Australia, Russia, Germany and many others, not just the U.K! Now I'm no idiot, I know how these things work and the likelihood that all these people are regular readers that purposely came to my blog is slim to non, and while I'd love to think they all are, that is not actually the thing that fascinated me. What i found interesting is that this is the first time that I've probably been able to put the scale of the Internet into perspective. I know that sounds silly because the Internet is enormous, but hear me out.

Consider this for a second, you are on the beach in the U,K writing a letter in which you put your telephone number. You then put this letter in a bottle and throw it out to sea, you then seconds later receive a phone call from Australia saying they've just receive your letter. An odd concept to think of right ? It's mind boggling how we can write something, hit the 'send' or 'upload' button and it is instantly available all around the world ! As a business student I am encouraged to look into the progression of technology and consider where it might be in the future, but if current digital technologies are incomprehensible to me, how am i supposed to be able to consider where they will be in 10, or even 5 years time ? Madness.

I understand the concept of a viral video being shared on Facebook being seen globally, but a blog post by little old me? Scary stuff! It's made my tiny little world feel a whole lot bigger!

Explore always,

Laura

Xoxox

Twitter: @LauraCharlotteG