SpunOut.ie Blog
August, 2008
Beat the back to school blues
Blog: Young people's tips on getting back into the routine of school.
Summer is over and instead of sleeping until noon everyday; you have to survive getting up early, wearing an incredibly unfashionable uniform and dealing with the horrors of BACK TO SCHOOL.
Young people’s tips on how to survive the back to school blues:
- Don’t stress about being popular: it’s about a million times better to have one real friend than lots of people who only like you for your façade.
- Don’t take it out on a teacher just because you can’t stand their living guts and you’d rather eat mammoth poop than spend another second in their class. You have to be there every week, so you might as well learn to tolerate it.
- Keep up with homework; it's always easier than leaving everything ‘till the last minute and cramming.
- Find an escape: drawing, playing football, singing, anything, as long as it’s absolutely nothing to do with your schoolbooks!
- Prepare to hear it for the millionth time: breakfast is the most important meal of the day! Seriously though, it helps your concentration and makes it much easier to not snack on sweets and crisps at break.
- Pick subjects you’re interested in: they’re the ones you’ll do best in.
- Remember not to bottle things up. If you’re feeling frustrated, angry or want-to-kill-the-world-ish, vent it on your pillow or scream it from your lungs, just don’t take it out on yourself by keeping it in.
More information:
Leaving Cert and A Level tips
Beat bullying
Anxiety and stress
After the results
Blog: If you are wondering 'what next?' then check out what others say about life after Leaving Cert.
Young people across Ireland have talked to SpunOut.ie about the highs and lows of life after the Leaving Cert results....
Word on the street as everyone waits for their results.
Celebrate the end of school!
True life experience on studying in the UK.
Top tips for freshers.
There is a Leaving Cert results helpline available for anyone who needs support after the results:
Helpline Phone Number: 1800 265 165
There’s also loads more information on life after Leaving Cert on SpunOut.ie – check it out here!
Do you want to talk to other young people about the results? Confess all in the forum or write an article for SpunOut.ie.
Wanted: your brain power
Blog: Sex, drugs and rock and roll....what do you want to read about?
SpunOut.ie is your website and to help ensure that it covers the issues of importance to you, we’d like to hear about the type of articles and media you want to read and see on SpunOut.ie.
So pop on your thinking cap, get up close and personal with your computer and tell us about your dream SpunOut.ie.
We (along with SpunOut.ie’s hot, hot, hot young media makers) will then try to make your wish come true! It can be anything from more true life stories, to information on working abroad to coverage of Electric Picnic...
Tell us what content you want on SpunOut.ie.
If YOU want to help create media for SpunOut.ie, sign up and check out the media factory here.
Its great to be young!
Blog: What its like to attend a SpunOut.ie Youth Board meeting.
It’s 3.30am and I’m sitting in my living room watching Star Trek on TV. I know I’m tired but I’m too excited to sleep. Yes, even at the ripe old age of 17, I still get excited at the prospect of another road trip with my dear old mother. The sheer joy of sitting in a car for near four and a half hours, arguing over the horrid voice of the Sat Nav and drinking can after can of Red Bull is enough to keep me from my bed.
It’s just another one of those great times in your life you get to say “It’s great to be young!” I was invited to one of those prestigious and exciting Youth Board Meetings for the spectacular, thrilling and all around good guys, SpunOut.ie.
And no, that wasn’t a cheap plug for the site; it really is spectacular and thrilling.
My name is Michelle and I live right up the tippy-top of the country in Donegal. And of course, as usual, all the good things in life are four and something hours away in a car. Today, it’s in Dublin. But I love Dublin, so I don’t mind the trek. Neither does my mother, who has always been there for me, always right beside me on all my most insane adventures. I was so happy to get the invite from the guys at SpunOut.ie, too think I’d get to be a part of all this was just amazing.
Lets skip ahead a few hours, the car journey is not really on the agenda for this little article (*sigh*).
After trekking halfway around Dublin, arguing blindly at the Sat Nav (nicknamed Stacy), we finally found Emily (SpunOut.ie’s Youth Participation Officer) herself, standing outside the house where the meeting was going to be held, decked out in her limited edition SpunOut.ie tee. Right off the mark, I knew Emily was the kind of person we all hope of meeting in our teenage years, a real go getter, a real voice. She was just so lovely and bubbly.
Down a few stairs into one of the back rooms and the promise of tea and coffee was certainly fulfilled. I don’t drink tea or coffee myself, but I got the urge to on this occasion.
All around the room were lovely smiley faces, everyone happy to meet new people and get stuck in on making SpunOut.ie better. After the meet and great, and a few fun “get to know you” games, Emily decided it was time to get stuck in. Here we go, I thought, this is going to be just like school. She even had a flip chart, and markers! Oh well, at least I could catch up on the sleep I’d missed the night before.
How wrong I was!
It was so refreshing to be among people, who not only share the same ideals and opinions as you, but are the same age. As we all nibbled at the M&Ms and biscuits, we all witted on about the things we wanted to change, the things we wanted to add and the things we wanted to make better. Before we knew it, we had completely dissected the workings of the site and as a group pieced it back together with fresh and new ideas.
Nobody’s idea was put down, and for the first time everyone had a voice. This is the amazing thing about SpunOut.ie; people my age now have a voice for their long lived opinions. Finally, we can say what we want and not feel like we are a bunch of idiots because of what someone else thinks. And we got pizza too! (*giggle*)
I don’t care what part of the country these meetings are in or how far I have to travel. I am so happy and dare say it, proud to be a part of this organisation, and for that I’d travel any distance. To help makes life easier for teens, to finally have a place where you don’t have to feel ashamed or lonely or stupid, where you can be yourself. I know all this might seem very sentimental and icky, but it’s true.
Life isn’t about the destination, it’s about the journey!
By: Michelle McHugh
For more information on the Youth Board and how you can get involved give Emily a shout at emily@spunout.ie or check out the Get Involved section of the site.
Help us take over the world
Blog: We're going to invade your space...
Yo SpunOutters!!!
We in the SpunOut.ie HQ have decided to take over the world. That's right; we're going to invade your space.... "MySpace" that is (cheesy I know) along with Bebo and Facebook.
The SpunOut.ie social network pages have been making waves for lucky cyber surfers throughout Ireland. As it stands we are adding around 100 new friends a week on Bebo... but it's not enough. We want more! More!!! Mwa ha ha ha ha ha ha.
So this means YOU.
If you haven't already added us as a friend, now is the time to do so. You don't want to be on the other side when we eventually take over the world!
So get connected. As the groovy people would say ;)
Bebo-
www.bebo.com/spunoutyouth
MySpace-
www.MySpace.com/spunoutyouth
Facebook-
www.facebook.com/pages/SpunOut/16261700961
You can also help promote SpunOut.ie by:
- Including SpunOut.ie in your top Bebo, Facebook and MySpace friends.
- Send the SpunOut.ie Bebo, Facebook and MySpace links to all your friends and ask them to join us.
- Post a link to SpunOut.ie on your school/ college pages, forum or noticeboard.
What are you waiting for? Go, go and help us take over the world!
By: Ian Howley
