The Youth Blog

Journalist: 

So lemme talk about the UK music scene.

Its mad, is it arguably the best its ever been? 

Music fan: 

Yeah man Numbers going up like a spiral. 

Due to ludicrous talent that’s unrivalled. 

In my opinion 

Its revitalised the UK 

Brought up inspiring energy in a different way.

Journalist: 

Yeah I feel the same, now looking at corporate, regimented London, there’s a new creative flair. 

Music fan: 

I agree, and it overshadows the hegemonic feeling that is in the air. 

Shows now that people from less fortunate backgrounds can make it. 

Journalist: 

It can only be a positive for kids round the ages of 13,14,15 given them a lot of inspiration? 

Music fan: 

Yeah man, couldn’t agree more, it’s a feeling that’s been projected across the nation.

For example, Birmingham, a city victimised by satire. 

But yeah you cannot deny that their talent is fire. 

Theres outer London talent like Aitch, Eyez, Jaykae 

No pun intended by the way. 

But they’ve absolutely caught the wave.

And showed no signs of falling by the wey. 

Journalist: 

Lets delve more into the actual music, rather than the country wide effects. 

Cause with the level of talent here, where will it go next? 

Music fan:

Its difficult to say, Grime seemed to kickstart things. 

There was drill as well, and then there was this afro swing.

All artists are now so multifaceted. 

Can sit on any BPM.

Can even act, produce, direct films. 

The multitude of talent doesn’t even seem real. 

Its also impossible to predict, 

But just know its gonna be a massive hit. 

Journalist: 

Do you think everything occurring now will stand times test?

Music fan: 

Yes, cause its simply the best. 

Now this was a fabricated interview between two people, but it essentially showcased how I feel currently about the UK music scene and just entertainment as a whole to be honest. There are obvious plusses, some of the youtubers and presenters now adopt this really human outlook on life, which was something that was missing before, if you had an aura of fame or popularity about you, you would naturally stray away from the so called normal people within society. The fact that they haven’t done this, and there is a real human element to them, the artists as well, has given a huge level of hope to some of the truly young people of today who desire recognition or want to direct awareness onto something they care about. The image of needing to grow up in an advantaged background has also been shattered by this generation/ wave of talent and once again just reaffirms the fact that you can be anyone and your dreams don’t have to remain dreams forever. The revitalised hope it has given and the freedom of expression that has been demonstrated is something I find so so interesting and exciting so yeah power to everyone involved currently and wishing to get involved. And anyone who is going to read that a second time, I beg you clock the majority of it rhymes. 

As life goes on and you stumble across more people with more different coping mechanisms in regards to dealing with the magnitude of what life becomes. Meditation seemed to be a buzzword amongst my peers at university and as much as people were eager to tap into their spiritual side, however the amount people I heard giving up on it was astonishing, and honestly in my early days attempting it I found it difficult to adhere to. 

Complaints I heard from my peers range from – it isn’t improving my mental wellbeing consistently enough, it is impossible not to think about stuff and it is boring, and I cannot tap into my spiritual side deeply enough to make it worth while, and at the time I agreed, until I persisted with it more and did a bit more background research to it. 

So my answer to these qualms are simple, mediation and becoming in touch with your inner powers – doesn’t necessarily help you maintain happiness and calmness 100% of the time, however there is more to meditation than sitting cross legged thinking about nothing, it is a development of your awareness of your inner self and appreciating how it can help you. The fundamentals of what meditation is becoming more in touch with yourself from within, and straying away from the toxic mind. There is a wide belief that the mind links bodily feelings to the consciousness but the reality is, there is a massive disconnect between the two, and the mind is essentially your own personal warped reality, which failure to control can be severely damaging to mental wellbeing. Failure to control this is having a miniture thought (a negative one) which is essentially a seed, and letting it manifest and let it grow into a forest. An example being, if I don’t revise today, I will fail this exam, fail my course, not get a job and ultimately live a life in mediocrity at best, and this is how depression and anxiety develops. A way in which being in touch with the powers within, and meditating can help, is the fact that at the beginning of your thought train, you can then turn your attention to your bodily sensations, and YOOOOO guess what that train of thought has crashed again and negativity is no longer ruling the mind. Then by acknowledging you now have a coping mechanism to deal with this, you can then deal with emotions such as anxiety, nerves, sadness and anger much more competently. This also answers the question people may have, post meditating, – they ask why do I still get depressing thoughts, firstly, there isn’t a rule that states you need to be happy in every minute of every day. Secondly what meditation encourages you to do is appreciate the current moment you are in, do not think about your past self and do not worry about the future, so I ask you this question. Why are you trying to future proof your mental wellbeing for the next 20 years? It is about now, so if you are anxious or sad now, tap into your inner powers now, and kill that train of thought. 

In regards to not being able to keep your mind free, no one is asking that of you. Thoughts will float into your head, but then the mission is to divert your attention back towards feeling the sensations of breathing and feeling the sensations of your body. By doing that, more time you are in a space of stillness, and then you get this calming effect which can set you up and freshen you up for the day ahead. However by meditating in the morning, your mental wellbeing for the next 24 is not guaranteed. You may still face obstacles within the day, but the beauty of mediation is you are practicing being at one with your body, which means you notice the bodily sensations more regularly and you can tap into them almost any time. So for instance you are having a bad day at work and you are in the lift, you are in the lift, you then have a minute to yourself where you can tap into your inner body and then kill the train of thought your are currently on, thus realising the disconnect between body and mind and also understand the sabotaging role that a lot of the time the mind has to play. 

This is my overall opinions at current, in my infancy of doing meditation, and now I understand its purpose more, I am totally for it. As I learn more, I will be back with more advice and anecdotes and help people make sense of the mystery that is meditation. 

Peace. 

Two months on since graduating, plenty of reaching the final stage of the interview process, but still the cutting edge and the conviction to rise above the competition seems to be lacking. Why is this? Does a degree hold the same value these days? Has the competition just improved? Or the severe volume of competition? There’s a multitude of reasons but ultimately my pitches to employers are becoming more convincing to there’s no need just yet to get disheartened. Apart from the state of my bank account of course. 

To me leaving university represents uncertainty, a degree of fear but above all, a lorryload of excitement. Its your time to shine now, no safety of those 4 walls of whatever educational establishment you’re in, every decision you now make has vast consequences that cannot be semi alleviated by the support around you. Now as much as this can be a frightening prospect, it can also be exciting right? You only have the choice of self betterment or you will sink, so this is a period of your life where you always have to ask questions of yourself and really be invested in, investing in yourself as well. 

Upon leaving university some of the most interesting conversations with some of the wiser people I have met, is what has stuck with me most. They very much stick by the belief that adhering to mini goals and accomplishing those goals are the most satisfying things, and if you can tailor these goals towards your self development it becomes all the more satisfying. I have also realised the importance of appreciating mini victories as well. A little anecdote I used to sit there with sweaty palms, hunched over, butterflies in my stomach and barely able to make eye contact, now I walk in rather nonchalantly without a care in the world and stare the potential employers out like there’s no tomorrow, (retrospect tells me that could be an issue). However,   if I was to tell myself in 2016 that id love job interviews in 2019 id call the counsellor immediately. The reality is however, I no longer get butterflies in interviews, and I enjoy selling myself, and enjoy the prospect of potentially taking their constructive criticism on board of it doesn’t go my way, and bettering myself as a result of it. Like honestly what can go wrong in a job interview other than not getting a job? And even in that instance what do you lose, so realising that has to be counted has a mini victory for me and a form of progress and by thinking this way, other than the typical paralysis by analysis that most people adhere to, it is only a matter of time.  Ultimately you come to realise you are your own worst enemy if you do not embrace the fundamental principle of self development and becoming excited by the uncertainty and not being the finished article. Honestly who knows what your limits are? 

In the face of criticism you also have to accept that the people projecting these sentiments towards you are more time experts and you are just starting out, so you don’t have a leg to stand on when comparing your view of yourself to their opinions of you. So ultimately the key to life as a graduate, is being open to changing yourself, little changes that is, and accept and embrace the notion of learning, because without that – it is highly possible that you will think yourself in to becoming anxious and highly doubtful of yourself.  

For those of you that do not have a true vision of what you want to do – that’s okay, I’m not sure I do. I’ve convinced myself broadcasting, podcast and journalism is great, but I have a degree in something completely unrelated. Having said this, I am aware I have no right to just become a journalist, and no right to just achieve my dreams right away, and that a lot of work goes into becoming the finished article and doing the job you love whilst simultaneously making a lot of money. How I go about reassuring myself that there is method to my thinking is by looking at maslows theory of motivation, and whilst I have locked down the 3 most basic needs to make me relatively happy, I need to realise that preserving myself takes money, and achieving a dream takes time, and time waits for no man. So I will work on my dream whilst simultaneously earning my living and to do this I will use what I already have in my armoury – a degree. Eventually my skillset will be at a level whereby I can monetize my dream – so don’t threat if you have a dream and it feels distant, there is always a way, and dreams are never out of reach. 

But yeah – mans just unemployed still, nothings changed whilst typing this, my bank account is still shocking. But whilst typing this, I have reaffirmed myself that everything is going to be okay, and that I am making progress in the way I conduct myself – and the fact that I am even aware of the importance to open mindedness and learning is the biggest metric of progress I could have. I know I am not truly an expert at anything yet, and I haven’t earnt my right to jump straight to the top, but I will keep plucking away, and my time will come. 

So I will leave those sentiments with you all, and anyone who is in this graduate predicament of even just a bit stuck with employment, just open your door to improving until the competition cannot cope with you. 

Safe innit. 

So right now, this very second I am on a train home, to London from my university town, and I am in reflective mood.  Upon my completion of university, I’m now trying to determine what I have learnt – with academic knowledge aside, how have I changed as a person, for better or worse? And I am also trying to determine whether the university experience as a whole package is overrated, now we are in a day and age where there are multiple avenues you can take in order to get on the career path you want. 

First and foremost, I want to discuss university as an education establishment. From solely a teaching point of view, I was personally underwhelmed by the standard of teaching in my university, and these were sentiments I know were shared amongst by my coursemates. We understand, we are adults, and we cannot be spoon fed everything anymore, and we are okay with that, but everyone needs clear and concise explanations when learning complex theory, and it seemed to be something that was lacking a lot. Furthermore, considering we pay £9250 a year for these studies, it is also worrying to see disparities in views amongst lecturers as to how we should be taught, along with some lecturers/ module leaders openly undermining each other. This mad the whole process of transmitting knowledge seem amateur and to me raised massive question marks as to why we should have to pay these establishments so much when the employees skillset is no better than a regular school teacher, and they are far less willing to build a rapport. 

However education aside, I really enjoyed the journey university took me on, for a multitude of reasons. Firstly the people I met, a lot of them I’d used to think “nah what? I can’t be friends with them, we’re too different”. I became friends with them, secondly, opening up to new experiences, both stupid and not stupid, and then understanding new cultures and ways of like. Long story short, university made me much more open minded, and this is an attribute I now have in abundance, cherish and harness. This is an aura that I am eager to translate into my future career, not be afraid to experience new things whilst also helping me enjoy a lot more activities that I undertake.

The open mindedness factor, is massive and it is great, but, did the overall university experience, change me for the better, or was progression limited?. Honestly, I have to say, right until my final day, I still made bad decisions, was still terrible at budgeting – what did change however was the way I reacted to these decisions, and the lessening reliance I had on my mum to get me out of sticky situations. What I did learn was, if I want to sustain a lifestyle of spending loads I would have to work stupid hours, along with my degree in order to sustain it, so I did so, and this is a hustle once again that I could not develop without university. Despite this new found hustle, this was nonetheless forced on me by a large string of immaturity, and university has in fact made me the worst version of myself. But I am okay with that, because I have disposed of a lot of recklessness I previously had in my system, only worth while things now satisfy me, and I now know the steps I need to follow in order to become the best version of myself, and now have the time to invest in myself and make that happen. 

I am not saying university makes everyone the worst version of themselves, some people grow up instantaneously, initialise an insane amount of discipline and this translates to their career life straight away. However, losing the parental and family structure around you and the days being structured between 8:30am – 3pm is difficult and you can sometimes have too much fun, and demonstrate too little discipline with it – but ultimately university provides the safest place to learn these lessons, make these mistakes and eradicate these streaks within your personality. 

Having seen all of my thoughts translate from something intangible, to a blog piece it is now easier to understand that university has many ways of making you a more multifaceted, multitalented, more knowledgeable human being that is better equipped for success than they were before undertaking the challenge. Despite me saying that the education projected onto me from so called experts was underwhelming, living my life in this environment for 3 years, taught myself so much more, about myself, differentiating between good and bad habits, other people, opening minds to new experiences and has overall left me looking forward to what the future holds. 

Anyone that believes they have what it takes to thrive in such a social environment with such a diverse array of personalities should definitely take the opportunities and remember this experience is more than just a grade, it is a life changing experience. 

Hope you take a lot from this – peace out xo