University updates…

As you can imagine the Christmas period was a great time to meet up with friends who I hadn’t seen since we all parted in September, going our separate ways and starting a new journey. Now I find myself just about to start the third week of the second semester, where on earth has time gone?! Unfortunately, I have recently just got out of hospital (again) after another cluster of uncontrolled seizures and damaging my hip- which probably won’t help with trying to remember the timing of things! Hopefully in a few weeks that will have settled down a little bit more and allow me to continue with university, meeting up with friends and the other things, like blogging, that I usually get up to. I actually do have quite a few blog posts that are half written so I hope to be posting more in the upcoming months to get 2017 started and get back into the flow of giving you all regular updates, so I apologise if post have been a little thin on the ground lately- all a working progress!

If I think back to last semester it seems so long ago, with the lasting memories being the madness of getting assignments all completed and submitted so Christmas could be enjoyed. Apart from the hectic final two weeks it has been such a good experience. Making friends with people who consider a cozy night in to be watching Disney films is the way forward and definitely something that needs to happen more often this semester, as long as the cocktail nights happen as well! I haven’t received all of my assignments back just yet but the one that I have back was a high first that I was extremely happy about! Fortunately, I am still loving studying psychology and actually prefer the modules the topics that are been looked at this semester- just so much to take in during a relatively short period of time. I believe that staying out of hospital will most certainly help with the ability to stay on top of my workload…

This year has already been successful, when on 7th January I was lucky enough to go on to BBC Radio Leeds and talk about this blog, along with some recent achievements of mine and generally raising awareness about Cerebral Palsy (what else would I want to be doing first thing on a Saturday morning?!). If you would like to listen to my interview then click here. This was such an amazing experience, one that even got me noticed in a local coffee shop later on that day! There was me thinking that I would be hidden as it was the radio, then an old lady goes and recognizes my voice. Talking of raising awareness, there are several magazine articles that I am in the process of writing which is another opportunity that I hope to expand on in the next few months and can’t wait to share with you all- one of them being a guest blog for my university which should be published in the next few days!

I may have only just started my second semester at university, or so it seems, yet I am currently in the process of looking at houses for my second year of studying. I know for any university student (especially first years) that this can be an exciting, but daunting task that can take a lot of planning and communication between the people that you will be moving in with. Trying to get the balance of being near to the university campus so you will actually attend and near public transport, town centres and leisure activities (coffee shops). Throw a wheelchair at the situation and it actually becomes a lot harder than it already was! Firstly, I would like to thank the people who I am moving in with for doing a lot of planning and explaining on my behalf as I was unwell in the crucial week of trying to explain our needs to estate agents and looking around some properties in the local area. Things like having a downstairs bedroom/ bathroom all seem pretty straightforward, and luckily in student accomodation this is quite common with tenants trying to get more people into one house. Yet the concept of having narrow corridors in a house won’t cross your mind unless there is the high chance that a wheelchair would need to fit down them, even smaller door frames which might mean that I trap my hands everytime I go in and out, and did you think about having a shower door that opens enough to allow a chair to be put in there? I know for a fact that a few years ago none of these would have crossed my mind! Yet it is often the small things, like having an open house (allowing someone who uses a wheelchair to turn more easily) that would have such a huge impact. I am sure it will not be much longer until we find the one for us!

Off to go and write up some lecture notes, might even open a textbook or two! Why are they always so big?! and hopefully work on some further pieces of writing for you all!

~ Chloe x