Wednesday 19 August 2015

Inside Out

   When I was a child, I was extremely happy all the time. I lived in a big house in a safe neighbourhood with my Mum and most of my extended family lived nearby. I was average at school but this was okay because I had very dedicated tutors who encouraged and taught me every day after school, to ensure that I never fell behind. I had many friends at church and school and at times, I even felt like a mini celebrity as twins are a big deal in Nigeria.

  This all changed in August 2004, when I moved to the UK at the age of 9. The massive culture change caused me to go from a chatterbox to a recluse, and I started to bottle up my feelings, writing them down in a diary instead of saying what I really felt. In those first few weeks in the UK, I would spend lunchtimes and breaktimes crying to my teachers about how alone I felt. This was a very sad time for me. Seeing how sad I was made other kids reach out more to me and eventually, I became happy again and made new friends.

  To say that it touched me to see a scenario similar to this play out in Pixar's Inside Out would be an understatement. I sat there in the cinema, bawling my eyes out like a sap. Inside Out is set in the mind of a young girl called Riley, where her five personified emotions, Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust, try to guide her through life as she moves to a new city with her parents. The story is made even more touching by the fact that it's based on the real life changes that the director, Pete Docter, noticed in his daughter's personality as she grew older.

  Change and growing up can be sad. And it's okay to feel sad because acknowledging this sadness is the way to happiness. This is the very powerful message that I got from Inside Out, which is why I think that it's a vital and important watch for everyone. Some might say some of the 'deep brain stuff' that's mentioned in the film is too difficult for younger children to grasp. However, I'd counter this argument with the fact that my five year old cousin and seven year old brother understood the film's message perfectly. I nearly cried again when they were telling me that feeling sad is okay as this is a message that feels even more poignant because of this.

  I'd even go as far as to say that Inside Out is the best Pixar film that I've ever seen. That's right, I went there, Go check it out!

Rating 9.5/10

 

FAMILY

  One of the things that I love most about being home for the holidays is that I can watch films and not feel guilty as there are no university deadlines looming over me. By coincidence, the last few films that I've watched have been about families and their importance: Meet The Robinsons (2007)August: Osage County (2013) and Stand By Me (1986).

   Meet The Robinsons is about a young orphan and aspiring inventor, who dreams of one day being reunited with his birth mother/ finding a family, Stand By Me is a coming of age comedy-drama that follows four young boys from troubled families, who hike across the countryside to find the dead body of a missing child and August: Osage County is about a dysfunctional family that reunites to deal with the sudden disappearance of the patriarch.

   These three films are completely different but one of the few things that they have in common is the fact that there's no such thing as a 'perfect' family. Every family has its quirks and issues and it is important to not take family for granted because as they say, blood is thicker than water.

Monday 10 August 2015

How To Survive Your First 'Proper' Internship.

Inspired by the amazing Economics & Management boiz that I lived with this year, I decided to apply for my first ever 'proper internship' in April and to my joy, I got one of the eight intern spaces! This meant that I was able to spend a month as an intern at the world's largest advertising company (!!) and it was absolutely incredible and one of the best experiences of my life to date. Before it began, I was super nervous, as I'd never done anything like it before. So, for people out there who feel as nervous as I did for their first internships, here's a Kenny guide on how to survive your first ever internship.

1) Alarms. Alarms GALORE, to ensure that you're never late.

2) Make sure that your phone/ iPod is fully charged so that you have something to entertain yourself with during long commutes.

3) If you can, try to get to the office before your boss. It's keen, but you'll definitely get recognition for it.

4) Drink tea. Lots and lots of tea (or coffee if that's more your kind of thing).

5) Make the most of the free breakfasts and snacks around the office, if you get them.

6) Don't be afraid to strike up conversations with people. Making connections is important and if you're genuine and friendly, people will remember you.

7) Ask questions if you get stuck (it really doesn't make you look stupid) and try to learn and soak up as much information as possible.

8) If you forget things easily like I do, make sure that you have a little notebook with you at all times, so that you can make key notes of things when you get set tasks to do.

9) Make friends with the other interns. Having an unfriendly, competitive attitude with them will not go down well with the staff who are observing you.

10) BE ON TIME TO MEETINGS! 

11) Do NOT leave the office until you're absolutely sure that there is no more work for you to do that day. Leaving the office at 5.30pm on the dot will not impress.

12) Get on the good side of the HR people because if you ever want to get more experience at the company that you're interning at, they're the ones that can make it happen.

13) If you don't have a LinkedIn, make one. LinkedIn is very useful, if you want to stay in contact with all the people that you'll meet.

14) Most importantly, HAVE FUN!




PS- I found out the other day that two friends of mine found this blog and I'm impressed, albeit slightly scared at the same time. If you're reading this, heyyyyy Phoebe frog and OP x






How To Survive Your Second Year At University.

  Wow. You know things are really bad and that you've been away from your own blog for too long when you type your blog url into the Google Chrome search bar and your blog doesn't even come up....

   Second year was...tough. The toughest one yet. But I survived and now I'm at home and I can sleeeeep before I move to France for ten months, ahhhhh! I learned and grew a lot this year so, here's a Kenny guide on how to survive your second year at university (here's the one I wrote for first year):

1) Grief sucks. But it's easier to deal with when your share your pain with others.

2) It can often be hard to say no to people, especially close friends as you don't want to look like a stick in the mud. However, true friends will accept you and love you exactly as you are, so don't be afraid to say no from time to time.

3) Speak out so that explosions of anger don't occur from bottling things up for weeks. It's also important to speak out so that micro aggressions are always addressed and tackled.

4) True friends are true gems and certain situations can really showcase people's ugly sides. Basically, don't put people on pedestals because eventually, they will let you down as nobody is perfect.

5) Don't let others take advantage of you, which is why 2) is always important.

6) Naps are important for survival, VERY important.

7) If you're a super keeno like me, and you like doing as much stuff as possible, post-it notes, diaries, and phone schedules are vital in order to stay organised and on top of things.

It's a massive bummer that I won't be at university in third year and the fact that most of my close group of friends will have graduated by the time I come back from France is something that weighs on my mind a lot and there were many, many tears as I said my goodbyes to people.

However as Winnie the Pooh once said, "How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard."


Questions that I dislike.

1) Where are you from?

2) Where are you really from?

3) When did you learn how to speak English?

4) Which one of you is the smarter twin?

5) Which one of you is the hotter twin?

6) Which twin do your parents love the most?

7) Have you always spoken English?

8) Why can't you talk 'normally'?

9) Why are you so skinny?

10) Why don't you drink?