Gap Year Bucket List!

10 things I want to do before September 2017...

1. Apply to drama schools e.g LAMDA and Guildhall. I am fully aware of how near-impossible it is to get a spot at one of these prestigious, elite, and highly selective institutes. However, I know that I will hugely regret it if I never try. Therefore, I've made the decision to go for it... but have also secured a place at the University of Brighton to study Primary English Education with QTS  in 2017. I shall be documenting my application and audition journey!
2. Become more courageous! I struggle with really bad travel anxiety which holds me back a fair bit. For example, this summer my parents and brother travelled to Barcelona for a week, yet I had to stay at home as the whole idea was just too terrifying for me. (It's a very hard thing to explain and talk about but I will definitely be discussing it in more depth on here at some point.) I want to increase my ability to cope with travelling by exposing myself to what scares me in the hope that I will build up some level of tolerance. Therefore, I have invested in a railcard and plan to visit lots of my friends who have now gone off to University in various cities across the country. Again, I shall be documenting these little adventures on here! 
3. Sing, sing, sing! As mentioned in my introductory post, my main passions in life are singing and acting. Consequently, several of the things on my gap year bucket list relate to these two interests. These things include: singing at weddings, busking, registering with Uni-versal Extras Ltd. (a company which casts extras for major films and TV programmes), regularly uploading covers to my YouTube channel, writing songs, and applying for a place in the Musical Youth Company of Oxford (MYCO).
4. Get a job. Ideally at Whittards (who sell the most incredible mugs, tea, and hot chocolate!) or Brown Bear (an independent baby and children's boutique), or some form of work with children.
5. Learn to play the piano or guitar. This is one I'm not massively optimistic about as I struggle to be disciplined about practising them! But I hope that, without the excuse of having school work to do, I can be strict with myself!
6. Write a blog. (!)
7. Gain more experience of working with children. As you will have seen from the first item on my list, if I don't get into drama school I will be heading off to University to train as a primary school teacher. I therefore want to gain as much extra experience of working with children as possible over the coming months. Things such as babysitting, volunteering at a toddler group, volunteering at a local primary school - and at a local school for children with special needs - are all on my list. 
8. Bake and cook lots and lots! As I also mentioned in my introductory post, I love to bake! My Grandpa bought me a beautiful KitchenAid mixer for my 18th birthday, which has to be one (if not the) best gift I've ever received. (Yes, I am that sad gal who, when told she can have a big birthday present of her choice, goes for baking equipment over a laptop or any other similarly normal teenage want... Aha!)
9. Learn sign language. Just one of those cool things that I've always wanted to do. I shall be hitting the library for some 'teach yourself' books and of course shall be scanning the internet for tutorials and online lessons.
10. GET WELL! School has most definitely not given me the space or flexibility to attempt to combat my health conditions: ME/CFS, neuropathic/chronic pain, IBS, anxiety, and depression. For this reason, my health has deteriorated over the past couple of years and so I intend to use the coming year to try out different treatments, gradually build up my strength using physiotherapy and swimming, and generally look after myself more.

Phew. So there it is. It will be interesting to look back on this post in a years time to see how much of this list I managed to achieve! Speaking of which... I have already achieved some of it in the first few weeks of my gap year! I have been given a job at Brown Bear, have started volunteering at a toddler group twice a week, have got a job working as 'mothers help' for a woman who has her hands full with 9 month old twins, I (rather miraculously after I thought I'd messed up my audition) got into MYCO, and I have - of course - started a blog. I'd say that's a pretty good start!

Thanks so much for reading, look out for updates on how I'm getting on with my list.

Love,

Katie xxx