Tag: letter

CHCC YA Bookish Joy Blog Fest!

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Hey everyone! 

Today I have the abolsute joy of kicking off the CHCC YA Bookish Joy Blog Fest: a blog tour which will see some of my favourite bloggers celebrating everything they love about books. When I was initially asked to be on this blog tour, it was pitched to me as “write a letter to someone who made you the bookish you you are” and I was SOLD. I’ve toyed between writing to my favourite author (I give you 3 guesses as to who I would write to), my favourite main character (again, I bet you could guess… or maybe not!), my parents, the kids I teach (this would’ve made me cry, a lot!) and so many other options. I’ve decided however to write a letter to books. It sounds a bit weird, but I hope my letter will explain what I mean!

Dear books,

Yep, those things you pick up, open and read the words. That’s what I’m writing a letter to. Books are magical. Have you ever picked one up and been transported somewhere new? In the space of the past few weeks, I’ve been living with Greek Gods, lived in a lighthouse during WW2, lived in magical London where Big Ben is the keeper of time and I’ve even lived a story through the eyes of an African Grey parrot. Where else can you be transported to these places but in books? Where else can you learn about empathy and living life through someone else’s eyes other that in books? 

Books are not only a unique mode of transportation, but they can be transformational. They have the power to cheer up, sadden, inspire, motivate, anger. You will read a book in your life that changes your life. That will connect you to yourself and to others. I’m very lucky that I’ve had so many books and people in my life that have made me a better person. I can’t imagine my life without the bookish love in it. My friends, some of my very best friends, have come my way because of books.

I read Matt Haig’s Reasons to Stay Alive at a pretty down part in my life and it had such a profound impact on me. That might be cliched, but it’s true – it’s one of those special books. 

Books are such a massive part of my life: as a teacher, as a human, as a blogger. I just think there’s something very special and magical about them. I believe there’s the perfect book out there for everyone. I’ve seen kids’ attitudes to reading change entirely once they read “that” book. 

As Roald Dahl put it in Matilda (yep, of course I’m quoting Matilda… sue me!)
“These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.” 

So books, thank you. For making me who I am. For giving me the people in my life that I am so eternally grateful for. For making me laugh, cry and be moved. 

S x 

If you’d like to go along to the CHCC YA Festival, you can get tickets from here. There are some amazing authors lined up this year and it promises to be a brilliant day! Even more excitingly, there’s a 10% code for you, my loyal readers! Go get your tickets and enter YAFEST10 – valid until 28th Feb for a one time use! Go forth and purchase!

Go check out the rest of the blog tour in the coming days! You’re in for a real treat. 

S x 

 

Hello, you.

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Hello 2019 Steph, it’s me… 2018 Steph.

How are you? What day is it that you’re reading this? What made you come back to this post? Remember you can come back to this post any time you need it. I know you won’t because you’re stubborn and proud and HATE admitting you need help. Don’t worry, we’re going to work on that together. There’s nothing wrong with admitting you need help, you need a break, you’re sad, you’re not ok… all of that is great because you know what? You’re not a superhuman, you’re not perfect: you’re HUMAN. So stop beating yourself up about the times you’re not perfect and just accept that they’re going to happen. (I wasn’t going to start writing to you in this way, but what will be will be!) Reader: Do you have a cup of tea? Cause I could be here a while, rambling away.

So 2018 was an incredible year, was it not? You graduated, you got hired to teach this amazing bunch of kids, became a teacher, won a blogging award, chaired a few amazing panels, saw your favourite people in the world, ate some incredible breakfasts, discovered some things about yourself that you didn’t know, went through some pretty rough patches and laughed a lot. Remember that thing everyone always says about your laugh? Try to remember it. You KNOW your laugh is amazing, use it as often as you can. Your kids, your friends, your family: they’ll all help you to use it as often as you can. Life’s not all peaches and cream, we both know that, but there’s people around you who can lift you up when you’re not feeling cush.

Let’s really get into this, shall we? We’ll start with the biggest part of your identity at the minute. Miss Elliott. The teacher you. The thing you’ve strived for for SO long and now you have it. Teaching is mint. It’s hard. It’s shitty some days. There’s politics we don’t want to be involved with, but unfortunately that comes with the job. Working hard got you to where you are now, but don’t for ONE minute stop trying to be the very best you can be. It’s what you deserve, it’s what those kids who you properly adore deserve: the best Miss Elliott there is. Trust your gut, if something doesn’t feel right, then it probably ISN’T. And always remember to follow your heart. It’ll be the best for everyone. It’ll mean you enjoy what you’re doing and that’s good for everyone. Give yourself a bit more credit and stop being so hard on yourself. You’re REALLY good at your job: no one can fault your passion, determination and love for it. You’re going to have bad days, bad lessons, tired days, snappy days… that’s just human nature. Try not to wallow on them. Shake them off and just move on. Remember the WHY you started teaching and those 30 brilliant little people in front of you and you should be OK. But if you’re not… tell someone. You’re surrounded by an incredible bunch of people (in school and online) and they will help – they’ve proven that, time and time again.

So yeah, teaching takes over your life. We both know that. We both know that you don’t do well in the holidays because you feel you lack purpose, routine and structure to your life. And that’s OK. Just don’t let it become the ONLY thing you associate with the holidays. Use them to recharge, relax and DO THINGS. That part of your identity is sorted now, or at least for the time being, so we need to start looking forward to the other bits of your identity that WE BOTH KNOW have been abandoned.

The dating world is a mess. We’ve had a mixed bag so far on the old dating front. Ghosting wasn’t a pleasant experience, so just remember the way you felt before you decide it’s easier to not confront a problem than to confront a problem head on. Yes, yes, we spend our whole time worrying about things which are insignificant. If someone isn’t going to be interested in you because of the way you look then let’s be real, you’re better off without them. Dating does your head in, but try not to let it get to you. You’ll like people who don’t end up liking you back. You’ll like people who aren’t ready to like you back. You’ll be put in situations where you’re just a second choice and we both know that’s not what you want. You’ve been the secret before, you really don’t want that again. Don’t put yourself through less than what you absolutely deserve. Find someone who gives you what you need. Be a bit more selfish  (I know, I know, we’re not good at that, but maybe that’s what we need!) Someone isn’t going to show up and instantly be the perfect person for you… that’s too easy… but being out there and putting yourself out there raises the chances that maybe, just maybe, someone who could be brilliant is out there. (I know you hate the whole dating game, I know. It’s horrible and its unfair and it’s shitty, but persevere and be kind to yourself!)

Remember you have this amazing family. I know you feel like a bit of an outsider at times, but you don’t need to. They’re there to make you feel included. They’re there to love you. Go see the twigs more. Look forward to baby Redshaw being born. Talk to your brother more – he is one of the wisest owls in the world (he does your head in sometimes, but that’s his job).

Keep blogging. It’s good for your soul. Talk about the things you want to talk about. The things that make you happy, the things that make you sad. The things that you find hard to talk about, the things you wanna shout about. You don’t just have to talk about the things other people are talking about. This is your blog. They’re your rules. I know you get bogged down in “oh but that blog is so much more beautiful/well planned/well written” than mine. But that’s cause that’s THAT blog. This is your space to ramble and chat and cry whenever you like. You need to make time to do it because it’s SO BLOODY GOOD for your brain. Keep shouting about the books you love. Make room on this here blog for so much love.

My one wish for you, 2019 Steph, is that you be the very best version of you that you can be. None of this “new year, new me” shit. Just be the best you you can be, not for anyone else, but for YOU. YOU deserve it over everyone else.

Now go and read a book, or text someone you love, or write a letter,

S x

 

BLOG TOUR: Rosie Loves Jack

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Happy Wednesday!

Today I’m here as part of the blog tour for the brilliant Rosie Loves Jack by Mel Darbon.

“They can’t send you away. What will we do? We need us. I stop your angry, Jack. And you make me strong. You make me Rosie.“

Rosie loves Jack. Jack loves Rosie. So when they’re separated, Rosie will do anything to find the boy who makes the sun shine in her head. 
Even run away from home.
Even struggle across London and travel to Brighton, though the trains are cancelled and the snow is falling. Even though people might think a girl like Rosie could never survive on her own. 
See the world through new eyes in this one-in-a-million story.

This is a blog tour like no other… today, in the spirit of the book, I’m going to share with you some people that I’d quite happily write to every day and why I think it’s important that we don’t let the art of letter writing die!

Dear everyone I love,

I think letter writing is a brilliant thing, that unfortunately is getting lost. It’s getting lost in our need for immediacy. I get it. I know that letter writing isn’t a thing that is necessary in the world of emails, text messages and WhatsApps – we get the answers we need today much faster. However, as much as it might not be necessary, it is JOYOUS. Tell me there’s something more exciting than receiving a letter in the post. Tell me there’s something more lovely than knowing someone’s taken some time to write you a letter.

I love receiving a letter. It makes me so happy. I’m not talking about bills and pension statements: I’m talking about letters from friends. Even the people I know the best in the world. I love receiving letters from them. One of my best friends and I go through phases where we write letters to each other and it makes me so happy. The sending and receiving of letters. I sent all of my children a postcard in the Summer holidays and the joy it brought them, and their parents, was such a testament to the power of letters for me.

Now I know I can’t write letters to everyone I know, every day of my life. If there was one person I had to write to every day, I would choose my brother or my best friend Kelly. Both of these people have a MASSIVE impact in my everyday life. Neither of them live particularly close to me – Kiruna (Sweden) and Cardiff… both FAR AWAY.

However, I’ll write to anyone who is willing to write back. There’s something very personal and therapeutic about writing a letter. I love that Rosie Loves Jack explores letters.

So hello, yes, you reading this – write someone a letter. If you don’t think you have anyone who would like to receive a letter, then send it to me. I’ll happily respond. It’s a lovely thing to do!

You’re all brilliant,

S x

Massive thank you to the brilliant humans of Usborne for asking me on the blog tour! It was a lot of fun getting to ramble on about writing letters and my love of it!

Happiness is…

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Opening the door to my classroom. Positive feedback. Seeing how much progress my kids have made. Pictures from my kids. Reading books. Fenwicks Christmas Window. Texts that make me smile. Livin on a Prayer. The future. Reading books and knowing EXACTLY who to recommend them to. handing over the perfect book to a child and them just GLOWING with joy. Good morning texts. Listening to the radio in the classroom. Breakfast with my best friends. Chairing a panel with two authors I admire most in the world. My friends being happy for me. The pride you feel for your friends. Watching SimplyNailogical videos. Real pockets in trousers. Laughing with my mam. Seeing my twiglets. Going back to work and seeing the smiles on my kids’ faces. The run up to Christmas. Singing stupid songs. Newcastle United winning (finally). Spending time with my favourite Welsh human in the world. My reading rainbow display. Laughing and chatting with my TA. Doing the thing I love doing. Getting back to blogging. Being wrapped up warm with a cup of tea and a book. Books. Always books. My kids. Always my kids. 

If it makes you happy…

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I’ve done 4 weeks of teaching now, so I feel this is a good time to write another happy things post.

Walking into my classroom every single morning. Having my own classroom. My kids drawing me pictures. Feedback from my first observation. The culture of caring in the classroom. Laughing with my kids. Making my kids laugh. Watching a lesson just take off on a completely random tangent, but the kids learning much more from that than they would’ve done my plan. Having confidence to go with my gut, rather than a piece of planning. Setting routines. Being able to call my classroom MY classroom. Watching my kids make progress. Seeing friendships blossom. Watching their kindness and consideration for each other. Hearing their conversations. Getting lovely feedback from parents. Recommending a book and hearing it was a 9/10. Showing persistence and finally making breakthroughs. Watching my kids succeed at something they struggled with. Listening to Frank Sinatra songs and my kids thinking he’s “cool”. Believing in each and every one of them. Reading our class novel at the end of the day. Celebrating our collective worship with the rest of the school. How keen they are to do well. How well they persevere. Their sheer determination. Their enthusiasm about Journey. Their enthusiasm about poetry. Their happy faces every day. My happy face every day. That tired, exhausted teacher feeling. Knowing I’m doing the one thing I’ve always wanted to do. 

Happy things – bloggerversary edition

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Hello. It’s 2 years since I posted my first blog post. Today I’m celebrating all of the happy things that have happened over the past 2 years. All of the bookish brilliance. 

Making the best bunch of friends a girl can have. Having so much support it makes me burst with joy. Making a best friend. Having a bunch of people around me who make me laugh every day. Getting to chair events with my favourite authors. Being asked to chair events with my favourite authors. Getting to go to events with some of my favourite people. Vising London an awful lot for so many brilliant events. SundayYA. YALC. YAShot. Recommending books to people and them actually going out and reading/buying them. People reading my blog. Reading comments and tweet from people about my blog. Being known as “one of the book people”. Realising that it’s OK to post what I want, when I want. Shouting about all of the books. Having my blog be a place of positivity. Watching my friends absolutely boss this whole blogging world. Desert Island Discs. Hosting some amazing content from some of the people I love and admire the most in the world. Being stunned any time anyone recognises me. Having some of my favourite authors become my friends. Reading advanced copies of books from authors I absolutely adore. Traditions with friends. Getting stupid o’clock trains in the morning to go to events. Still reading. Still blogging. Still loving all of it. 

 

The everyone who has been here over the past 2 years,
You are all brilliant and you’re the reason I’m still here today. I’m so glad to be involved in a community that celebrates brilliance like the book blogging community. Thank you for listening to me shout about books. 
Love you all, here’s to more shouting! S x

A letter to… you!

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Hello pals,

I’m writing this here letter because something pretty BONKERS happened in my life recently and I need to get my thoughts down before they take over my world. I’ll probably cry reading this through, writing this and then talking about it, but that’s OK. As RuPaul once said, “Emotions don’t scare me”.

So just over a week ago, I won Best Newcomer at the UKYABA awards. Read that again. I won. HOW? WHAT? Seriously though, what?

I was not expecting it at all. It was just an honour to be longlisted. Then to be shortlisted. Then to win. I was speechless – technically not, I did do a speech. I can’t remember SPECIFICALLY what my speech was as my brain was like “OMGWHATHOWNOWAYOMG”. My speech went a little like this (cue tears, a lot of tears):
I’m not really sure what to say. My life is a little bit in two halves. I blog and I teach. Blogging is a creative outlet from those really crazy teaching weeks. I wouldn’t be here still blogging if it weren’t for #SundayYA. A massive thank you to everyone who voted for me, this means the world. 

Blogging is a very important half of my life. It gives me an outlet. It’s a little corner of joy in my very fun, stressful, hectic, busy life. I love teaching, but it gets a bit much sometimes. Blogging gives me an outlet for that stress. I blog because I love writing. I blog because I’m GREAT at rambling. I blog because it’s 2 hours of my week where I get to just spend a bit of time doing something for my brain.

Less than 2 years ago, I started sitting down and writing my ideas down. My thoughts. My rambles. My first post was incpired by a trip to see Matilda the Musical while on a residential in London. If you didn’t know, that’s in fact where I got the inspiration for both my blog title. Looking back at that post now and I still remember that freedom, that joy in just typing, just saying what I wanted. I still have that joy today. Never in a million years did I think anyone would read that first post. I thought it would fizzle out after a while. Yet here I still am. Blogging about things I love most – books and teaching. The two threads of my life. Back then I never thought anyone would read anything I have to say, never mind that they were good enough to read day after day and nominate me for an award. It’s still quite bonkers that anyone bothers to read what I have to say to be honest. I am eternally grateful though. 

The blogging community gets some slack sometimes (for not being inclusive enough, for being elitist, whatever…) but I genuinely am lucky enough to be surrounded by some of the most supportive people in the world. I have the best bunch of friends a girl could ask for. I’m lucky enough to call some of my all time favourite authors my actual friends – I know… this is madness, but I can. I’m lucky to have relationships with publicists who trust me and send me books in the post to read and review (this is NEVER an expectation of mine, and even now, 2 years down the line, it still baffles me!). I buy an EXCEPTIONAL amount of books every month… it’s best we don’t talk about those though. I get to talk about the books that I love, with people I respect, admire and genuinely love. The books I buy, or am sent, I get to share with the kids I teach. They’re the things that matter. I love my kids. 

My friends, in this community, are incredibly supportive. I’ve wanted to give up multiple times, yet every time one of my friends convinces me that I should just keep going. I am so incredibly glad I have. Whether it’s come from an established blogger, or a newbie (like me!), the support is much appreciated. 

Here’s to many more years of blogging… I hope you don’t get bored of me! 

S x

Letter to: 2018 me.

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Hi Steph,

It’s January 1st. I’ve a cup of a tea and I’m writing this letter to you. I know you’re going to be a bit stressed this year and you’re going to have to make some hard choices. Think back to this time last year: you hadn’t written your dissertation yet; you were on the SCITT course but you hadn’t started; you were blogging but not sure what direction you wanted to take it; you knew you had dreams you wanted to follow, but were unsure how to follow them. Now I’m here January 1st 2018 to tell you that putting your mind to things will get them done.

I’ve not bothererd with resolutions because we both know if you were going to change it, you’re stubborn enough to change it then and there. I may not have resolutions, but I do have things for you to think about, for those times you’re having a rough day. 

Keep following your dreams: it’s going to be hard. You’re going to have rubbish lessons, you’re also going to have brilliant lessons. There’s going to be times you don’t want to write that stupid 6 page lesson plan, and you don’t want to do this or that… but all of these things will ensure you achieve your dreams. You’ve come this far and you know this is what you’re meant to do. Teaching is the one thing you’re destined for. You’re born for this. So keep going. Don’t give up because it’s hard; KEEP GOING because it’s hard. It’s hard because it’s new. It’s scary because it’s new. It won’t be new or hard or scary once you’ve done it a few times. Trust me. I’ve done new and scary and hard things in 2017. They’re OK. You’re OK.

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes: you’re so scared of doing things wrong, or making a fool of yourself that you forget it’s OK to make mistakes. You’ve been told on more than one occasion that the kids aren’t afraid to make mistakes in your classroom, that they know it’s OK to ask questions and make errors and fix those errors, so be like them. Follow their example. Let the way they feel in your classroom be the way you feel in your life. 

Allow yourself time: whether that’s time to read because your head is so far in a textbook that you’ve forgotten what fiction is like; time to be sad because you’ve had a rubbish day or a rubbish lesson and you don’t know how to make it right; time to breathe because you’re frustrated and don’t know what the answer is. Whatever it is you need time for, allow yourself it. If it’s being happy then be happy. It’s so much easier to get lost in the bad things and the negative things… remember all those lovely things, all the positives. Don’t get bogged down in negative. It’s easier said than done, but try.

Keep blogging and reading: they’re your outlets. Blog because you want to. Blog because it makes you happy. Blog because you’ve found a place in the world where you can talk about whatever you want to talk about and people can choose to read or not. Read the books you want to read. Don’t read what others are reading if you don’t want to. Reading is your escape. It’s looking after your brain. Do what is good for looking after your brain. So what you read 112 books last year? If you only manage 5, that’s 5 more than 0. Blog about whatever you want. Those happy posts are good for the brain. Book reviews are excellent. Whatever it is you want to talk about, blog it. People will read or they won’t. It doesn’t really matter. 

Remember people are there to help: you’re stubborn and don’t ask for help. People will help. If it’s work things, ask the people you trust. If it’s blogging things, ask the people you trust to help. People will help. People are inherently good. They want to help. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. It’s great that you can do lots of these things, but doing EVERYTHING is only going to exhaust you. You’ve gotta let people help.

While we’re on the topic of other people, stop letting what other people (especially the ones who don’t know you or your story) say bother you: the people who love you and the people you trust may say things which hurt, but they’re probably only trying to help. 

Last thing… be kind. Always. Kindness costs nothing. Find time to be kind to yourself as well as others. You’re just as important as them. Kindness matters. 

xx

Letters to… my people

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I haven’t written a letter to, in my ‘Letters To’ series, in a while, so I thought now would be a great time. Today’s letter is to my clan, my friends, my people… you probably ARE one of those people if you’re reading this… so to you:

Hello lovely person reading this letter,

Today I am writing a letter to you, yes you. You’ve probably come to read today’s blog post because you follow me, because you’ve said something kind to me, because you’re one of my friends, because you support me: for whatever reason you’re here today, this letter is for you.

A year and a half ago, I started this little blog of mine and I never imagined that it would be the blog it is today. Blogging was something I did for me, because I’d done it for work and because I thought it would just be a great opportunity to get my thoughts into the world. Never did I imagine that I would get from blogging everything that I have. From blogging I have the best bunch of friends I have ever had in my life: you are all supportive, incredible, inspiring, hilarious and lovely. You listen to me rant on about whatever it is, you put up with my ridiculousness, you support me on the days I’m feeling a bit rubbish. My blog, and my love of blogging, wouldn’t be what it is now if it weren’t for you. Thank you for the support – however you’ve supported me, it means the world.

It’s also so weird to think that a year and a half ago I didn’t know many of you. In fact some of the most important people in my life, I didn’t know a year ago.Fast friends are the best friends. Whoever said that online friends aren’t real friends, hasn’t met MY friends. I think you are all incredible. I’m very lucky to have both teacher friends and bookish friends, who have been with me through a pretty stressful year and a half. I know it’s not going to get easier, but I also know that each of you will be here for me. That means the world. It makes me a bit choked up. All of you wonderful people amaze me. If I’ve met you, I probably miss you. If I haven’t met you, it makes me sad to have not met you and we need to change that soon ok?

I don’t want to name everyone, because I will undoubtably miss someone out and I would be here forever, but know this.. if you’ve supported me, been nice to me, challenged me, made me laugh, you’re part of my clan. For me, I need to surround myself with people who support me and cheer me on for all of the MANY MANY times that I don’t support myself and cheer myself on, and you have done that. Yes you. Whether you realise it or not.

So thank you. Each and every one of you. Whether you realise I’m talking to you or not. I probably am. You’re all wonderful. I owe you a drink, the next time (or the first time) we meet.

S x