The pressures on young adults today

It's that time of year where GCSE's and A-Level exams are looming. I did my A-Level exams last year and I know all too well how much pressure young adults are under.

I find now-a-days there is a huge amount of pressure on young adults to know exactly what they want to do with their lives. I have never known what path I want to take my life down or what career I want to venture into (and I still don't!). I feel like a lot of time at Sixth Form was based around finding the correct University degree for you and acing exams - which is not ideal for a student who does no intend on further education. I always enjoyed going to school, seeing my friends and learning when I was in the lower years but I found Sixth Form drained the energy out of my and I detested it. Not every student that wants to continue education after GCSEs wants to go to university - some are just want to continue learning and gain more qualifications before joining the world of work or taking a gap year. 

I remember the way I felt during my time at Sixth Form. The thought of the future was very daunting and made me anxious. The pressure put on me by teachers and by myself stressed me out and was truly overwhelming.

During my time at Sixth Form there were days that I would panic because I felt I was the only one who didn't know where my life was taking me. I would always turn to my parents at times like this and they would reassure me that everything would be okay. I know it seems easier said than done but there is always another option. In the last weeks of school I still didn't have a full-time job lined up for me and I was beginning to panic. That is when I heard about the Cabin Crew job I now work and I applied because I had nothing to lose. Sometimes in life things work out - some call it fate, others luck - but either way I couldn't be happier.


So some final words of advice from me

• Talk to someone if you are feeling down - my parents are great, but if yours aren't as understanding try talking to other relatives or friends that may be going through the same thing.
• Remind yourself that you don't have to do what everyone else is doing - just because your friends want to go to university and people 'expect' you to go, you don't have to. If you don't feel ready to move to the UK and go to university don't. It is your life.
• You do not have to know what you want to do with your life just yet - you are still young. If you are in Sixth Form you are only 17/18 years old - you have your whole life ahead of you! I know it can be scary not having a plan but sometimes you need to roll with the punches and enjoy life.
• Take life one step at a time. I have always been a person that thinks about my future and I like to plan everything in advance but sometimes you realise you need to live life in the moment and stop worrying about the future.
• Try your absolute hardest! Take time to revise, you are not missing out on anything - It is only a couple of months of your life you need to work your butt off then you can say you did your best. If you try your best in all of your exams then your relatives, teachers and friends should be very proud of you. Make yourself proud.
• If you try your best and you don't succeed, try and try again - If you don't get the results you are hoping for, just remember, there are always other options. There will always be another way to get to where you want to go whether that is retaking exams or gaining work experience and working your way up.

So live life for now. Don't panic about the future. Do what makes you happy and stop trying to please everyone else.

Best of luck to all of those taking exams and just think, this time in a few months it will be all over with!

Volleyball Inter-Insulars 2015

After months of hard work and training the Volleyball Inter-Insulars were finally upon us. Last Saturday (18th April 2015) the Guernsey island volleyball teams travelled to Jersey to compete.

The Ladies B team played first, unfortunately losing 3 sets to 0 against the strong Jersey side. The Ladies A team arrived after the first set was played (after having to travel over on a later flight) so unfortunately we missed some of the match but what I did see the Guernsey ladies were fighting hard and making their island proud. There was great team work and excellent back court hitting from Carly Tucknott and Laura Eggo (even if she managed to jump above the height of the net!). Once the match finished, Laura was approached by the umpire to congratulate her on her efforts and how well she played.

Ladies B Match ended 3-0 to Jersey

1st set - 25-18 to Jersey

2nd set - 25-10 to Jersey

3rd set - 26-24 to Jersey

Laura Eggo (11) goes in for an outside hit

Our youngest female island player Becky Gauvain (5) showed her excellent setting skills throughout the match

The unstoppable block - Sophie Alder (8) goes up to block a Jersey outside hit

Next to play were the Mens B team and they too lost 3-0 to Jersey. The final result does not represent how close the match was, with the final set ending 24-26 to Jersey. I definitely feel the younger players in the team deserve some recognition. Sam Eggo, Luke Archard and Tom Guille played really well despite the opposing team having much more experience. (Also a quick shout out to Andrew Maiden who played for the Volleyball Mens B team, then flew back to Guernsey to compete in the first ever mens netball inter-insular match and WON!)

Mens B Match ended 3-0 to Jersey

1st set - 25-15 to Jersey

2nd set - 25-13 to Jersey

3rd set - 26-24 to Jersey

Great defence by Andrew Maiden (4) and Luke Archard (3)

Tom Guille beating the Jersey blockers with his outside hit

The Mens A team played after the Ladies A (I will get to our match a little later) and they fought until the end. Unfortunately Jersey won again but this time the final score was 3-1. The match was everything you would expect from top island players - it was fast paced with big blocks and even bigger hits! Nick Gaudion's setting was brilliant and both Ross Martel-Welsh and Dan Skipper dominated at the net. The Guernsey guys really gelled well as a team, despite only finding out the final squads 4 days earlier.

Men A Match ended 3-1 to Jersey

1st set - 25-27 to Guernsey
2nd set - 25-22 to Jersey
3rd set - 25-15 to Jersey
4th set - 25-29 to Jersey

Callum Hockey (5) somehow making jumping THAT HIGH look easy

Dan Skipper (8) going up for an outside spike. The main question though, what is Nick (2) doing?

Big block from our Guernsey guys Ryan Martel (6) and Callum Hockey (5) against the "fit meerkat" (Helen's words, not mine).

I think it's fair to say the Ladies A match was the most nail-biting of the day. Our match was the only one to go to the 5th and final set and Jersey just won by 2 clear points. During the course of the match we saw some great three touch volleyball - accurate digs coming in to the setter (particularly by our libero Hannah Riley). Our setters, Karen Jehan, Gemma Nicolle and Helen Crawley were then able to set the ideal ball to us hitters to spike. Jennifer Lindfield, in particular had some stellar spikes that, I'm sure, impressed even the Jersey team. I was fortunate enough to be awarded the player of the Ladies A match title for which I am extremely grateful and flattered. I would like to thank all my team mates for such an amazing game and season so far.

Ladies A Match ended 3-2 to Jersey

1st set - 25-16 to Jersey

2nd set - 24-26 to Guernsey

3rd set - 25-23 to Jersey

4th set - 17-25 to Guernsey

5th set - 15-13 to Jersey

The Guernsey Ladies A Volleyball Team
Karen Jehan (7),  Jennifer Lindfield (5), Carla Marly (4), Emily Gaudion (12)
Sarah Biggins (8), Tyler Thorne (9), Hannah Riley (11), Gemma Nicolle (10), Helen Crawley (2)

Jennifer Lindfield (5) doing what she does best!

Ladies A - Me (9) to serve

The medal I received for being awarded player of the match

It was a long day but well worth it. I feel so proud to represent Guernsey and play with such lovely people. Of course we made some mistakes and simple errors but we now know what we need to work on and practice in order to improve further.

It was a long day... zzz
Head cheerleader, Karen, having a well deserved nap on the ferry back home (Sorry Bucky! It had to be done!!)

I would like to take this opportunity to thank a few people who have helped me and the rest of the ladies along the way. First and foremost our coach, Rodney Elmy, for all the hard work and effort he has put in to training us and improving our skills. Also to Neil Elmy who has helped out a many of our training sessions. Lisa Dowinton helped organise the whole Jersey trip as well as play some great volleyball, so thank you Lisa for all your had work.

Finally I just want to congratulate all of the men and women who played in the inters this year and say well done to them all. I am so proud of all the women I play with and I absolutely love my volleyball family! We have trained so hard this season and it showed in our performance! We have improved so much since last year and that shows in our final result. We should all be so proud of ourselves! Now to concentrate on the Natwest Island Games that are being held in Jersey in the summer time.

GREEN ARRRRMY!

PS: Thank you to Karen Jehan for letting me use the images she captured (along with Karen Buck-Archenoul & Ross Martel-Welsh) - they are great.

Below is some footage I managed to capture of the matches with the help of some other players. Enjoy

Bye for now x

Happy Easter

For me, Easter is a time to spend with family & friends, to enjoy the sunshine and indulge in WAY too much chocolate (then feel really guilty about it later). We were lucky enough to have absolutely beautiful weather in Guernsey this Easter weekend.

I just wanted to write a quick blog post to say I hope you all had a lovely Easter time and enjoyed the long weekend!

Below are a few images I took this weekend - A time line of my Easter weekend 2015.

Bye for now x

Mini Egg goodness

Easter treats - Courtesy of Gran

Easter Egg hunt for the young ones in the family - Erin searching - Easter Sunday

Beautiful weather with an even better view - Bank Holiday Monday

Ladies that lunch

Post-lunch ice cream with the BEAUTFUL Isla

Chocolate goodness

Island tour in Isla's new wagon

Germanwings Flight 9525: Thoughts from a Flight Attendant

So I have been hesitant whether to publish this blog post or not. I am aware that the topic is controversial and potentially sensitive for some and the last thing I want to do is offend anyone. Despite this I have been thinking about the Germanwings plane crash since the 24th of March and I felt the need to share my opinions, as a flight attendant, with you all. Declaimer – Although we will never know exactly what occurred that day, the following post is based on information I have gathered from numerous news articles. All the opinions are my own.

The last few years have been deeply saddening for the world of aviation. Since I first applied to become an airhostess there have been a number of high-profile plane crashes and incidents that shook the world. It began on the 8^th of March 2014 with the Malaysia Airline Flight 370 that disappeared over the waters off Southeast Asia. To this day the whereabouts of the aircraft and the 239 people on board is unknown and with this there is huge speculation and a number of theories about what occurred that day. Following this incident another Malaysia Airline Flight, MH17, was shot down over Ukraine in July and an AirAsia flight crashed into the Java Sea after trying to avoid weather. These incidents were just few that have occurred since this time last year.

More recently, Germanwings Flight 9525 has made headline news after Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz intentionally crashed the aircraft into the French Alps. I wont go into great detail about what supposedly happened on the aircraft as it is all over the news and investigations are still being carried out. Instead I want to share my thoughts about the tragic event.

I first heard about the crash when I received a text message from my boyfriend after I had finished working an early shift. As a flight attendant hearing the news that a commercial aircraft has had a fatal crash makes my heart sink. The following day at work, after a pre-flight briefing, the crew and I were discussing what might have happened on Flight 9525. Decompression was mentioned which would have meant, due to a lack of oxygen, the pilots could have become unconscious causing the crash. This would have explained the loss of communication between French radar and the aircraft. The idea of pilot suicide did cross my mind but the thought of a pilot making the conscious decision to murder all passengers and crew on board is much more heart breaking than a technical fault or accident that could not have been predicted, in my opinion. As a member of cabin crew, I have full faith in all of the pilots I work with and trust them completely with my life. It is saddening to know that the crew members aboard the flight that day must have felt the same way – including the Captain who left the flight deck, trusting Lubitz to be in charge.

As the days go on, more information about the incident is being revealed in the news. Reports have emerged suggesting Lubitz may have been suffering from mental health problems and officials say Lubitz had been hiding an illness from his employer. Authorities said investigators found antidepressants and torn-up medical leave notes, including for the day of the crash, in the co-pilots apartment. Germanwings said it never received a sick-note from Lubitz. This makes me hope for change. In light of this incident I would like to see medical professionals personally contacting airlines if a member of crew comes to them and are deemed unfit to fly (especially if the reason is due to mental illness or depression). If the company had been contacted by the medical practice, the awful events that lead to the death of 150 people may have been prevented. I am in no means blaming the doctors Lubitz saw prior to the event. They were only following procedure and they could not have predicted what was going to happen.

When I first heard that the Captain was locked out of the flight deck by the co-pilot, I was shocked to discover that Germanwings did not require at least two people to be in the cockpit at all times. Since the incident other companies including EasyJet and RyanAir have changed their procedures, as they too did not have this rule in place. The sad truth is that we learn from our mistakes. Unfortunately, security and safety procedures change in aviation when an accident has occurred and authorities do the best they can to prevent this happening again in the future. Take 9/11 for example – since that day back in 2001 aviation changed forever. It was that incident that saw reinforced flight deck doors on every aircraft, US Federal Air Marshals onboard some flights and secondary barriers for flight deck doors on long haul flights – These are just 3 changes but there were many more, all of which make flying much safer.

I could write about aircraft accidents and incidents for hours but I would like to finish this blog post on a more positive note. Although I have mostly mentioned Andreas Lubitz, I would like to share my thoughts on the Captain and Cabin Crew that day. Reports say the Captain, Patrick Sondenheimer, was heard trying to break his way back into the flight deck to save everyone on board. He was a married man, father of 2 young children and it has been said he moved to the airline Germanwings in order to be closer to his family. According to CNN recordings from the black box are heard of Sondenheimer pleading with the co-pilot “open the damn door!” The recording also includes the sounds of loud metallic bangs that sound like someone is trying to knock down the cockpit door. As details emerge, Patrick Sondemheimer has been praised all over social media for his bravery and people have hailed him as a hero. As a flight attendant I could only imagine what the crew must have been going through in those last few moments – perhaps calming passengers and helping Sondemheimer’s attempt to open the flight deck door. I have the upmost respect for everyone who tried to save that aircraft. 

My heart and condolences go out to the family and friends of the victims on Flight 9525. May the 150 people on board rest in peace.