I’ve been nominated for the Liebster Award!!!

Hello again, so, this weeks blog post is going to be a little different from what I usually write. I got two emails earlier this week letting me know that I had got two nominations for the Liebster Bloggers Award! How cool is that??! I’m so happy about this! Honestly, it’s so lovely to get things like this! Thank you to Shmaltz and Menudo and Timm for nominating me, it means a lot to me!

I went onto Google to look this up because I’d never heard of it before, basically I discovered that this award is to get bloggers discovered, it’s an award for bloggers from bloggers. Here’s how it works, I’ve been given 10 questions (But since I’ve been nominated twice I’m most likely going to answer more than 10 questions), then I have to nominate 10 bloggers and write 10 new questions for those that I have nominated. Here goes…

My Questions to Answer:

1. Why do you blog?
   In 2014, I won a Pride of Reading Award for being Young Person of the Year, I think that’s what started this, I wanted to start a blog for ages before that but never did so at the end of 2014 I made a blog and started writing. I guess its because I consider myself quite a shy person, to the people that know me really well, they probably don’t consider me to be shy, in their eyes I’m probably crazy and weird (The good kind of crazy and weird – Maybe, I don’t really know), because of this, I struggle to get my point across, and when it comes to anything to do with bullying I am really passionate about it. If there is something that frustrates me or something has happened to me (bullying wise), chances are I have either already wrote about it or I am planning to write about it. Having a blog and writing blog posts gives me a voice, a voice that I have never had before, I can say what I want and how I feel, because it is my blog, I can write what I want.

2. Who was your favourite teacher?
   I know this sounds weird, but I have more than one favourite teacher, I have 4 favourites! In primary school, there was this lovely teacher (I would say her name but I can’t spell it – It was Spanish, I think), anyways during lunch times and break times she would come and sit with me on a bench, as usually I’d be sat on my own, and she would come and speak to me, trying to get me to socialize with the other children. Another one of my favourite teachers – I used to go and sit in her classroom some lunch times and speak to her about bullying and she would give me all sorts of advice, at this time I hadn’t really told anyone so it was a big step, but I always used to say to her, “So I know this girl and this happened…. What would you do if it was you?”, secretly I reckon she knew I was talking about myself. The other two helped me a lot with bullying, they gave me the chance to speak to the people that were bullying me and get answers as to why they do what they do. This was a big step for me, I never would have imagined myself being able to ask someone why they do what they do. In general all of these teachers just gave me loads of support, that’s why their my favourites, I know it’s weird to have more than one favourite teacher but, oh well!

3. Name your favourite movie.
   Currently my favourite movies (Sorry, it’s a series) have to be Divergent and Insurgent, I love how in the movie Tris is shown as this strong, brave, kind of hero, usually it’s a male playing the hero, but my own view is that she is the hero. I also love how they have divided the people into factions, I mean I understand that people can be more than one thing but they have named the factions after positive things. There are five factions, Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), Erudite (the intelligent), Abnegation (the selfless), and Candor (the honest). I just admire how there are positive factions, whereas now if we were to divide people into groups there would probably be a few negative ones.

4. Have you ever played a musical instrument? If not, which instrument do you wish you could play?
   My dad once taught me how to play the recorder! It was so much fun. Also, when I was little, there was this keyboard on a table in the corner of our living room, my dad taught me how to play little nursery rhymes on it. Although, I can’t actually remember how to play either of these instruments – It was so long ago!

5. Who’s your personal hero?
   My personal hero is my dad. He’s so supportive and he’s always there when I need him. I’ve been a daddy’s girl since day one, he always makes my day and makes me smile. Honestly, he is the best dad in the world, my number one hero, better than any superhero out there!

6. Name your dream job.
   My dream job would be a children’s care worker, I’d love it if I could just make children feel better and make them smile daily. Just helping make their lives that tiny bit better.

7. If you could travel to any part of the world and money was no object, where would you go?
   I’d probably travel to Sydney, it looks so pretty!

8. Lets say you play the lotto. Would you rather win one of the smaller pots or take a lump sum of the jackpot?
   I would take a lump sum of the jackpot, before anyone thinks it’s because of greed I’ll tell you why… I would create an anti bullying campaign and use the money to teach children about bullying and try to help stop it. I would use the money for good instead of keeping it to myself because I wish that when I was getting bullied back in year 7 that there was a bullying campaign that I could go to just to get some advice, I mean there are a few bullying campaigns out there but they aren’t well known…

9. How good are you with social media?
   This is kind of an odd question, I’m okay with social media but I’m not great with it, and I don’t agree with what happens on social media sometimes…

10. What’s the real-world issue that’s closest to your heart?
    Bullying. I am so passionate about this, I think I could speak about it forever! Seriously though, if bullying was stopped there would be a lot more nicer people in this world. People wouldn’t have mental health problems that are related to bullying and there wouldn’t be half the problems there are. The world would be a better place if bullies and bullying didn’t exist.

11. If you could give only one wise advice to a 15 year-old, what would it be?
    Honestly, just don’t care about what others say, don’t get in with the wrong crowd and don’t do things that you wouldn’t usually do just because they seem “cool” and it’ll get you in with the “popular” people. It’s not worth it. I now quite a few people that have done things to fit in and now their not happy with who their friends are but can’t change it because they have came across as a bully to others, and no one wants to be friends with someone who bullies others. Pick your friends wisely and don’t do anything that you think your mum/dad/guardian wouldn’t approve of. Always be kind.

12. What is your most creative time of day/night for blogging?
    I don’t really have a most creative time to write a blog post, if I wake up at 3am and have a good idea, I will usually write it on my notes page on my phone, or if I see something in school and it strikes an idea I will get my phone out. Nine times out of ten, if I am on my phone typing away, it is most likely because I’ve had a good idea and I need to write it down before I forget. Sometimes, I’ll feel really rude because I will be talking to someone and the  I’ll get an idea and I just HAVE to write it down before I forget! Although I’m pretty sure some people are used to it by now…

13. Who is your best friend and what are his/her biggest qualities?
    I have more than one best friend and I’m not going to name them because I think that’s unfair and will probably cause a load of grief but they all know who they are. All my friends seem to have the same qualities now that I think about it. They are all funny, kind, lovely people that give very good advice and never seem to fail at making me smile or making my day. They are all very supportive and I love them like family.

14. What is your goal for your blog in 2016?
    My goal is to help more people and write more posts. I want to make my blog as successful as it can be, by successful I mean that it helps people.

15. What’s your favourite activity on a weekend?
    Usually, on a weekend when I don’t have a lot of coursework or homework, I love to go on a bike ride with my dad. Over the years, I’ve became really interested in photography and so I love to take pictures whenever I go out. Another thing that I love to do is go to the park with friends and just sit and chat, but really that only happens when it’s a sunny weekend.

My nominations:

1. driftinglexi
2. https://natalieslovelyblog.com/
3. https://salazarjoana.wordpress.com/
4. http://theroadtothere.live/
5. https://fonzandcancer.wordpress.com/
6. http://shandraeats.com/
7. http://dailyinspiration.me/
8. https://myexperimentswithtruths.wordpress.com/
9. https://bookedsolid1989.wordpress.com/
10. https://aimees23.wordpress.com/

I have nominated these ten bloggers because I love to read their blogs and I think they deserve this, check out their blogs, you might enjoy reading them!

My ten questions for the bloggers I’ve nominated:

1. Why did you start your blog?
2. What’s your favourite book?
3. What was your favourite lesson at school?
4. If you had all the money that you needed in life, what would you do with it?
5. If you saw someone being bullied would you stop it? If the answer is no, why?
6. If you could meet any character from your favourite book or film, who would you meet?
7. Are you inspired by any celebrities, who and why?
8. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?
9. What are you most passionate about?
10. Where do you see yourself in ten years time?

I just wanted to say a massive thank you to the two people for nominating me, it honestly does mean a lot to me. That’s it from me with this post, hope you enjoyed reading, thank you to the three people that came up and got all excited about what I was posting today, it does mean a lot to me, really it does, I don’t think anyone realises how much, but thank you so much!

Following up from last weeks blog, I just wanted to say a massive thank you for all of the support. Loads of people have came up to me and said that they loved what I wrote and that if I did leave they would be really upset and miss me, so thank you because that really does mean a lot to me. Recently I’ve wanted to leave, I’ve wanted to leave but then again I haven’t (Does that make sense??), and so it has became really difficult for me, but I’m sticking around. Why should I move anyway? I’ve done nothing wrong and it always will get better. If this is your worst moment, your worst day, just remember that if today is your worst day, the other 364 days in the year have got to be better.

That’s it from me this week, there will be a new blog post next Thursday as usual. Until then, I hope you all have a lovely week! Much love – Alison xx