Hello

Hello people, the date is Friday 30th October and this is my very first post to Gap Steps.

Gap steps is a blog that I have set up in order to track what I'm doing in my gap year and the steps I am taking towards a healthier, more independent and more informed university education.

First off I want to tell you about what I've been doing these last few months. About two months before I finished college I found out that, to a degree, there is a medical reason behind my suddenly increased weight and recent mood swings over the last two and a half years. Although I won't go into what the medical problem is, I will tell you that the mood swings had led me to have breakdowns during school and that, at my heaviest, I weighed an impressive 21 stone and 1 pound (295lbs). You can see an example of that in the following picture.

This picture was taken at my college prom (I think it's fairly obvious who I am). At the time I was offered medication by my doctor to help, but, never a fan of pumping drugs into my body, the day after I finished my exams I went straight to the gym and signed up.

Fighting against this medical issue has meant that I've had to put in a massive amount of effort but, nonetheless, in just under four months I have lost 4 stone (despite having a two week holiday to Disney two and a half months in).

I still have a long way to go, and- when I can find a moment when I'm NOT drenched in sweat and when I AM wearing clothes that fit- I'll try to get a picture to show you my progress so far. On December 14th I'll be meeting up with a large group of friends whom I haven't seen since exams finished- I'm hoping to drop another stone and a half before then.

Here is to a healthier new me!

With the rest of my gap year, I'm trying to do a lot of literature type things, going to plays (five pounds a student ticket at the RSC so long as you're willing to wait around in the morning to get them) go to literature festivals (Warwick Words) join competitions (from magazine's like the aptly named "Writing Magazine") and join up for sites like fanstory.com, nanowrimo.org and scriptfrenzy.org all of which are well worth it for anyone of any age, though be aware that a fee is involved for fanstory.com (not that I wouldn't recommend it anyway).

I'm also replacing the voluntary work I did running creative writing clubs at my old school teaching the little one (11, 12 and 13 year olds) with helping students of a very different kind. Namely, helping my 17 year old cousin with after school tutoring for her English literature and language GCSE re-sit; and helping my 21 year old brother with his American Literature elective module for university- a task that requires reading everything, writing chapter summaries, time lines, writing essays, etc etc before finally having the arduous task of trying to drum it all into his head! Thankfully, I have a LOT of practice in the area of american Literature and thus have been coping pretty well so far.

One of the things I mentioned briefly earlier, and to which I am now returning is NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo, for those of you who don't know, stands for National Novel Writing Month. The point in joining up for it is to try to write a novel in a month, to "win" your novel has to be 50,000+ words long, though there's more to taking part than just winning. There is one rule in place for NaNoWriMo and that is: NO EDITING!

Yes, you heard me right. No editing. During the month of November when NaNoWriMo takes place then you are not allowed to edit, you don't have to worry about spelling or grammar and if something doesn't make total sense then it's okay; November is a chance to let your imaginations run free and to just write unhindered for 30 days.

This is my first year of NaNoWriMo and I desperately want to "win", I've even worked out that I have to write 1667 words a day in order to do so. Wish me luck. I'll update you on what I'm doing when I've decided that for myself lol.

There's a lot more that I could talk to you about, but I can't help but notice that this post is getting more that just a little long. So, I'f you'll excuse me atrocious spelling and grammar (the spirit of NaNoWriMo has taken me already), then I will leave this here and get back to you tomorrow.

Bye for now.