This Is Me
This is me. Such an overbearing question, normally an underwhelming answer. I mean, if we’re honest, no-one really loves themselves enough to want to blurt their entire life story to anyone they meet. And as we’re all being honest, who really cares? Well, dear readers, today is the day that I’m going to do something that, if someone had asked me to my face, I would have much rather chosen to melt on the spot rather than give you an honest answer. When I was initially presented with that statement, I felt as though I would have to strip myself bare and give the most honest opinion of my being as I could. Yet, as I write this, I find that to not necessarily be true. I cannot provide you with everything I find within me. But what I can do is provide you with the bits I love most.
As you can see from the picture on the left, I am your average nineteen year old. A little stupid, obsessed with the #selfie trend, and constantly on the look out for a good laugh. What you can also see is that Disney is a pretty big part of my life. The photo featured was taken in Disneyland Paris in March earlier this year, only eight months after my first visit to Disney World in Florida. I can quite simply tell you that both of those trips have been some of the happiest weeks of life, and I can list a thousands reasons as to why. But, when I’m not spending my time in “the happiest place on Earth”, you can find me probably doing one of two things.
I seem to find myself most content when I’m spending time with my family, friends, or my boyfriend (who makes a brief cameo in the picture with a wonderful angle of his left cheek). I was terrified that beginning university would change something about my relationship with a lot of people in my life, and I’m glad to say that I found that fear to be hugely inaccurate. As someone just beginning her second year, I can quite easily tell you that rather than destroying any previous relationships, it makes you work harder to keep the ones that truly mean something to you and adds a small bonus when you find a kindred spirit in the new people you meet. I’d like to think that I’ve made a good group of friends at Christ Church, and I’m thankful that I’ve been provided the opportunity to meet and work with the people that I have. For some reason, it never really crossed my mind about how diverse everyone would be, especially after spending the majority of my early life sheltered within various Church of England schools (ironic really, considering my whole family aren’t particularly religious). I’ve met people from all over the world who, of all places, chose Canterbury to come and study, and I was lucky enough to meet them and learn all about the wonderful things from their cultures and lives. But, alas, I digress.
Another key part of me, one that I hold with a strange amount of regard, is that my choice of work is bookselling. I know it seems silly to be so attached to a simple retail job but, what most people don’t seem to understand, is that what I do is so much more complicated than just scanning some things through a till and exchanging money. In my two years of working with Waterstones, I have gained more knowledge about a huge range of things than I could ever have possibly imagined. Sure, knowledge of books is key, but trying to know the chronological order of all of the key events in a country’s history just to help with finding a book is something else. But it isn’t all shelving and selling. A lot of it is research and the ability to miraculously deal with the weird and wonderful descriptions or sentences that come out of a customers mouth. For example, one of my favourite stories to this day is about a lady who quite insistently demanded for almost half an hour that she wanted the book The Quiet of the Sheep, no matter how much I also insisted that “ma’am, I do believe the book that you are looking for is actually The Silence of the Lambs”. I like to believe that I’m good at what I do, and that I worked hard to feel that way. So I’m proud to be a bookseller, and you can judge that in whatever way you feel fit.
My life is a little strange and at times can be a little overwhelming. But we both agreed at the beginning that we’d be honest with each other, dear reader, and I feel like we can both accept that the world is a little strange and overwhelming, so I don’t feel as though I’m on my own here. But this really is me, and you know what? I think I’m ok with that.
