Reflections: My Early Teenage Years.

This post is a reflection on a chunk of my teenage years. More specifically the ages of 12 to 15, also referred to as my 'Emo Years'. What prompted this post was a friend of mine tagging me in a link to a Buzz Feed article titled '26 Things Only Former Emo Kids Will Understand' and the shocking number of things on that list that applied to my Emo Years. So I thought I'd go through some of the ones that applied to me and laugh at my former self. Who knows, maybe some of you will be able to relate!

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5. Wednesday was the most important day of the week because that's when Kerrang! Magazine came out.
This is very true. When I was younger every Wednesday without fail I would get Kerrang! Magazine. Then my parents made it even easier by getting my a subscription to the magazine. After that subscriptions ran out a year later I ended up never picking up a Kerrang! Magazine again. Not that I ended up with something against the magazine; I just got bored of it and towards the end of the subscription I only ever looked at the pages with all the tour dates on.

6. You used the pictures from Kerrang! Magazine to decorate your room.
Again this is incredibly true of my teenage years, and is still ever so slightly true now. Once I had read my Kerrang! Magazine I used to rip out the posters and cut the rest of it to shreds. All the images I'd taken from the magazine would then end up blue-tacked to the walls of my tiny bedroom.

I have since switched rooms with one of my sisters. The room is a lot big and my collection of old Kerrang! cut-outs is a lot smaller. So now only my chimney breast is completely covered in a Kerrang! cut-out, gig ticket and random photos collage. That being said, since I've going away to uni some of the pictures have started to fall off and I have yet to put them back up.

9. You fancied Sonny Moore way before he was Skrillex.
There is no point denying it, back in his From First To Last days I had a decent sized crush on Sonny Moore -not so much anymore. The same can't really be said for his Skrillex days though.

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11. You remember when The Daily Mail ran a campaign against emos.
I remember this very well. I'm not sure if it was just the one article or if there were a few more; but my aunt actually cut out the first Daily Mail 'article' that fuelled this anti-emo campaign of theirs and gave it to me. I might actually still have it somewhere...

12. And you cheered on as the emo community fought back.
I'm not going to lie, when I found out about Gerard Way encouraging My Chemical Romance's huge Reading Festival audience to chant "Fuck the Daily Mail"  when he found out about it, I was a very happy and very proud emo. And I'm still pretty happy that the 'emo community' fought back.

14. You perfected the MySpace pose years before the word 'selfie' was a thing.
The 'selfie' was born in 2013; my -now embarrassing- MySpace poses were born in 2007. I had the selfie down to a T before it was even called a selfie. To some of you that may sound like I'm proud of my MySpace pictures, and that is because sarcasm doesn't translate well in text. The majority, if not all, of my MySpace pictures are horrifically embarrassing.

The perfect MySpace pose formula: hold the camera at any awkward angle, look away from the camera, pull a face instead of smiling and always have your non-camera holding hand -a.k.a. the awkward hand- in shot.
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17. Your Converse were everything to you.
I think all your Converse meant everything to you as a teenager, whether you were an emo or not. All my friends and people in my class loved their Converse, and only 30% of them at the very most could ever be labelled as 'emo'.

21. Your outfit was not complete without a studded belt.
I own three studded belts that I no longer wear. The famous three rows of silver studs, pink and white studs, and multicoloured studs. I don't think I need say any more.

23. Local band nights were the only place to be seen.
I became friends with a lot of people in local bands. As a result of being friends or friendly acquaintances with a multitude of band members, and wanting to support them in their pursuit of musical success, I went to a lot of local band's gigs. I knew so many that in my sixth form years I was able to throw a fund raising gig for the Teenage Cancer Trust, and finding the bands was the easiest part.

So there is a little insight into my early teenage years, which can also be referred to as my most embarrassing years so far. I hope you enjoyed finding out a little bit more about me; and hopefully some of you can relate because if it's only me that can put my hand up and say, "Loads of these things apply to me," then I'm either being too honest, or I had the misfortune of being more emo than average for three years.
-Hannah. :)

Life Update: Stressed and a Little Upset.

[Just a quick note: This post is quite personal and I talk a little about some things that people may find a slightly distressing. There is also some swearing nearer to the end.]

Since the academic year began one of my sisters has had a lot of trouble adapting to all of the change in her life. A lot of things changed for her all in one go: she started sixth form; she got a new teacher, which just so happened to be a teacher she didn't like; the majority of her friends from her old class all left and went to college; I went to university and thus moved out. Being autistic she has trouble adjusting to one small change to her routine, let alone so many big changes. As a result of her trouble coping with all this change -as well as possibly some side-effects from the medication she's on for her arthritis- her behaviour has become a lot more challenging, especially at school. She gets anxious a lot, and when things don't go her way she pretty much goes into complete melt down mode.

Obviously as I've been away at uni, I've not seen any of this for myself, and I've only found out about it when my mum has had the chance to text or ring me. Now that I am home I am able to see and hear more about my sister's current 'state,' for lack of a better word, for myself. And I must admit she does seem a lot more highly strung than before. The smallest thing can really annoy her now. The day I arrived home she came out to greet me and everything was fine and dandy; but minutes later when we were in the living room I said something in a playful tone and she verbally lashed out at me. Growing up with her I'm used to verbal abuse when she's in a bad mood, but not as a result of something as simple as her not wanting to continue the banter.

Her school are finding it hard to manage, but thankfully they are looking for ways in which to help her, as opposed to simply saying they no longer want her at the school. Two of the deputy head teachers actually came over the other day to talk to my parents and look at my sister's room. Although I was in my room busy clearing out my wardrobe before I unpacked the clothes I brought home from uni, I was able to overhear a thing or two. The two members of staff, as well as my mum and one of my nans, are pretty much convinced that on top of being severely autistic my sister has at least two or three mental health issues. She is a very anxious person and has had panic attacks in the past, so an anxiety disorder is definitely among these "underlying mental health issues" as the two staff members put it; and they are also pretty certain that she has depression as well.

When they looked at her room they were asking my mum questions about my sister's ability to access the internet through devices such as her phone, tablet and Xbox. As she has such readily available access to the internet and spends a great deal of time on it -but to be honest what teenager doesn't in this day and age?- they feel she is surrounding herself with a false reality in order to get away from her actual reality. They also feel like she is at 'crisis point' -which personally I think is a load of shit. In order to overcome both of these things the two deputy heads from her school have said they think it would be beneficial if my mum took away everything that provides my sister with internet access.

Now what I find hilarious about this proposition is that they know full well what my sister is capable of when she is upset and feels that she is being treated unfairly. So to suggest making her go cold-turkey against her will on the internet -which means to take away her new phone, relatively new Xbox and other electronics all at once- is probably the most ridiculous thing they could have done. My mum is already under enough stress as it is, and they want her to have to endure all the practically uncontrollable verbal and physical violence without any help from the school seeing as it's now closed for summer. It makes no sense to me how they could even think about saying that now is the most appropriate time to do this. Surely the most sensible way to go about doing this over the summer break -if now even is the best time to do it- is to set time limits on when she has access to her phone and Xbox etc., and then begin to gradually reduce that time over the course of the summer break?

To be blunt, I personally think this idea is a load of shit. I'm also really anxious and stressed out about it myself. I know fairly well what to expect from my sister when this goes down. She is going to lose control. She's going to scream her lungs out; she's going to get so stressed and worked up that she makes herself feel ill; she's going to cry so hard that no tears will come out; she's going to trash her room completely; she going to wish death upon us all; she's going to repeatedly yell abuse at us; and if any of us get close to her she will probably lash out at us too. 

What doesn't help is that all my family are completely inept at handling her. My dad is clueless and just fumes with anger; my other sister will just be an emotional wreck and have to walk around the block until she's calmed down; and I don't know why any of my grandparents even bother -yes they mean well, but whatever they do usually just makes things worse. The only ones that have the slightest clue what to do are my mum and I. But I don't think that's going to cut it. Throughout August I'm working and away for two weeks, so I'm not really going to be able to help my mum out. And as great as my mum is I really don't think she's going to be able to emotionally or psychologically cope. She's so stressed out about it all at the moment that she has been sent home twice and has gone off work sick with stress until September.

So there's a little life update/rant. Sorry if it's a bit heavy, but I just really needed to get all of that off of my chest; and here, in writing, seemed like the best place.

-Hannah. :)

The Introverted Traveller: My London Mini-Break at The Rembrandt.

On Monday afternoon my boyfriend and I headed into London. More specifically, we headed to South Kensington, where for two nights we would be staying in a fairly swanky four star hotel. The trip came about as a result of my boyfriend saying that he would like to treat me to such a trip for putting up with his body building lifestyle and accepting the fact that he works pretty much everyday. As I'm the organised one he gave me the task of researching hotels, but specified that there had to be a bath and the hotel had to be at least three stars.

Originally I was looking at hotels in and around Shepherds Bush, as he had suggested we go to Westfields one of the days we were there. But once he'd come home from work and gave them a quick look he decided that we should look into some other places as well. That's round about the time that he said I could decide where we stayed -so long as it was no more than £380- as it was my trip.

The Natural History Museum is my all time favourite museum and I was determined to visit it again this summer. The museum is in South Kensington, and -slightly obviously- the Kensington Gardens aren't too far from it. I was also meaning to visit the Kensington Gardens as it is not only the home of Peter Pan, but also his statue. Deciding to roll these destinations into one with my mini-break in London, I moved my search to hotels in South Kensington; and that is how I found out about The Rembrandt.

The location of The Rembrandt was absolutely perfect for my itinerary. It had a host of restaurants, that were a five minute walk away or less, on both sides; and it was a ten minute walk away from the Natural History Museum, which was always going to be my first port of call.

Your view when you walk through the main entrance
-including Dippy, my favourite thing at the museum-
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When we reached our room after checking in I was pleasantly surprised, especially by the bathroom. The actual room was very true to the images I had seen -I was expecting it to be smaller as rooms often appear larger in well-angled photos for websites. The bathroom surpassed all my expectations though. There were two different sets of lighting, a large mirror, a heated towel rack, and a lovely, large shower/bath combo -the bath even had jets, which I thought was really cool.

We decided just to spend the rest of the day settling in and freshening up before heading out to dinner. We weren't really sure where we were going to eat, as we'd not seen any restaurants with familiar names as we made our way to the hotel. Eventually we decided just to head back to the little strip of restaurants on the way to the station. After my boyfriend perused a menu fixed by the side of a restaurants entrance for a carb-free dish, we decided to head in. The result was a lovely, but pricey dinner in a really nice Lebanese restaurant. If I wasn't so tired and drained the following day I'm sure we would have ended up having dinner there again Tuesday evening.

The LUSH Honeybee bath-bomb I treated myself to Monday evening.

Tuesday was our only full day and it was definitely the most hectic. We were rudely awoken at 5:48am by the hotel's fire alarm. So I had to throw on a dressing gown and made my way down the hotel's external stairs, round the block to the front of the hotel, and then almost immediately back into the hotel as I heard a member of staff at the door tell another guest that it was a false alarm. Needless to say I wasn't to cheerful.

Thankfully though after another hour and a half's worth of sleep I was feeling more human and began to get ready to go down for the breakfast buffet. I can't really say enough about both the buffet and the staff working within that area of the lounge -and that applies to my experience on Wednesday morning as well.

Once we'd finished breakfast, we headed back up to our room so I could attempt to do 'beachy waves' for the first time. Aside from accidentally turning the straighteners off half way through I'd say it was a success. Then we grabbed our room cards and headed out into the heat. As I said before the Natural History Museum was to be our first port of call, so that's where we headed.

There were tonnes of people inside the museum. I had never seen it so packed before. In the first exhibit I could barely move, and the whole place was baking. The sheer amount of people and the resulting heat within the museum got too much for me very quickly. By the time I was a quarter of the way through the dinosaur section -my favourite part of the museum, joint with the the room with the blue whale; which incidentally I didn't get to see, as I will explain below- I was fed up and I just wanted to get the hell out of there. The fact I was sweating, dehydrated and engulfed by tourists and school kids put me in such a bad mood. It completely ruined that visit for me, which I found really upsetting as I love that museum so much.

After I had forced my way through a non-moving crowd I stormed out of the dinosaur section, not looking at a single display or bone, and not even caring if I lost my boyfriend along the way; brought a bottle of water; drank half of it and then stormed out into the sun.

We then made our way to the Science Museum as that's the one my boyfriend wanted to go to. It was exactly like the Natural History museum in the sense that it was packed and filled to the rafters with school kids, which did absolutely nothing to help alleviate the foul mood I was in. By the time we got to the end of the first room my boyfriend had had enough too; so after being in there for about ten minutes we walked right back out again. Then we began to make our way to the Kensington Gardens so I could get a picture next to the Peter Pan statue -I know that might sound like a random thing to visit, so I might write a follow-up post explaining my love for Peter Pan.

Then we headed over into Hyde Park in order to get to Oxford Street. By this time our feet were killing us and we were boiling -jeans and chinos were not good legwear decisions that day. After grabbing a bite to eat we headed to H&M so I could get a top I saw on Instagram, followed by Primark so my boyfriend could by shorts to change into, and then finally before heading back to the hotel we had a sit down and cool drink in Starbucks. Once we got back to South Kensington we made a final stop at a little Japanese restaurant called Tombo to get some food to take back to our hotel room for dinner -I had a noodle bowl with chicken that was absolutely amazing! I would definitely eat from there again.

Then on Wednesday we got up, had breakfast, packed and then checked-out. So nothing too exciting. Although, on our way we did discover that Chipotle has opened up a few restaurants in London, which we got pretty excited about. So I will definitely be heading back into Central London for a meal in one of them this summer.

Sorry if super long posts aren't your cup of tea. I just wanted to share the main bits and pieces of my trip with you.
I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless!
-Hannah. :)

The Introverted Bookworm: Books I Plan to Read Over the Summer | Part One.

Now that I'm nearing the end of the book I'm currently reading, it's time for me to decide what book to move onto next. And as I looked upon all the books in my room I have yet to read, I decided to save that decision for another day -or at the very least postpone it for a few hours- and make a post to share with you guys the books I have yet to read, and aim to get read by the time I start uni again in October.

My last bookworm post was rather long and only covered three books. I have a lot more than three books that I plan to read this summer, so I thought I would break this post down into two. In this first part I plan to just cover the 'classic novels' that I plan to read, and in my second post I will cover the other novels I have lined up, as well as the psychology books that are currently sat on my self, calling my name.

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First up from the classics is Dracula. I've always been in to creepy, quirky, Halloweeny things. I know that isn't the best description, but hopefully you get what I mean. When I was little I used to watch a lot of cartoons, just like any other little kid would. But unlike some little kids back then, on top of the usual cartoons like Scooby-Doo, Wacky Races, Tom and Jerry and The Powerpuff Girls, I also used to watch the cartoon series adaptations of Beetlejuice and The Addams Family. I think my exposure to those shows and my enjoyment of them, had some involvement in my love for spooky, Halloween characters and stories. So of course it makes perfect sense for me to read Dracula -I read Frankenstein a few months back too.

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I've also got The Picture of Dorian Gray waiting to be read. Which I guess could also be related to my 'Halloweeny interests'. I'm basing that statement on the fact my mum saw the film when it first came out and said it freaked her out and she screamed a lot. Other than that all I really know is that Dorian Gray's portrait ages but he does not; so I'm looking forward to reading it and finding out what else happens.





And last but not least, for the classics, I also plan on reading Moby Dick. I'm not really sure why I decided to buy this book. It's always been a book I've been 50/50 about reading, but something in me decided to buy it when I had a little book haul in Waterstones. I'm looking forward to reading this, but I'm thinking of saving it for my holiday in August. That's purely because it's the thickest unread book I have and if I can make it last a week it mean I won't have to weigh my suitcase down with any more books. The only annoying thing is last night on The Chase -a British quiz/game show- they ruined the ending for me by making it one of the questions.

So those are the 'classics' I plan to read over my summer break. If any of you have read them I'd love to hear what you thought. And if there is a book you think I'd like based on these, then please do let me know.
-Hannah. :)

Thoughts and Opinions: Anti-Social?

I feel like this is quite an important post. As you know this blog is made up of me talking about aspects of my introverted life; the main aspect being the fact that I'm a very introverted person in a world that doesn't always value or understand introversion. It is this lack of understanding towards introversion that results in many introverts -myself included- being labelled as anti-social, even by people who are close to them.

I have been called anti-social by the majority of my family, some of my friends and even my boyfriend. But the thing is I'm not an anti-social person. I just don't feel the need to interact with, or even be around, people as often as they do. I enjoy socialising with my friends as much as the next person, I just don't like doing it for too long. Being around people, even people I have known for years; flitting between conversations; and just actively being 'present' is fun fine at first, but it takes up a lot of energy and after a few hours I just want to go home to spend time alone. That doesn't make me an anti-social person though, it makes me a person who needs to 're-charge' more often than others. If I were really anti-social I wouldn't have bothered coming downstairs or going out in the first place.

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The fact that I also suffer from social anxiety is another issue when it comes to being mislabelled as 'anti-social' by others, especially strangers and acquaintances. When people first meet me then tend to think that I'm 'rude', 'stuck up' and/or 'anti-social'. They make these assumptions because I'm not like them when it comes to socialising. To them I am abnormal and therefore deserve these negative labels, because they can't empathise with how much of a struggle I find social situations, especially new ones. You can ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you that I am neither rude or stuck up. Just because I can't hold a conversation doesn't make me a bad person. Just because I don't say a lot and don't ask questions doesn't make me a bad person either. Just because you can't tell I'm mentally panicking as I speak to you, or that my heart is pounding and my palms are sweating profusely as we interact, doesn't give you the right to assume that I'm a rude, stuck up or anti-social individual.

I think if extroverted people made an attempt to try and understand the perspective introverts have on life; and if sociable people made an attempt to understand how it feels to have social anxiety, both would be seen in less negative lights. I would also hope that it meant people like me would stop being labelled as anti-social and judged as rude by others.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Sorry that it turned into a little bit of a rant half way through.

-Hannah. :)

Music to My Ears: Avenged Sevenfold.

I've always loved music; but -if you discount my massive love for and obsession with Busted before they broke up- ever since I discovered Green Day during my summer half term all the way back in 2006, music has been one of -if not the most- important parts of my life. By the end of that half term I was pretty much obsessed with Green Day.

From trying to hunt some of Green Day's music videos down on the music channels, I discovered Kerrang!. Kerrang! then led me to Scuzz and together they provided me with an array of new music to listen to that I just couldn't get enough of. Like I said at the very beginning of this post, I've always loved music; but the music I found myself listening to in 2006 took my love a whole staircase, let alone step, further. It was as if everything had come together and made perfect sense. This music was me. I could really connect with everything I was listening to. This general genre of 'rock' that I was almost constantly listening to was a part of my identity. Now I know that sounds cliché, and maybe a little pathetic too, but it's the truth. As I fell in love with this music I found a huge part of myself, of my identity.

Now back in the summer holidays of 2006 I was pretty sure that Green Day's music was as good as it got and that I would be a loyal fan of theirs forever. But in that very same summer -August if you want to be precise- I discovered a band called Avenged Sevenfold, and my already completely changed world changed some more. To 12 year old me their music was perfection -just for the record the same goes for present-day me too- and they instantaneously became my new favourite band.

The men in question, minus The Rev + Arin, the band's drummers
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What's different about Avenged Sevenfold to all my previous favourite bands, and what makes them so damn special to me, is that although other bands have come along and I've listened to their albums practically on repeat for months, Avenged Sevenfold have always remained my favourite band. Those bands I listened to for months are all amazing artists and their music is incredible. Many of them are some of my favourite bands today and have been for years, but none of them are my absolute favourite band, because none of them are Avenged Sevenfold.

After almost eight years I am still a loyal Avenged Sevenfold fan, and I'm pretty sure I'll remain that way for the rest of my life. I've done a lot of growing up in the past nine years and Avenged Sevenfold have been with me every step of the way. If it wasn't for them I wouldn't have met some of the friends I've made over the years, including two that I used to be very close to. If it wasn't for Avenged Sevenfold a lot of things in my life would be different, and that thought makes me feel very uncomfortable. I'm sure that without them my life wouldn't be as good or as fulfilling as it is. Avenged Sevenfold truly do mean the world to me, and I owe them a hell of a lot.

Zacky Vengeance + Synyster Gates doing what they do best
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What I'm basically trying to say here is that Avenged Sevenfold are a massive part of my life, both in terms of the music they produce and their very existence as human beings and as a band.

If you haven't heard their music before I would definitely recommend checking them out -but then again I would, wouldn't I? They may not be every readers cup of tea, but you never know some of you might turn out to be fans.
-Hannah. :)

The Introverted Bookworm: Books of Importance.

As I mentioned in my introductory post, I'm a bookworm. That hasn't always been the case though. Up until Year 11 I'd never been much of a reader; it took me months to finish books, and that was if I even bothered to finish them. But in the summer months of Year 11, when I was meant to be revising for my GCSEs, I ordered two books off of Amazon. These two books were The Perks of being a Wallflower and Looking For Alaska. I had both of them read within a week, and after that I couldn't stop reading.

I was considering incorporating my love of reading into my blog by doing reviews on some of the books I plan to read over the summer. But I don't think I'm enough of a literary critic to pull that off. So instead I've decided to write a post about the books that I have read that mean the most to me, and attempt to explain why these books are so important to me.

Enjoy!

First I'll start with the book that means the most to me out of the three. That book just so happens to be the previously mentioned Looking for Alaska by John Green. I'm sure many of you have heard of John Green, due to the massive success of his last book, The Fault in Our Stars. The Fault in Our Stars is an incredible book, and in terms of writing, it is Green's best work to date; however in terms of what I've taken from the book Looking for Alaska wins hands down. 

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As cliché as it may sound to some, Looking for Alaska changed my outlook on life a little bit. Miles, the protagonist of the story mentions the idea of the 'Great Perhaps' at the beginning of the novel. And it is this simple little idea that life is a series of situations brought together by numerous perhapses -let's pretend that's a word- that had such a profound effect on me. I'll use an example to try and explain the 'Great Perhaps' to any of you who are unfamiliar with the book: one day you might decide to go to your favourite coffee shop for lunch and perhaps you'll be left alone to read your book; or perhaps someone will walk over and tell you how much they enjoyed the book you're currently reading and you'll form either a new friendship or a casual acquaintance; or perhaps if you sit outside you'll pet the cute dog sat patiently waiting for their owner to come out with their coffee; perhaps when the owner returns you'll strike up conversation and you'll find yourself with a date; or perhaps they'll just smile politely at you, pick up the lead and walk away.

Although I've always been fairly open to new experiences, whenever trying something new or going somewhere new, I was -and still am to a degree- slightly over cautious about the situation and everything surrounding it. However after reading Looking for Alaska I began to embrace new things more, all because of this idea of the 'Great Perhaps'. Instead of meticulously planning things to have as much order and control over the situation as possible, I began to loosen up and embrace the idea of all the things that could happen if I handed a bit of control over to chance. And I must say the 'Great Perhaps' has been very good to me, not so much to my finances in some cases, but overall it's been good to me so far.

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Secondly, there is Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus by John Gray. This will be a lot shorter than Looking for Alaska's section as there is far less to explain. This book is important to me, and will not only remain important to me in the future but may also become an invaluable tool, because it provides so much insight into the psychological differences between men and women. 

Not only does it explain these differences and how they can lead to numerous relationship problems, it also provides exercises that help overcome these problems and provides real life examples of how successful these exercises can be if both partners are willing to work on their relationship. I know this is an incredibly popular book, but I think even more people should read it. If you want a successful, committed and happy relationship later in life -or even right now- then I'm practically 100% sure this book will come in handy.

And finally, as some of you may have guessed, is Quiet by Susan Cain. I've mentioned this book a lot already so I won't go into detail about it here; but you should definitely check this book out too!

I know this has been a super long post. Sorry if you got bored half way through, maybe I should have made it into a two part post. But if you did manage to make it to the end and I didn't bore you to death, then go you! Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

Also, if you've made it this far and think I'm crazy for not including a book(s) that is really important to you, let me know what it is/they are in the comments and I'll check it/them out.
-Hannah. :)

Necessities: Haircuts.

*Just a side note before I start: This post relates more to social anxiety than it does introversion. But apparently 1 in 4 introverts suffer with social anxiety, so this post in some ways might still be 'insightful'.*

Tomorrow I plan on walking into town and getting my hair cut. Haircuts are a pretty necessary thing. That being said I've not had my hair cut since the beginning of September, due to an awful haircut I have been patiently growing out. So now that my hair is of a much more decent length I intend to go a bit shorter because 1) my hair has soooo many split ends now, and 2) it's starting to get really warm here in England and my current hair frustrates the hell out of me when I'm hot.

The thing with me though, is that I have somewhat of a love/hate relationship with going to the hairdresser. I love it because I come out with much healthier and nicer looking hair; and because I can come out with a drastic change in my appearance. I wouldn't say I did it often, but sometimes it's nice to change your hair style completely. For example, about a year and a half ago now I decided to get my long locks chopped into an A-symmetric bob, and to this day it is still one of the best decisions I ever made.

And I hate it because 1) it's expensive -I really don't understand why we get charged so much compared to men- and 2) it's just so awkward! Having to try and explain what you want done -I now take pictures to aid my explanation; having to sit for at least 45 minutes with nothing to look at except your reflection; having at least 45 minutes of awkward small talk; and having at least 45 minutes of inner panic about a range of things including: small talk topics and responses, staring at your reflection, hoping they don't cut too much off and hoping the haircut you've selected actually suits you.

I know to some people it's such a simple task, but to me it's an awkward ordeal. I think what makes it such a chore for me is the small talk. I absolutely detest small talk; it makes me feel a thousand times more awkward and anxious in social situations, especially ones I can't escape from whenever I'd like. Hopefully I'm not the only one who feels this way.

-Hannah. :)