On Respect

There's a saying that goes 'respect should be earned, not given'. It's something I was always told growing up. But now I've had a chance to experience a few things on my own, I don't necessarily agree with it.

To me, that phrase means that you should respect no one unless they've done something to earn it. Admittedly I read things very literally, but so do most kids and they're the ones who get told this. I think that's wrong. You can't just go around stamping on other people's sandcastles because they haven't earned your respect yet. Most people will never get a chance to prove they deserve an individual's respect, as you're not all that likely to see them for more then five seconds!

At camp this summer respect was a massive deal. When you're stuck in a bunk with 35 people, three showers and three toilets, a fair bit of respect is needed to make your way through the summer! We counsellors had to respect each other and understand when leeway was needed. We had to instantly give respect to our kids before we'd even had a conversation with them, and the same worked in reverse. Even the smallest things make a big difference. If someone, kid or counsellor, doesn't say 'please' when they ask you for something it can literally make you want to burst into tears! (To be fair, that particular example is unlikely to occur anywhere other then camp, but that's not the point!) We had to respect each other enough to do the small things that make every day work, and that's the same way it works in life.

You have to have some basic level of respect for all the strangers you meet in this world. If we didn't we'd spend our days pushing past each other and ignoring people we'd never met, all because they haven't earned our respect. That's just ridiculous.

Over and out.

Why Hello There!

Would you look at that- I have a blog! Which I haven't used in far too long. Oops.

Life has been busy. I've just started uni. Which is really code for 'I've just started taekwondo, just joined cheese society, just joined juggling society, am trying to start a circus society and just started parkour while trying to keep up with all the circus I was doing last year, as well as attempting not to fail one of the hardest degree courses at my college'.

So I haven't got much on my plate really...

Anyway, uni is a laugh. I think I'm glad I came in the end, even if I can't do as much circus as I want to. For now, this is my life. And I'm happy with it.

Over and out.

Time Management

I've always been a pretty busy human being. At school when many of my peers had twelve free periods a week, I had one. During the holidays I would be home for no more then a day between travels to maximise the time spent out of education. Even this past year I got up at six every morning, went to work, then came home for half an hour to change and eat before heading off to circus or to see friends until late. Sleep. Repeat.

I'm the kind of person who says 'yes' to everything. But now I'm about to start uni, I'm going to have to say 'no'. And I'm not quite ok with that yet.

In an ideal world, I would turn up and do netball, hockey, juggling, cheerleading, parkour, circus classes, frisbee and pole vault while going out every night and still somehow managing to scrape a 2:1 in my exams.

Sadly, in the real world, this just isn't going to happen.

I'm going to have to choose only two or three activities and I'm going to have to be prepared to drop them if I can't keep up. Ugh.

This is where time management comes in! If I can somehow manage to set aside enough time to hand in all my projects and labs by their deadlines and work efficiently in these time slots, I might just be able to do it. ('It', I should probably mention, is ideally going to be juggling, parkour, cheerleading and circus. Ambitious, I know...) I just need to get myself sorted, and figure out just how much work a degree is going to be. I could be in for a shock.

Over and out.

Summer

I've been back in England for just over a week now after what has undoubtedly been the summer of my life. 

The above phrase (the one in italics) was the slogan of the summer camp I had the privilege of working at for eight weeks this year. I've spent a good portion of my teenage years dreaming of jetting off to the US and living in wooden bunks with co-counselors and campers while spending my days running around in the middle of nowhere convincing campers to try new things. I've been dreaming of it for so long that it i, in fact, the fourth thing on my bucket list that I started aged 13. Seriously.

The eight weeks I spent in North-East Pennsylvania contained some of the best and worst days of my life. But the thing was even on the days where nothing was working out for me, there was nowhere on the planet I'd have preferred to be. That's the weird thing about camp. Whether it was being able to spend half my day standing on a strip of metal suspended 10m in the air while teaching trapeze, or having the opportunity to try archery for the first time, or even just being able to hang out in the bunk with a bunch of campers, there was something that made camp special enough that I didn't want to leave.

But of course I had to. So halfway through August we were left in New York where we got on a coach that took us to Miami. Thirty hours later, we swapped the bus for a boat, and we were sailing off to the Bahamas. Camp counsellors are really good at finding cheap things to do, so when someone found this bargain cruise, 50 of us decided it would be a great way to round off camp. We were right.

Cruising was followed by a road trip of sorts back up to New York, dropping in on some camp friends who'd started back at college on the way. A long flight later, I landed in Peru. My two weeks there were filled with butterflies, parrots and caiman. They are likely to be described in more detail at a later date.

But that was it. That was my summer! I had three months of total detachment from England and everything that was going on over here. It was crazy. It was awesome. And I really hope it will happen again.

Over and out.

VEDA

I'm toying with the idea of doing VEDA this year. For those of you who don't know what that is, it stands for Vlog Every Day in April. What it entails should be fairly obvious from the title!

On the one hand, I feel like completing VEDA would really help me get into the swing of vlogging regularly as my initial plan of weekly vlogging has mutated into occasional sporadic uploads. This is something I would very much like to change and were I to upload a video every day for a month I'm pretty sure I'd manage to get into the swing of things after that!

On the other hand, I'm not sure I'll last the month. This is something that's putting me off slightly as I don't want to start if there's a reasonable chance I'll fail because that isn't going to encourage me to upload more!

In an ideal world, I'd attempt VEDA with someone else so we can encourage each other and help each other out. I don't know anyone in 'real life' who vlogs so I can't really ask any of them, so if any of you want to vlog with me in April or know where I can find someone who would, please let me know! I think it would give me a massive boost and would be a fun way to get to know another youtuber.

I hope you're all having great weekends!

Over and out.

Camp

I've always loved the idea of summer camp. There was something about the way such a large group of people could come together and just exist that really appealed to me. Of course the kids get to learn new things, but the important part to me always seemed to be making memories and having fun. Plain and simple.

Because of this, I've always wanted to work at a summer camp. I understood that camp was for the kids, but if I could help children have the summer I'd always imagined, then I couldn't think of a better job. The only thing that made me reconsider this was that I couldn't even contemplate spending an entire summer without circus equipment, though then I realised I could combine the two!

I'm spending my summer as a circus and general counsellor at a camp in Pennsylvania. And I can't wait. I've never been there before, but I've already realised something about it. Camp is for the kids, but it's also for the staff. The people I'll be working with are unbelievably friendly and welcoming. I've even met a girl who's just as obsessed with circus as I am! I'm going to spend the summer with people who are innately passionate about what they do and about the camp they work at. And I literally can't wait!

Over and out.

Youtube

I've been extremely busy recently. (Yeah, that whole post a week thing hasn't really worked out how I planned...) I've had friends over and I've been working and I've been doing a stupid amount of circus and wow.

In all that time, I haven't really been on youtube. At all. Which is weird for me because I love youtube. Even this week, when things have slowed down slightly, I've actively avoided clicking on the website for no obvious reason. It was with a comically large sigh that I forced myself to enter the website all of 15 minutes ago.

Wow, I've missed youtube.

I forgot how good people were. I like to see people inspiring me, goofing around and just talking about life. Yay for people!

I'm sure you'll all be pleased to hear that I've returned to youtube and a video is imminent.

Over and out.

Sometimes I Do Silly Things

I've had an incredibly productive start to the new year. Circus classes are brilliant, and my attempt at maintaining fitness levels over Christmas has somewhat succeeded, which I did not anticipate! I'm seeing friends before they disappear to far-flung corners of the planet on exciting trips. I've even started properly cooking proper food again. And my god I've missed that!

But amidst all this, I have had some moments of madness. Most notably was this afternoon. I spent an hour sitting at my computer intensely researching competitive cheerleading squads I could join near me. And then remembered I already do way too much, and that I don't particularly like anything about cheerleading apart from tumbling. Which I already do. Why this didn't occur to me in the hour I spent researching it I have no idea.

Here's to less madness next week!

Over and out.

New Year Promises

Last year my blogging was rubbish, and very infrequent. As was my vlogging for that matter. This year things are going to change.

I, Ren, promise to post at least one blog every week and at least one video every week throughout 2014.

I may need encouragement, so if I'm slacking please leave a nice shouty comment to give me the kick I need! I will do the same for you, if you ask, because what are friends and capital letters for?

I hope you all had a brilliant 2013, and here's to an even better 2014!

Over and out.