Raw fish, wookiees and oreo doughnuts

Heeeey :)
This is a still slightly jetlagged Lucy coming to you from California! 

First of all, I love love love just about everything about California, from the weather to the doughnuts (especially the doughnuts!). It's extremely different from New York in a very relaxing kind of way. The air is a lot less humid and the streets are a lot less crowded, and both of these factors are giving us a chance to wind down. 

It is also very different from home in England - and I'm not just talking about the fact that now we finally have sunshine! For instance, the other day we went to this sushi place near us (which we would never normally do as we are not particularly adventurous) and ordered something completely random. It turned out that what we thought to be rolls happened to be actual raw fish, which wasn't what we had planned. 
To sum things up: I had only been in California for about a day and I had already tried sushi. Technically my sister ordered it, but she didn't like a lot of it, so I ended up eating some. It didn't really bother me, as I have kind of always wanted to try sushi (although I was slightly scared when it came down to actually eating the thing). It sounds weird to say this as sushi is literally raw fish, but I guess as a kid I was into a lot of Asian themed stuff (don't ask, I was a wannabe Asian). 

Within the first few days of being on holiday, I had already finished the book I had brought with me - City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, which I loved to pieces - and wanted to read the next in the series. Of course, as I do not think these things through, I had left the series at home (d'oh!). However, I quickly discovered that there is a library very close to where we are staying, so I decided to search for the next book in the series. Unfortunately, I did not find the book, but I did see a 40-ish year old man playing Runescape on one of the library computers. After staring for a little too long, the man turned to glare at me, so I carried on walking. Oops. But hey, I'm not judging - he can play whatever online game he wants on the library computers. 

But I mustn't forget the doughnuts!
Okay, so earlier on today we went to this AWESOME doughnut place that sold the most delicious (if not the most fattening) doughnuts that I loved to pieces! This is the one I picked (because I am SO healthy):

Yes; it is a OREO DOUGHNUT!!!
Feel free to be extremely jealous. I couldn't eat it all at once, as it is really filling, and I am still to finish it.
Here were the other doughnuts:

What else? We have also been to this sweetshop multiple times that is really cool but also just about gave me a heart attack. Basically, what happened was that in the sweet shop they sell these massive cardboard cut-outs of actors and pop stars. They have some cool ones, such as Matt Smith and a few of the Avengers (YAY), so I went to the corner of the store to check them out. Just as I was coming up to the 1D cut-outs, I turned to corner and SCREAMED. Right opposite Zayn Malik was this massive Star Wars wookiee, shoving a weapon in my face. 

For those of you who are not familiar with Star Wars (did you even have a childhood?!) it was exactly this, except it was quite a bit taller than me. I was just hideous. Can you now see why I screamed?

After this awkward and slightly horrific encounter, everyone in the store turned to stare at me and I kind of staggered off sheepishly. Yikes. The shop also sells Haribo Dinosaurs (which are a delicacy in my eyes) and these cute and cool little panda sweets that I enjoy buying after school in England, except here they have them in a different flavour which I simply ADORE.

On the whole, the rest of our time in California has consisted of hanging out by the pool (which is freezing, but is lovely on a boiling hot day), buying conveniently cheap make-up and hanging out at this book store where I found the new book in the Divergent collection by Veronica Roth: Four. After the end of Allegiant, which basically broke my heart, I have been looking for something to take my mind off the serious emotional damage (no spoilers - READ THE BOOKS). I may do a review of this, as I have been thinking about reviewing something such as a loved book or movie for quite a while. I am also an incredibly opinionated person! :3

Sooooo yeeeah. I will post some stuff about New York eventually, but right now I am quite busy. 

I always love writing my blog though, so I don't intend to neglect WhatTheFudge for too long. 

Best wishes wherever you are in the world,

Lucy x

Jetlag

Heeeyy :)

I am currently on holiday in New York, and I am so exhausted :(
I was originally planning on giving you daily updates on my holiday, but it seems as if that is not going to happen. Yesterday we went to Madame Tussauds (which was awesome), and on the way back I felt really dizzy and from tiredness. I took this as a kind of wake up call and will not be able to post too much any time soon. I do have some stuff about Madame Tussauds that I haven't posted, and I will post that at some other time. 

You will get updates on what's going on soon enough, but right not I am trying to settle in as I am still adjusting to the time difference. To give you some insight to how tired I am: yesterday I was awake for 22 hours straight! It's as bad as it sounds.

Speak to you soon, 
Lucy x

Our generation of teenagers

In this blog entry, instead of focusing on a specific topic, I would like to touch on what it is generally like to be a teenager at the moment (as I am very experienced in this area). Of course, there are many teenagers going out to mad parties right now while I'm sat typing up a blog entry alone in my room, so this obviously does not apply to all teenagers. 

Recently though, it has come to my attention that our generation of teenagers happen to be facing a lot of difficult situations that people our age aren't really equipped to face, especially as we have so many other things going on in our lives. 

Having said this, I am aware that being a teenager does, and always will, suck. There are just some things about going into your teenaged years that will never be particularly fun. 

Some examples of this are:

• Spots
• Exams
• Other teenagers >.< *cue dramatic music*
• The pain of having braces
• Everyone having expectations of you that are too high.
• Peer pressure
• Responsibilities 

Some of these problems will sort themselves out with age, though there are a few that will follow us into adulthood. 

Nevertheless, these things are not the reasons that have been concerning me. The thing that has really been getting to me is how many serious issues our generation are facing, namely ones to do with mental health. I believe the reason us teenagers are so ill-equipped to deal with these issues is mainly because although we are no longer children, we are definitely not knowledgeable or experienced enough to be considered adults. Sometimes we forget this, meaning that we treat ourselves as if we are stronger and more equipped to deal with some situations than we may be in reality. After all, how do you expect a 13 year old to fully understand their mental health problem? 

Ans: they are unable to do so.

I mean, when you think about it, sure: you are better off in this situation now than you would have been five or so years ago, but you are still growing up. You will learn new things throughout your entire life, but at your age, when you should be focusing on learning other things, do not not put too much pressure on yourself. If you have a real problem, whether that is self-harming, depression, bipolar disorder, plain bullying, cyber bullying, an eating disorder or otherwise, do let someone know. It isn't fair for you to concern you with these stupid things when you have so much else you can be doing. By stressing yourself out, all you will do is drive your friends away and fall behind with school work, possibly affecting your career and future. 

By getting help for whatever is getting to you, you can learn to be kind to yourself. Always make sure that you are your no.1 priority and that you are properly taking care of yourself. You can do so by taking a step back and reflecting on a situation before you get hung up with things that you can't handle, whether you are 12 or 16 years old. 

That thing that's been keeping you awake at night? Tell someone about it. This could be a parent, a best friend or a teacher. Trust me, things will get a lot easier once you have done this.

Also, I just want to remind people that if you have suffered from the any of the issues I have mentioned; you are not alone. It's okay to feel weak sometimes - everyone has both good days and bad days, and just because you may be having a bad day doesn't mean you are a failure of a human being. Frankly, I think that is just ridiculous. 

One thing that I feel affects how teenagers see themselves is social media. They see people around them on FaceBook and Instagram seemingly having a more fun time than them, making whoever sees this feel insecure about their own lives. This makes the teenager feel as if their life is insignificant in comparison to other people's. However, the thing to remember is that people only put small snapshots of their life on the internet. They may look happy in one picture, but in reality, their life could be crumbling down around them (e.g. they could be going through a really tough time at home). Of course, if they were to post a status on FaceBook telling people about this, they would begin to feel insecure and vulnerable, so they don't.
Your life is just as significant and precious as other people's. 

In addition, there are also some aspects of being a teenager that don't suck that could easily be focused on instead of everything else, such as:

• The freedom you get as you become older due to more adults trusting you (although it is a long wait)
• You begin to learn more about yourself as a person
• It's kind of funny to see yours and other people's transformation between a child and a young adult (or is that just me?) 
• You are allowed to pick specific subjects you do and don't want to take in school, making it easier to focus on the things you think will be useful to you in the future. 

To conclude, just remember not to let certain problems consume you and your teenage years will become a whole lot more bearable.

If this blog entry has helped you in any way, remember to follow me and share this blog post! If you have any suggestions for what I could write about in the future, do leave them in the comments below. 

Speak to you soon, 

Lucy x

Dealing with friends and depression

This blog entry was requested by someone who commented on my last one. I will do my best to offer my advice :)

One of the problems I have been forced to deal with recently is certain friends going through depression. It is incredibly hard to convince someone that there is more to life than what they may see (which I tend to imagine as a black and white filter). I definitely would not advise anyone who is in the same situation to take it upon themselves to help their friends. There is only so much you can do for one person, and if you try to go over the top with the amount of help you offer, you will only tire yourself out and may not offer anything particularly helpful.

Of course, you can always offer support, a shoulder to cry and your own advice etc. But take it from someone who has been stuck in this situation: letting other people's issues get to you will only leave you with problems of your own. 

You should be your own priority - focus on your life before you get tangled up in other people's. For a while, as I was attempting to deal with this problem, I was not the best version of myself. I was exhausted from sitting up at night trying to figure my way out of someone else's mess, I couldn't concentrate in school and I was incredibly irritable. I only started getting out of this stage when I began to talk to people about my friend's issue and how I felt about it. At first it felt wrong, but I'm glad I did it. Of course, telling someone does not always mean talking to the staff at school. Instead, it could be a parent or close friend. Just get it off your chest. 

Despite this, if your friend's depression takes a turn for the worse and you are seriously worried for their mental health, I would definitely advise telling someone who could help. After all, a best friend is not a substitute for a trained professional councillor. You could tell a teacher or your friend's parents if you are seriously concerned (also, some schools can offer therapy or a psychiatrist for this kind of thing). Neither you or your friend deserve to suffer in silence. 

I really hope this helps! Lovely person who commented on my blog, I wish you and your friends the best :D

If this helped, please do remember to follow me, share the blog or make sure you are emailed whenever I post a blog entry. I am planning to write stuff on my summer holidays when school ends, which should hopefully be more jolly that this entry is (although I am glad to offer my assistance). 

If you have an issue you want me to talk about in a future blog entry, please let me know in the comments and I will try my best to offer my advise :)

Best wishes again,

Lucy x

The past year of my life

Hey guys :)

The past year of my life has definitely been the most eventful I have ever experienced, as well as the most stressful.

Most of the biggest events that have occurred over the past year were due to my friends' lives and issues (such as self-harming), as I let their problems consume me in an incredibly unhealthy way. I remember putting my whole life on pause due to things that should not have concerned me as much as they did.

However, there were upsides to my experiences. I learned a great deal about life and how to deal with different issues, and realised that if I were to be faced with the same scenarios again, I would be better equipped to dealing with my emotions. This meant that what I was learning could really be seen as useful to anyone facing the same problems, and I was desperate to share my experiences with the world. And, of course, I am still learning about aspects of myself and the world around me!

My first reaction was to create my own YouTube channel to make regular videos concerning these things (also, I think the idea of becoming a YouTuber sounds AWESOME!). However, although I am definitely in my comfort zone while acting, I quickly discovered that I was absolutely rubbish at talking to the camera. It felt awkward and unnatural, so I resorted to writing down how I felt. 

Soooo that's how I came to write this! Comment on this post what different topics you would like me to write about and I will try my best to give you my good, honest (and hopefully helpful) opinion. 

Also, since this blog is dedicated to my life, I would like to write about more upbeat things as well (such as my favourites of the past month) and exciting things that are going on in my life - e.g. going on holidays and cool projects. Make sure to follow me and share my blog!

I promise to write to you soon, 
Lucy x