That Obligatory Awkward First Post.

First posts on a new blog are probably one of of my least favourite things in the world – finding out Robin Williams has died is definitely number one on my least favourite list right now. First posts are awkward and unwanted, I just wish I could pre-load a blog with random posts, but that’s pretty difficult since I haven’t written them yet.

I just hate the notion of having to describe what I am, who I am and what I like in order to build an audience of readers, because I always end up missing something vital out. For example, I’m on my second paragraph and I haven’t even written my name yet. It’s Rachel by the way.

I decided to start a daily, weekly, whenever I feel like it-ly blog for several reasons. I’ve wanted to start one now for a long time, but I could never find the reason, or the words, to do so. But as my summer goes on, my life is getting a little bit more interesting (I say a little bit – no skydiving out of burning buildings for charity, or organising events that will be attended by thousands here folks).

But I guess I’ll get right into it and I hope you enjoy reading (because there’ll probably be a lot of words).

I’ve been volunteering at a place called BRiCWorks since I came home for summer. It’s a community hub for people recovering from drugs and alcohol and has been such a good place to spend my summer, and is undeniably a great cause to give my time to. The experience I’ve gained has been invaluable, and it would be difficult to pick up such a variety of experience and skills elsewhere.

For the first couple of months I was mainly working on their newsletters, behind the reception desk, or drinking lots of tea and hearing peoples recovery stories – the latter probably being my favourite while I’ve been there. I’ve met some really inspiring people, who have shown me that no matter how hard it gets, it’s always possible to pull through, and come out at the other side victorious.

Anyway, BRiCWorks have their own community radio station, Hull Recovery Radio, and after months of umm’ing and ahh’ing about it, I finally bit the bullet and asked if I could do a show. I really wanted to be involved with the radio side of Spark at university but didn’t have the confidence, so I knew if I built confidence through HRR, by the time term started I’d be ready to go back to Spark and get more involved, so this really was something I HAD to do.

They said they could fit me in on the Thursday, bearing in mind this was Monday, and I was expecting at least a week to mentally prepare myself for this. To say I was extremely nervous would be an understatement.

But I did a whole lot of preparing, and loaded about 20 songs I wanted to play on my trusty University of Sunderland USB stick and turned up on Thursday ready to do my show. As 1pm rolled around (I was due to go on at 1:30pm), I was told that it was time. It was 30 minutes earlier than it should have been so I went into full-on panic mode right then and there.
“What do you mean?! It’s only 1, I’m not due to go on until 1:30.”
I got a lot of words of encouragement and a hug from my Mum. As if I wasn’t nervous enough, my Mum was also there so that added to the nervousness tenfold. She even stood by with her phone to take a photo!

I sat in the chair and loaded the computer with my songs, which now, in hindsight, were a bad pick. I tried to pick songs that would be kind to everyones ears and not play a load of Bring Me The Horizon, Four Year Strong and A Day To Remember, but I just felt awkward when I introduced The Kinks and Oasis. Don’t get me wrong, I like The Kinks and Oasis, I’m just not really into them.

I genuinely felt like a poor mans version of Annie Mac, sat there in the presenters chair, with a myriad of computers and speakers around me, and a microphone in my face. It felt great to be honest. Here’s the aforementioned photo:

After doing a considerable amount of awkward things such as stopping songs too early, or too late, not fading songs out properly, and admitting to having the Sound Of Music soundtrack LP live on air, I finally got into it, stopped feeling so gawky and relaxed a little.

It helped that I was joined with one of the other DJ’s, Rick, (we’d had a lengthy conversation about games beforehand, so I liked him already). He had had only done a couple of shows for HRR but seemed so relaxed on air. I would have probably been a nervous wreck if it wasn’t for him to be honest! In between songs we chatted about music, got a couple of other people in to talk about things and just had a laugh. I’m pretty sure my show was meant to start at half 1 and finish at half 2, but we ended up occupying the radio studio until half 4.

I honestly never could have imagined how much I’d enjoy presenting a radio show, and I didn’t even get conscious about my horrible voice either! And doing this was a huge boost for my confidence, not to mention that I’m yearning to do it again already! So that’s one for the portfolio!

Speaking of portfolios, another reason I wanted to start this blog was so that I could blog about my holiday, which you’ll no doubt he hearing a lot about over the coming weeks if you read my blog. Finally, after four long years of waiting, and a couple of months of packing and re-packing my suitcase, I’m going back to the motherland. Florida. (Not really the motherland may I add, but it feels like I’m going home!)

I blogged my whole holiday in 2010 which you can read here: http://rachelamystriptoflorida.tumblr.com if you wish to. It’s full of awkwardness and crude language, but it’s a good read and has pretty photos. The URL is also meant to read like “Rachel Amy’s Trip To Florida”, not “Rachel Amy Strip To Florida”, sounding like I’m doing some kind of stripping road trip, I apologise.
Not even a trip to the moon could beat 2010’s trip (well maybe). It was amazing and one of the best holidays I’ve ever been on.

So yes, it’s just 24 days, 5 hours, and 13 minutes until I (with my Mum, Dad, sister – Emma, and Nanna), set off for Manchester Airport for two weeks in the Sunshine State. And honestly, I’m having trouble sleeping due to excitement already. Florida is 10x better than Christmas in my opinion and it will be so good to be back there!

If you’ve read this far, you deserve a gold star because this post is LONG. I don’t think my posts in future will be this long but you never know. Anyway, thank you for reading and be sure to keep an eye out for future posts – I’m going to Wales on Thursday so that’ll be an interesting read…

See y’all real soon!

(I’d just like to add a RIP to Robin Williams, will be sorely missed in the comedy/film world. Such sad news.)