Everything Eleanor

I remember writing my first year recap post so clearly. I had recently handed in my final assessment, I was using a friend's laptop as mine had given in, and we were stuck in a hotel room because our accommodation's plumbing and electricity had basically decided they had finished for the year too. A weird way to round of my first year of uni, but absolutely nothing in comparison to the way my final year came to a close. In that hotel room, it would have never occurred to me that my final stretch at Solent University would ever be like this. It was inconceivable to me that I wouldn't be submitting my final major project in a nervous newsroom, surrounded by the amazing friends I had made, all of us itching for a celebratory gin and lemonade or ten. The reality of it is, I submitted my final major project from the comfort of my own home back in Cambridgeshire, with my friends once again scattered all over the country, and the pubs aren't open to grab even one celebrat...

*SPOILERS AHEAD* I came away from a longer-than-I-care-to-admit Sunday-evening stint of binge-watching Normal People , wondering how I could be so gripped by something so unentertaining? Because it doesn’t do a great job of traditional entertainment. It is a first love story that doesn’t entertain the so-frequently amplified exoticism of a first relationship. It is a forbidden romance that doesn’t entertain the idea that betrayal is thrilling, or you should pine for the chase. It is a coming-of-age story that doesn’t entertain the idea that you should have it all figured out by 21. So rarely does it endorse the naïve tropes YA fiction founds itself upon to trick their innocent, impressionable viewership into believing this is what is in store for them. Instead, it showcases something agonizingly true-to-life. That’s what makes it so addictive. Normal People has been inescapable, and rightly so. It is beautifully unique in the themes it presents, but also the way it prese...

Over the past 9 months or so, I've been working on my university final major project - a collection of video, audio, written articles and photography that has inspired both a lot of stress and a lot of pride. The reason I'm telling you this is because I chose to do my project all about mental health and popular music, and the impact certain songs, music videos and lyrical themes can have on a person's state of mind. As the project developed, the whole world plunged into a pandemic. Considering this, alongside all the doom and gloom that punctuates every social media post I read, and the nervous butterflies I get every time I watch the news, and  the fact that I just really, really miss my friends and boyfriend and am very much mourning the drastic loss of my final year at uni...I think doing a project about mood-altering music is quite apt. Sometimes there's nothing like pressing play on a cracking album to lift your spirits, and today I gift to you five excellent albu...