• Life

August, For Me

A photo taken of the Leeds Town Hall

And just like that, another month has passed!

This round-up is particularly special. I started writing this back in August 2016, I’m very glad that I stuck to writing it every month since without fail! It is my favourite post to write. 🤗

Main highlights

Personal & Work

  • 🏡 I’ve officially hit my second month of living away from home, in my own little apartment (with Matt!) in a new city and getting used to working life once again. 
  • 💻 As of today, I have completed my summer placement at a health tech firm. Write up about my summer placement experience will be up soon~
  • 🌳 When I went home this month, I made sure that I caught up with my family and spent some quality time with nature. I noticed how much more I appreciate this now that I live in the city centre.

Community

  • 👩🏻‍💻 I attended my first tech meet-up in Leeds this month, “Ladies of Code” where I learned about the importance of accessibility, spoke to some awesome techie ladies and ate a lot of pizza. 🤤🍕
  • ✨ I am officially going to continue my paying forward of knowledge with Code First: Girls in Leeds, but instead of focusing on just University students – I’ll be helping out at their general course. Excited is an understatement. 
  • 🍷 I also went on another Women in Tech meet-up where I had the chance to meet more awesome techie ladies in Leeds. The tech scene in Leeds is amazing!

Videos

  • 🎤 I had the chance to do a film project for BBC Bitesize on my non-linear journey into technology with VividEcho. I’m always so grateful for the chance to share my story and hopefully inspire younger people that they can become whoever they want to be regardless of their background. 
  • 🎬 The video project I did with the University of Sheffield last month was published in August in time for A Level Results Day 2018! In the video, I took new prospective students around the Students’ Union showing off the best places to eat, drink and hang out. 

Graduation Photos

  • My graduation photos arrived this month and I finally got to be included in the wall of Narvas graduates 😉

Blogging

  • 💜 For “Inspiring Figures” this month, I interviewed Tara – my friend from Instagram who is a full-stack developer and has built a successful Instagram community around her to support her and others work in technology. 
  • 🌟 I also talked to Natalie Franke earlier this week for September’s Inspiring Figures feature. She was incredible!

Celebrations

3 Things I’m happy about

1️⃣ Settling In

Last month, I struggled adjusting to my new environment. I sort of just jumped head-on with living in a new city, away from my family, working a new job…

Thankfully, this month has been a little bit easier.  In fact, as days go on, I’ve started feeling a bit more confident in the new city, I think attending meet-ups and meeting new people has made the city less of a stranger. There are still days where all I want to do is go home and return to my old life, but I’ve talked myself out of it.

Matt has been saying things like “That’s not the Pawlean I know.” and “What would Pawlean do?”

For some weird reason, this kicks my ass back into the present and stops me lingering in the past and future. 😆Pawlean feels like what Sasha Fierce must feel to Beyoncé. Whatever it is…it helps! I managed to spend 2+ weeks without going home which is a huge step for me. 🙌🏼

2️⃣ Working life

I’m very thankful that I’ve had the opportunity to get back into the working life grind with my summer placement before starting my new role next week in BT Consumer. I’ve learned a lot about general working life once again and have become much more self-aware on what my strengths are and equally what I can improve on!

Each of my experiences has given me strong foundations in my career, I’m always going to be very grateful. 🙏🏻

3️⃣ The Month of Giving

I’m glad that I’ve had the chance to give back to those who continue to follow along with my journey on social media and blog. Giving stickers, books and a Gymshark voucher felt so good. Giving in general is something I think we should do a lot more of (in other forms – not always giveaways!) Thank you to everyone that participated! 

August in Pictures

From left to right: Filming for BBC Bitesize, Women in Tech meet-up, Matt & I (x2), Leeds Pride, Damflask Reservoir, Selfie before the gym, sending stickers, Breakfast w/ Matt. 
From left to right: Filming for BBC Bitesize, Women in Tech meet-up, Matt & I (x2), Leeds Pride, Damflask Reservoir, Selfie before the gym, sending stickers, Breakfast w/ Matt. 

#Pawsitivity🌠

Monthly Favourites

For all my favourite items each month, check out my Amazon list! Makin’ it easier for you.

📚 Books

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money – That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! by Robert T. Kiyosaki. This book has really opened my eyes up about finances and totally changed my views on money.

My favourite part of the book is the exercise sections where you can bring the concepts talked about in the book and reflect on your own life. Can’t recommend the book enough!

I’ve already started applying what I’ve learnt. 👀

You can get the book on Amazon.

🎶 Music

This is all Matt has been hearing me sing day in, day out. I’m not even sorry. 😂

💜 Gymwear

I finally got my hands on some Lululemon – I love it! Quality is fantastic.

Quote of the Month

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more.

– Melodie Neattie

Next month

My main goal next month is to make the most out of my first month at my new job in tech by being a sponge, soaking in as much as possible! But also reminding myself not to beat myself up if I don’t know things yet.

Here’s to another awesome month to all! ⭐️

PN in Greek

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↪ Do you have any questions or comments? Drop me a line on Bluesky, or send me an email.


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