Major Confidence Boost.

I think this is probably the first week in a while I've only done a minuscule amount of schoolwork!

My week has been amazing, but so busy!

I've been doing Work Experience this week at a pre-school opposite my house.

All of the children most of the children are as good as gold, and I've found it's really helped me to gain confidence, and have the opportunity to be independent and responsible.

It's strange, because something I'm not used to doing in my life is acting mature.

I'm the baby of the family, apart from a cousin that is the same age as me, and just one younger that cousin only a year younger(although he probably has a higher mental age).

Being around such young children really made me feel like I had to mature a lot. I felt so responsible for their safety in particular, and I had to push aside my clumsiness and carelessness and really take every single thing I did into consideration.

I wasn't used to this.

However, in the short number of days so far, there have fortunately been zero accidents involving me!
In fact, I've done a pretty good job of caring for the children.

I've even got over my fear of assertiveness and managed to be strict with the naughtier kids.

I feel I've taken a large step forwards with my confidence.

• I've gained the ability to talk to new people: I've made a few new friends, spoken to lots of adults and got on very well(usually, I'd ask friends I was with to go buy something for me in a shop, because i was "too scared" to talk to the adults), and spoken in front of the class many times without feeling shy or embarrassed.
• I've been more confident about myself, especially in public. Jack and I went to a barn dance on Saturday. It was so much fun, and I participated eagerly in almost every dance. A year or so ago, I would have cowered in the corner, concerned I'd mess up or do something stupid, and worried that everyone's eyes would be on me.
• I really feel that I've grown up an awful lot. Although I can still be childish and silly and an awful brat sometimes, I can now hold mature conversations with adults, vary my character depending on the situation and be responsible for others, myself and my things.

I just thought I'd share all of this to you, to let you know that if you, like me, thought you were completely helpless... Well, there is hope!

Enjoy being young while it lasts though, by all means.

With all my love,

Elly. xox <3