An Introduction To My Life
Welcome to my introduction, a blog post all about me. Well I guess we will start with my name. My name is Aoibhe, no one ever knows how to pronounce my name so don't worry. From the moment I started school to still to this day in college I get my name mispronounced by pretty much everyone, I’ve been called every version of my name possible at this stage. From aoife, aba, Eva, Aoibheann, aoba, I could go on. But I guess I’m just used to it now, I answer to any name beginning with A 😂. My name is the Irish version and is pronounced "ava". As much as it annoys me when people can’t pronounce my name I wouldn’t change it because I love it. Although I do have sleepless nights dreaming that I will have my name mispronounced at my graduation ceremony or a big event...
A big part of my life surrounds mental health. I run a mental health account on Instagram and have for 2 years now.I spend most of my days online running the account and designing content for it. I have always been very passionate about mental health. I myself have suffered with my mental health & still do now. I have had a lot of first-hand experiences with mental health issues & suicide and these made me want to help others. The aim for my page is to help others, that’s all I want to do in life, even if my page & posts helped 1 person then my job would be done. On my page I aim to spread awareness for mental health which is a topic not spoken about enough, spread positivity and to let others know that it’s okay to ask for help, this is a message I stress a lot of my page as I don’t believe that enough people know this.
I could be here all day talking about mental health so I’ll stop there.
But please head over to my Mental Health page on Instagram
In school I never really knew what I wanted to do with my life, at one stage I wanted to be a primary school teacher, then in the last few months of school a teacher changed my mind and I decided I wanted to be a secondary school teacher and then a week before the CAO portal closed I changed my mind completely and decided IT was for me.I’ve always had a big interest for designing, as I said I design all my own content for my mental health page, I also run my friends account for an event she runs called Sail Against Suicide. I was very lucky to also design a Billboard for her event last year. Right now I am working for my old school and am running their social media account, designing content for them and posting it on Facebook & Instagram to promote the school. I am fortunate enough to have been given many amazing opportunities like these to show and develop my design skills.
At the moment I want to become a graphic designer, maybe one day have my own company go out on my own and make a name for myself in the world of design.
I also love photography and bring my camera almost everywhere. From first year my favourite modules were definitely Studio Photography & Design Process and fundamentals. I also did enjoy learning about how to create websites, and of course Intro To Digital Media was one of my favourites too…brownie points from Shaun.
I am a big fan of musicals and would usually go to see 10+ musicals in one year. My favourite musical is Blood Brothers although I have a lot of favourites. I also love music, I love relaxing while listening to music. My favourite artists would be Taylor Swift & Paloma Faith and my favourite music genre would be the 80's.My hobbies don’t add up to much but I do dance. I was an Irish dancer since I was about 6 and gave it up when I was 13. I definitely regretted giving it up. This time last year I saw adult fitness Irish dancing classes being advertised and I said I would give them a go for the laugh and I haven’t looked back. Other than that I enjoy walking, photography, spending time with family & friends, listening to music, running my mental health page and designing.
I am a babysitter and have been for 5 years.I also do promotional work for a company called Homeschool.ie.
This year has been so weird and has had its ups and downs for me as I’m sure it has for everyone. But some good did come out of this year for me, I passed my driving test in August after waiting since march for a test date. I volunteer for Irish Girl Guides and have been a young leader for 4 years and in July passed my training and became a Leader. And I reached my goal of 1000 followers on my mental health page.
I spent most of my summer after Lockdown in Leitrim. My grandparents bought a house there 11 years ago and we go as much as we can. We spent 2 months there this year, it was nice to get away and have a change of scenery. Even though I live in Dublin I was definitely meant to be a country girl I love it there.
As you may have seen from my last blog I’m not a gamer at all !! But I’m excited to see what this module will bring & what I will learn. My goals for this module are to be able to make a game of some sort and be able to show my brother who is game obsessed how to do it too!!
Fair play to you if you got this far !! Thanks for reading me rambling about my life 😂
Image 1 Caption- This is an image from my mental health page. It is a post all about what to say to someone who is going through a tough time. On the left it shows phrases that you should try to avoid saying and on the right is phrases that you could try say instead. The colours are turquiose and my mental health page logo as well as my username is shown too,
Image 2 Caption- This is a QR code that you can scan and it will take you to my mental health page @lets.mind.our.minds
Hi Aoibhe!! Really enjoyed this blog post :) I'm not going to lie, I did struggle with your name at the beginning of 1st year, only because in secondary school there was a girl in my class also called Aoibhe but it was pronounced "Eva". I actually followed your page on instagram there not too long ago and I really love what you do! I love the fact you design all the content yourself! I also love musicals!! Mamma Mia would be my favourite (basic I know but ABBA are incredible). Congrats on your driving test that's class!! -Megan
ReplyDeleteHi Aoibhe, Yes I do remember meeting you on the first day too I myself was as nervous as you are. Glad to know my name is not the only one people can't pronounce! I just check out your page on Instagram your content is very good so creative, continue the great work. Amazing to see you have worked with many people making and doing good things, congrats on that -Tochi
ReplyDeleteOmg, I know the feeling of people keep pronouncing my name wrong hahahaha. I remember that I also said your name wrong T_T I'm sorry! Hahahaha
ReplyDeleteI also follow your mental health page and I think they're really nice and it helps me sometimes! I also like how you designed all of your post by yourself, it's cooool. Come to think of it, today is Mental Health Day!
-Flopssy
Hi Aoibhe, I really enjoyed reading this post. I remember in first year when we first spoke and I think I asked how to pronounce your name at least more than once hahaha. I remember following you're mental health page back in first year!!! I also was super proud of it getting to 1000 your doing amazing work and you do so much volunteer work I had no clue about wow! Also congrats on the driving test!!!!!
ReplyDelete~ John
Hi Eva, Aoife, Evie..... Aoibhe
ReplyDelete(sorry I had to) Im glad you came up in the randomiser, your blog was a nice easy read for me because I already knew everything you were talking about. You already know you were the first person I became friends with waayyyyy back in first year of secondary school and I am so glad that I did. You are the reason I'm in the course ( you even got a shoutout in my introduction blog for it) if it wasn't for you I wouldn't have found out about this course so thank you so much for butting into my conversation with Ms. Durkin that day in your maths class to tell me about it. In all seriousness though I am so glad to have had you by my side for the six years of Secondary school and now in college. I am so proud of you for everything you've achieved over the years I have known you, especially with your mental health page. I love youuuuu :)
Hey girl, I really like you introduction post it says a lot about you. I admire the work you do to promote and help people with mental health I think its very important especially now everyone feels so isolated and alone. It is also very brave of you to speak about your own experiences with mental health, it is an important conversation to have. I think you are doing an amazing job!!
ReplyDeleteHi Aoibhe, your introduction post was nice to read! I literally forget some of this stuff and it was like re-reading some of your texts aha. So proud of you and your page for helping people and getting a good, strong message out there. Hope people learn your name but it does make me laugh so maybe only some people should learn it <3
ReplyDeleteHey Aoibe, loved this blog post! In my blog post all I done was talk about how much red wine I drink so I feel like I've achieved nothing after all the stuff you have done, congrats on the driving test!! It looks like we have similar tastes I also am a massive fan of musicals and have seen shows on Broadway and the West End - hamilton or phantom of the opera being the best ones I've seen. I also kind of rate Taylor Swift - maybe a 3/10. I wish I had a place to escape for the Summer like you can down to Leitrim it must be nice! Well good luck this semester hope you enjoy it
ReplyDeleteHi Aoibhe, good to know that I actually was pronouncing your name right. Its so cool that you run a mental health awareness page because I do to believe it is not talked about enough and is very important ant to make it a norm. Its cool that through these blog post I can learn more about people than I did in first year. 😊
ReplyDeleteHi Aoibhe! It's really inspirational to see how passionate you are towards helping other mental health and state of mind. I can see how after not being sure what you wanted to do that IT was the best choice for you because of how you personally run two social media accounts dedicated to mental health and use them to also better your graphic design skills. As someone who struggles with mental health from time to time, I'm happy that you're making a difference. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteHi, Aoibhe!
ReplyDeleteHow are you?
I have the same name problem as you do ~laugh~ although I think if it was a competition of mispronunciation you would win it hahahah if someone calls me I answer by both Lívia and Olivia :´D and don't even think about they getting your name wrong at the graduation day, they WILL HAVE TO get it right hahaha
I just now got to know about your Mental Health Instagram page (and I'm already hit the follow button), it's so nice of you doing it, I´m sure you are helping a lot of people!
I love music from the 80´s, The Police, ABBA, Whitney Houston, Rick Springfield, Yazoo....They are all so heart blowing hahaha
OMG, you did Irish dance, I adoore it!!!! The very first time I went to Ireland I watch a River Dance presentation and I coundn´t stop applauding them, since then I´m facinated by it (and their technique.... amazing :´´) ).
BTW, congratulations on passing your driving test!!
I loved your post, byee~~
Lívia Alencar
Hi Aoibhe
ReplyDeleteNice to meet you I now how you feel about the name thing my last name is MacDonaght but a lot of people think end up spelling it McDonagh if I don't tell them. I'm sorry to hear about the mental health but good on you for wanting to help and spread the word about it . I relay hope to manage to make that company you have my support.
Hi Aoibhe! I really liked reading your introduction post and I feel like I know a lot about you already. I know about your mental health page as I myself follow it. I really like your aim to spread awareness for mental health and helping people also as mental health is really important to me too. I say it is nice to go see your grandparents in Leitrim to get away like a little holiday haha. I have relatives living in Sligo and I have to say it is nice getting away every now and then. It was nice to meet you Aoibhe :)
ReplyDeleteHi Aoibhe,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I thought your name was Eva for good while last year but later found out out it's Aoibhe so sorry about that.
What you stand for is very important as some people take the topic mental healthy very lightly without any concentrations, I am sure the work you do definitely does help people day in day out because most people that suffer from mental health don't really talk like to about it. This is really a good work and very kind of you.
and I am also not a gamer myself and share the feeling with but I hope this will give us an advantage to create something original as we are both not a gamers.
Finally Keep up the good work you do and best of luck with collage and everything else
-ABDI
Hi Aoibhe, I really enjoyed reading your blog I feel like I know you already. Well done on creating your mental health page on instagram its great. I also have been following the page for a while now and have to say its great to have such a positive posts throughout my instagram. Hope you are doing well and best of luck this semester!
ReplyDeleteHi Aoibhe, I hope that you are doing well, I myself would like to go along the lines of a graphic designer and like you make an name for myself as I really enjoy working on applications such as Illustrator and Photoshop. I too didn't know what to do after school and was quite worried after my Leaving so I took a chance at doing this course in a Plc and really loved it so now I am doing it in ITb and really enjoy it!
ReplyDeleteHello Aoibheann, I mean Aoibhe*** mbb xD
ReplyDeleteNice blog!
I enjoyed reading through your blog, you talked about some really interesting stuff going on in your life...Your drive to aid people through your mental health page is very inspiring. Well done on 1k!
I would go on and follow you but I have recently deleted all social medias to aid my own mental health. Your summer sounded good! Its cool to see that I am not the only person who prefers the country life.. I spent my summer working 5 days a week, earned a good few quid to save for a car, great to hear you passed with ease by the way.
Anyways I am going to stop talking now,
Keep up the good work, you are doing great!
Hey Aoibhe,
ReplyDeleteIt's great to see someone advocating mental health so much as I've been heavily affected by it in the past few years and thankfully currently I am feeling better than I ever have. Promoting it on social media is pretty amazing and you should keep doing what you're doing. I love music myself but my taste is a little bit more modern as a I listen to Kid Cudi, The Weeknd, Kanye West etc. I was also confused about what I wanted to do but when I ended up in this course I know I made a good choice. Good luck in the final hurdle for this semester :)