Follow me on Instagram

Friday 24 November 2017

I'm still me

Hey everybody!

So, this week I've been having a really big think about myself. I'm a mummy and I love my boys so freaking much! However, the mummy role aside, I'm still me, Alice, a 29 year old with life aspirations, talents and things I enjoy. I feel I have lost this side of me a bit over the last few years as I have been so involved in family life, I haven't taken much time to pursue the things I love. I guess this happens during life at times, but I'd like to take it back a bit. For a start, I'm writing more, something I have a great passion for. I'm also a singer and I am determined to get at it again!
So, I thought I'd give you a bit of a back story today, to get to know me a bit better.

singing <3
Not much changes! 


 I've been singing since I can remember. I have memories of sitting on my swing in the garden singing Whitney Houston's version of I will always love you. She might not know it but my mum was a great inspiration for my singing as she always used to have the radio on and sing around the house; she's got a pretty good voice herself! My passion for singing increased throughout the years; I still remember mum and dad telling me to shut up when I got a bit carried away on our many long drives to holidays in France. Me and my family and friends used to put on shows for the grownups where we would piece together costumes and have a great time!





I don't know what to say, we thought this was epic at the time!


I loved singing so much, I knew I wanted to take it further, so once my GCSEs were done, against the wishes of some, I signed up to study a BTEC in Performing Arts. This meant leaving the comfort  of my secondary school and all my friends, but I was a determined young lady! My BTEC gained me so much more confidence in performing and made me a better all-round performer.

I then decided to take my singing career further and complete a music degree. Writing was also a passion of mine and I like to mix things up, so I chose a popular music and creative write course at Manchester Met; a course I still believe I would have loved! However, I'm a home bird and had fallen in love by this point in my life, so after a couple of weeks I returned home and transferred to a Music and English degree at Anglia Ruskin in Cambridge. I commuted every day to Cambridge from Chelmsford for this course and by the end of my second year at uni, me and Pete had bought a flat together. Although my original course would have perhaps been more enjoyable, especially with the creative writing, I believe I got a better degree from Anglia and I got into jazz singing which I now absolutely love!

Now, one thing I don't think college or university prepares you for is how to actually get a job in the industry once you're done with your course. I had absolutely no idea what to do when I finished my degree and I had a mortgage to pay. I ended up teaching music in pre-schools for a bit before settling working full time in a Montessori pre-school. (horrible place!) After a while, I wanted to earn more money and started working for a financial services company, which was a great place to work and I made some wonderful friends. Eventually, I started to think about what I was doing with my work life. I had never wanted to be stuck in a 'boring' office job. I wanted to be hands on, in a job that constantly changed. I loved working with kids in the pre-school and decided teaching was for me. During my maternity leave when I had Harrison I completed some work experience which further confirmed my decision to go into teaching. I applied and somehow got onto the best course in England - the Billericay SCITT.  My year long training was the hardest year of my life; with a small child, very long working days and essays to write into the early hours, it was tough, but I did it and I'm still so proud of myself for completing the course with an outstanding. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love teaching. I'm one of those people who gets really attached (I'm pretty sure I fell in love with Pete the day I met him!) so I end up treating the kids like they're my own and care a lot about them. Teaching the children and seeing them grow is so unbelievably rewarding - it's just the politics and expectations set on teachers that sometimes gets to me - we are human after all, as are children, but that's a topic for another day.

with the band 
During all of this, I kept up singing. I was part of a mucical theatre group for a while, then a band and I also went round solo performing. My passion never strayed from singing. I guess life just got in the way a bit. However, I have some time now that I'm off to get back on it and make a go of my singing. I'm currently learning a ballad from a musical and will upload a video once I'm happy with it, so watch this space.

Performing Day by Day in Godspell. I loved this show!

I hope you have enjoyed learning a little more about me and I just want to say to all parents out there, don't forget you are still you. You still have passions and I believe in order to be happy in life we need to pursue them if possible. After all, one day our beautiful children will fly the nest and what will we have if we haven't given ourselves time to shine?

Check out my website www.aliceloates.co.uk for more of my performances. You can find one my favourite performances: 'When You're Good to Mama.' - pretty relevant I feel!

I'd love to hear about your journey so far, please comment below!

Have a great weekend.

Alice

X

No comments:

Post a Comment