They say you can tell a person’s personality through their sneakers. Well, obviously we don't use the term ‘sneaker.' I’m not going to lie, I have a shoe fetish. Supra, Nike, Zara and Puma are all the type of shoes I love and will never stop wearing, (if I can get them cheap). I don't spend more than £40 on trainers, a simple principle I have always kept. Firstly because EMA will not allow it and a normal pair of trainers would have been 2 weeks of EMA which if I still had it, I would rather spend on chicken. As much as I love my trainers, I have never let that define who I am.

‘Those who deny the past are doomed to repeat it’

I walked past an advert of a book called ‘Surge’ by Sofi Okanen , when I was on the underground one day and the above quote caught my eye as I'm sure that was its intention.

What is the past?

We all have our own piece of history, some people say it determines your future, others say what you do in your present determines your future.

Our past may be filled with people who have told us we can't achieve more than they say we can. It could be from our parents, our siblings or our teachers.

I recently started my first job. I mean I’ve had jobs before, like babysitting and washing my dad’s car, but this one’s different. I’m actually on the pay roll, I’ve had to fill out forms, and I have a formal time-table. This in itself is both an achievement and completely overwhelming. However, having this job has made me aware of those first impressions we give. Not just those we give when we start a job, but also when we meet someone new or meet people who could be extremely influential in our lives.

Change...it’s an inevitable part of life, and you can’t avoid it. You can try, but eventually it will find you. It happens to the best of us; sometimes it’s planned and other times it’s sprung upon us – totally out of the blue and it can impact our worlds forever, in one, split, second.

Break the Divide: Bring on Unity

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.” – Martin Luther King

Society loves to label our generation, categorise and confine us to a certain ‘crowd’, shaping us to fit a particular exterior.
Our schools are a classic example of the division between young people. We’re all equal - all likely to face the same day-to-day struggles.

Perfect - [adj., n. pur-fikt; v. per-fekt ]– Adjective
‘Conforming absolutely to the description or definition of an ideal type, entirely without any flaws’.

School kids fighting on the bus, tags all over walls, bus stands covered in broken glass and youths in hoodies passing drugs to each other. It's all a normal sight on a trip to college here in London. The vicious cycle of gang culture has lead to 26 young people being killed in 2008 and the figure is looking to double or triple this year and next. Police have identified there to be 190 known gangs, and London is statistically more dangerous than New York. A quarter of gangs are said to have been involved in murder. Half involved in serious assault. This is severe.

Last year a partnership was formed between residents of Parkfield House and our students, led by Sagar Patel and Ian Morrow, working together on inter-generational projects. One of the projects was training older people on how to be computer and IT wise. The computer classes were very successful and helped to bring both old and young together.