HONESTY, LEARNING AND MARCHING

Marching In March

I will never stop talking about equality.

Hey guys, wow I am currently having the longest week of my life, we are definitely well and truly into 2017 and I feel it has been nonstop! Everyone and everything seems to be moving so fast and normally I feel like I’m trying to catch up and everyone’s doing perfect, but at the moment I feel we are slipping slightly but we’re just managing to cover it! I’m proud of us. Well done us. I feel like I haven’t slept for four years but I'm here and I’m excited for you to read this post, I’m talking about two marches I went on this month, some random shiz and I’ve only gone and got the amazing Ajiana as this month’s No1GuestBlogger. Let’s do this.

Busy Bee

So firstly I'm going to talk about a few things I've done this month that I wanna tell you about. Bea and I have been very busy helping other students at uni with their projects, most of it should be revealed next month which is exciting. I did a photoshoot for my friend Shanice who is on the advertising course at uni which was for her alcohol awareness project. I also recorded a voiceover for the charity CATS, which helps raise awareness for cancer in young people. The advert will be shown in cinemas across the country and posted on their social media pages. I then wrote a small piece and did a small photoshoot about gender for a magazine which I'll share when it's released. Then Bea helped a third year photographer for his final project and she filled in for Shangela from RPDR who was suppose to do this shoot and interview but her management changed their mind so Bea had to fill in. Which was pretty major and lol.

I also popped down back to Dorch for just over 24 hours for my mum and sister's birthdays which was so nice, love you Mum and Lou <3 I saw Macy Gray live this month and she was so amazing, her live vocals were stunning. You probably know her for her single ‘I Try’ which is so iconic but she has so many good songs and it was so fun seeing her live with Dan even if it was in a church?!? I know, me in a church, an experience, no snarky comments about me burning please😉

March For Women

On 5th March, Dan and I went to the #March4Women in London, which was one of my favourite days of the month and was hosted by CARE. We started the day with this group called Morning Gloryville, which is a dance group and is about getting people dancing before the day begins, so they had the music blasting and we had the moves going. I love dancing. Then a huge array of speakers, from Annie Lennox to Helen Pankhurst, came and gave SUCH powerful and inspiring speeches. Mel C, VV Brown, Natasha Bedingfield, Preeya Kalidas and Kate Nash sang a cover of Respect which was INSANE!! Then we took to the streets and marched for our lives, which is why we go, to spread the message, because men of quality support equality. Finally, we bumped into my mother, Kate Nash at the end of the march and her fab sister Helen (who is running the Brighton Marathon, please sponsor her here) and her parents, it was so nice to finally meet my grandparents.

Stand Up Against Racism

Then on 18th March on international anti-racism day I attended the march which started outside the BBC offices for a pre-speech session which was super awesome, I love speeches. It was hosted by Stand Up To Racism who are amazing. Then all 30,000 of us took off and marched through LDN, past Oxford Street, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, then finally finishing outside Big Ben (three days before the terror attack) for some longer speeches and music, which was really fun. I just LOVE marching, I've said it before but I just love being surrounded by people who care about equality as much as me, we will get there hunnies. We will.

March No1GuestBlogger - Ajiana

Hi, my name’s Ajiana, I am No1GuestBlogger for this month. I love coffee more than life itself. I have a HUGE crush on Ian Somerhalder, in fact we are married he just doesn’t know it yet. I am also a bookworm. I like writing as it sets me free. Unashamed Backstreet Boys fan and Beyoncé’s daughter.

No1 Food: Lasagna

Favourite Quote: “Tudo vale a pena quando a alma não é pequena.” By Fernando Pessoa

What annoys you the most: When people make a bad cappuccino

What would your 15 minutes of fame be for: Helping people in third world countries with food water and free education.

No1 Song of All Time: Halo by Beyoncé

No1 Song at the moment/this month/right now: I Feel It Coming by The Weeknd

Social Media Usernames: Twitter: heyitzajiana, Instagram: Itzajiana, Facebook: Ajiana Sanha, Snapchat: heyitsajianna

No1 moment of this month;

My number one moment of this month, and probably for the rest of my life, is spending time with Jule Michelo. Also I had the best video call with my niece who is only 1 years old, and of course drinking my four cups of coffee per day.

Something I HAVE to talk about;

Well what I want to talk about is my accent, as this has been bothering since when I first moved here. English is not my first language and I happened to grow up in Northern Ireland, therefore my accent is stuck between Northern Irish accent and Portuguese accent. Since I moved here people will try to make fun about the way I speak but then I’m like I speak three languages and you speak one so you think you’re better than me? For me, my accent isn’t weird and just because you were never exposed to my accent doesn’t give you right to make fun of it, as if I am being completely honest I like my accent and I like the way I talk. My point is never make fun of other people’s accents, because people are sensitive and they can carry those things forever. They end up not being able to use their voices because they are scared there is someone sitting there judging their accents. So please, please if you are one of those people who do it, stop it, because at the end of the day we all speak differently so stay true to yourself and stop it, also if we all had the same accent the world would be a dull place to live. So stop it and accept diversity!

Thanks for reading, back over to Harry!

No1 Unpopular Opinion of the Month

Is honesty the best policy? There was a stage in my life, about a year or two ago, when I said this saying like everyday (ask Callum Heinrich for receipts.) And not that I don’t still think it is, because I do think honesty is a very good policy. But maybe not always the best policy, and this is coming from someone who prides themselves in being very honest.

I sort of want to tie this in with freedom of speech. I feel like people say so much horrible shit and then after they’ve said it, they say ‘freedom of speech’ and it’s okay because everyone has the right to say whatever they want. I think what I’m saying is there is a difference between honest and mean. Yes sometimes mean honesty is needed. But you don’t need to share your hateful opinion for no reason just to be honest and for freedom of speech. Now this is hard for me to say but sometimes my opinion isn’t needed or necessary, and that goes for all of us. Being honest with yourself and others is so important and I wouldn’t want anyone reading this to stop being honest, because beautiful, creative and inspiring things happen when you’re honest. So in conclusion, honesty is often, but not always the best policy, kindness is a pretty good one too.

No1GuestBlogger Ajiana's verdict on my opinion;

I believe that honest is the best policy as long as you keep it real and not use it as a form of spreading hateful comments or opinions on people because some people will use it as an excuse to be mean. Therefore, I completely agree with your opinion of the month.

What did you guys have to say? Each month I do a twitter poll to see what you guys think, I hashtag with #NO1UO. (I actually forgot the # this month but I did quote tweet it with it after!) Although 73/27 is quite a big split this is smallest gap in percentage on any of my NO1UO's ever! I need to start getting more controversial again ;)

No1 Lesson of the Month

Don’t be afraid to ask and to learn. Surprisingly we don’t learn everything we need to know at school, I KNOW GROUNDBREAKING!! We gotta teach and help each other, and listen and learn from each other. But be careful in the way you ask certain questions to certain people you don’t want to be offend. If you’re the 8th person that day and I don’t really know you and I’m feeling really tired and you ask me in a kinda rude way why I’m wearing nail varnish (wearing seems a funny way to describe having nail varnish on, do you wear it??) you probably won’t get the nicest answer from me but 99% of the time I love people asking me questions because I love attention and more importantly I love people wanting to be woke-r and to learn. The other week I had a race question for one of my best friends who is black and she was more than happy to answer, I didn’t know and wanted to. Let’s learn.

THE END

Thank you so much for reading, it means the world! Can you believe we are a quarter through the year!? I have been in rehearsals all week for our Tarantino inspired Shakespeare performance on Monday, which is very exciting. I am writing this paragraph at work Thursday night after filling in for a sick colleague last minute, I had less than 5 hours sleep last night after filming, woke up at 6:30am and I will be home from work around 2:30am so would have been up for 20 hours. I’m gonna sleep. But for now I hope April is the best month of your year so far!

Stay true, stay you and be number one, Harry xo

Shoutout to Kira for editing 😘

NO1SOTP;

Macy Gray – Beauty In The World

Aretha Franklin – Respect

Listen to the songs on the NO1SOTP 2017 Playlist