21 DAYS TUT TUT TUT – By @lucyannp_
By Lucy Pennock
21 DAYS TUT TUT TUT
It’s 21 days until SCA begins and it’s also the 21st August!
I’m scared, excited, nervous and well, just a bit impatient.
PLS CAN WE JUST START ALREADY?!
I finished ‘Your Memory’ – it was tough, but overall a good old read. Everyone is complaining about it but I’m into psychology and neurology and all that stuff. I love learning how our brains work. It’s just fascinating.
So what I learnt was basically this – give some sort of meaning to what you’re learning. That’s if you want to remember it of course. Draw pictures, make up rhymes, tell little stories to yourself. As creatives and strategists (or whatever we call ourselves nowadays) we need our memories to be at the top of our games in order to be bloody brilliant at our jobs.
The more weird and random information we fill our brains with the better! Now I have no guilt about spending hours reading about mole rats or watching The Office (US) back to back. You never know when it’s gonna come in handy!
But what I learnt from the book which is probably the most useful is that it’s extremely hard to be memorable. Especially in 2018. There’s so much distraction and interference going on in our brains that we forget where we left our keys let alone what that huge billboard was promoting.
As creatives our ideas should always be memorable – subconsciously or consciously. The next brief should always be an opportunity to make the client famous. And knowing how memory works and what sticks in consumer’s heads is fundamental in doing our jobs well.
So Marc! I actually enjoyed ‘Your Memory’ even if it was tenuous at times.
To end, here is a rhyming acrostic for you.
L ucy Ann Pennock is my name.
U nusually competitive when it comes to games.
C at obsessed and a lover of words.
Y earning for recognition so I wrote this verse.
SCARS AND SOBRIETY
In other news I now have a big bad burn on my left arm. 7cm long and 1cm wide. God I’m an idiot.
I may or may have not accidentally fallen over into a bonfire on Saturday night and now I’m paying the price for dancing on a bench and singing ‘September’ by Earth Wind and Fire at the top of my lungs.
Yes, alcohol was involved. No, I wasn’t drunk. I was wasted.
I’m like a gangly baby giraffe who will fall over at any opportunity – sober or drunk. I’m just very clumsy and still haven’t grown into my size 7 feet. I trip over them all the time. But I can also drink like a horse.
My mum used to say I was like a bull in a china shop when I was little. Stupid phrase. Quite harsh really isn’t it? I took more offence that she was comparing me to a bull than the fact I was clumsy and prone to breaking things. I wanted to be a baby elephant not a big old bull.
Anyway I guess the point I’m trying to make is, instead of being negative, I’m going to try and embrace this burn I’ve stupidly branded myself with. And I’m going to learn from it. It may be ugly but it will fade. It’s not the end of the world. And like any scar it tells a story. It reminds me never again to drink alcohol.
It’s my sober scar. And as it heals so will I.
Why you may be thinking?! You’re just about to start one of the funnest courses of your life. You’re gonna meet so many fun and interesting people? Why give up alcohol now?! You cray cray.
Well…you see, Marc has encouraged us to give up a bad habit before term starts and I have quite a few of those. I’ve frankly had enough of all my bad habits. They don’t benefit me in anyway but for some reason I hold onto them. Maybe it’s a form of self-sabotage or maybe I’m just lazy and give up easily. Who knows.
Anyway I’m letting go. I want to be a better human and I know it all starts with our daily habits so this is me. I probably shouldn’t be sharing this with you but honesty and vulnerability are traits I really admire in other people so I hope you admire me sharing this with you.
All in all, we have the power to change who we are and be the best X, Y or Z we possibly can. I really want to grow and learn this year as a creative but also as a human. So I’m stripping back and starting again.
That’s my word vomit of the day for y’all – scars and sobriety.
P.S this will be me now on Fridays after lime and sodas at the pub. Bring it on.
