“An introduction to me” By Ruby McAuslan-Crine

Once upon a time, there as a little girl called Ruby! Every day she hopped on her bike and rode all the way out of Somerset village to the neighbouring town of “St.Brendans”. St.Brendans was a scary place at first, especially in the dark! In the beginning she recognised hardly any faces, she would look around her and see a sea of legs surround her and she would have to push out of the crowd, crumpled and confused.

Ruby enjoyed to read and play guitar and piano. She would spend hours crafting melodies and filling up on books. This could sometimes put Ruby in a difficult situation as she would lose time to do important things…

In the town of St.Brendans, where she studied Spanish, psychology and English, she lost her time to play her melodies and gave up the music for essays and case studies.

One day, when she was sat underneath the cherry tree on memory hill, she looked back to the times where she held no responsibilities, and looked forward to the time where the true meaning of responsibilities would become apparent to her. She used to love playing with her friends. At her primary school “Hillcrest”, she remembered all the games her and her friends would play. They would all play Victorian games or sometimes just games called the “olden days”. In her final year at Hillcrest School, she remembered the play which her year put on. “The Twelfth Night”, Shakespeare. She remembered how excited she was, waiting behind the certain, costume on, thick stage makeup and ready to read her lines. She played “Maria”, the maid. She laughed to herself as she looked back and remembered how formal and grown-up she felt, when in reality the play was for parents to admire there “golden children”.

Before she found herself at “St.Brendans” she had ridden the train all the way to bath a beautiful city, where she wore a black blazer with purple trim and attended “Hayesfield Girls School” for five years. The first time she went to Hayesfield, she knew on one. No one from Hillcrest and the olden day game had come with her. This reminded her of the present and that St.Brendans isn’t a scary place after all! And she lay down on memory hill, underneath the pink cherry tree and from then on she lived happily ever after… 

My Idiolect

When has one ever had to step away from oneself and take a good look? Well, almost every day! But, to study one’s idiolect is quite a difficult concept to grasp. After thinking about the way I talk for a few moments I realised there are many a thing which make me, me!

For one, I pause a lot during conversation, when I can’t quite figure out what I’m going to say next. Which sounds perfectly harmless. But, when I feel the need to fill theses silences with words such as “like” or even mere sounds like, “uhh…” It can come across a rather idiotic or foolish.

Secondly, to add to this so called “vibe”, an adjective which I use, completely out of context in comparison to its definition is, insane. I may say, after seeing a particularly good film with my friends, “that movie was insane! Did you guys see Robert Downey Jr.?” (With slight emphasis on the “see”). Now, to take the actual English definition of that word and to use it instead. I would be saying something along the lines of this: “Hey guys! That movie was so good. I now feel like I’m in a state of mind which prevents normal perception, behaviour AND social interaction! How great?”. When in retrospect, I had seen iron man, that statement is somewhat embarrassing, to say the least.

I think that when people answer the phone, the types of words they use create an instant impression. There are certain types of “phone answers” which many people use.  So, in my circumstances where I would answer the phone with a teenager-tainted “Hello?”, where I obviously sound “joyous” to be put through the hardship of actually finding and picking up the phone. Someone would see me as the stereotypical teenager, which I would like to try and avoid.

My conversational habits, in my opinion are subtle. I will nod along, without realising, and ask questions- a fabulous listener! However, I do have a mind which thinks non-stop, so I have been one to occasionally come out with comments which have nothing to do with the matter being discussed. For example if my friends and I are discussing say, homework, I could come up with an elaborate scheme in my head as to why a homework had not been completed. Hence my friends confused faces when in reply to, “How did you find the history essay?” I say, “Its funny cause if I did have a pig it would have been easy. But ide need more space for it to roam free, you know?” Now, this I believe could become very irritating. But, I’ve learnt that habits are difficult to crush. And so I believe that at least a small part of my idiolect has been, and will be, with me for my entire life…