ICT.

The amount of questions I have been asked by my parents tonight on how to use this or that on the internet has inspired me to write about how great it is to have the knowledge to be able to answer.

When I was growing up, computers were not necessarily brand new but still pretty recent. When my kids grow up, however, the flying car will be 'recent'.

I find it completely mind-boggling how I can sit here now, slam my finger tips down on a few letters and out come my feelings into a little box on my screen, made up of a few pixels.

Obviously I sometimes which I was in the 1950s where relationships weren't controlled by how good you looked on a Facebook photo or what this person said on their status last night.

That's the crazy thing about it. People really do set their lives around what happens on Facebook, ''Who went to that place?', 'How could she post that?' 'How dare she wear such a foul dress?!'.

I can't say I don't love Facebook, hotmail and all other sorts of emailing and social network sites, because I do. I also adore the fact that someone can ask me a question about setting an account up or how to download pictures from a digital camera and I know the answer.

I take ICT at A level, and like to brag about the fact that I got an A at GCSE, but looking back on it makes me realise that now, it's kind of necessary to have those qualifications.

What will journalists do in ten years time? Most people just log into websites to find out their daily news, or watch it on the TV. In fact, one of the only people I know to walk down to the paper shop on a Sunday morning for the paper is my Grandad.

I know that my future job, unless all fails and I become a nun, will entail some sort of ICT work. Even if it's just sitting down and typing something out, because life and business revolves around computer systems. In fact, I may have to invest in an iPad soon, just for future reference.

So, as I sit here now with my wireless (and very pretty, may I add) laptop, I'll keep thanking my GCSE ICT teacher for pushing me into the A level course too.

University.

A lot of people do not have the chance of going to university at the moment due to the raise in fees.

My best friend taught me, when I got stressed out about getting in to university, to thank my lucky stars that I even had the chance.

After getting an offer from Leeds Metropolitan, I did just this. No wonder she's got an interview at Oxford.

I don't quite understand the thoughts of David Cameron and Nick Clegg.

Surely they would want more kids to get into university, get education, start business' and turn this shambles of an economy around. Instead, though, they'll sit on their high chairs and take away the huge advantage of education to our modern-day teenagers.

I find it sickening. I can't believe how lucky I am to have been born a year earlier. How can one person just say 'at this point, we shall be raising the fees'. So, basically, every 16/17 year old is out of the loop. It makes not an ounce of sense to me.

For current A level students this year rests on the grades they get. If they don't succeed in getting into university this year, they will have to pay the thousands of pounds that no-one, in this economy, really has.

My mum even talked about possibly losing her job on Monday. Imagine, if I don't get the grades I need and my mum is out of a job and has to pay around £20,000 for me to go to university if I get the grades when I re-sit the year. Disastrous.

Yet, to be honest, I'd like to say I was as committed as other students to protesting against the rise in fees, but I'd rather work as hard as I possibly can now and get to university this year.

I'll leave the protesting to the next generation and carry on thanking my lucky stars I'm in the situation I am.

It's funny...

My dad says I'm too up and down with my emotions. I can't say I disagree.

But these days, isn't everything about emotions anyway? There are even genre's of music that cater to some 'modern day' cliques in school. Emo's, for example. Apparently they're supposed to be the kids that are so emotionally in touch with themselves that they thing it's daily routine to sit in a corner and cry for a reason not even known to themselves. I suppose you could say it was the modern day hippy.

For me, I just put it down to the fact that I'm a girl, and my dad obviously doesn't understand me...

Unfortunately, the truth is far from that, as sometimes I think he might even be the only one that does.

But in the long run, surely it's better to let your feelings out, instead of keeping them inside. I've heard way too many disturbingly gruesome stories about people killing themselves through stress or depression. My mum's colleagues even saw a woman hang herself as she couldn't pay her bills (or something along those lines). Maybe if she had cried, and spoken to someone about it (or in my case, more than one person) she might have got somewhere?

It's hard to describe, unless you've been in the situation yourself, of how tiny things just push you over the edge. In fact, until this year, I don't think I've been as up and down as this. It's definitely something to do with being 17. Must be. Or possibly just being tired.

Seeing as I was never overly interested in science, I can't really go into detail about the anatomy (that's probably not even the right word).

I can be overly happy at one moment and allow the world to crash around me at another. Both I take to extremes. But I just can't help it!

Actually, I should be talking about something more intellectual. When I send my dad my blog URL, he'll probably think I'm talking utter nonsense and tell me to do something more useful with my time!

But hey ho, there's plenty more time for that.

So, this is where it begins.

I sometimes wonder the point of a blog.

When I watch people on TV writing their ‘blog’ or such other things, it makes them look so utterly cool. Yet, I never really understand who they’re writing to.

People like Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City make it look so effortless, sitting in a darkened room with her laptop and a cup of tea (or wine, in the case of a middle-aged spinster) tapping away and creating an article that is obviously going to be loved by everyone.

Thing is, I don’t know whether I should be trying really hard to make this as interesting as possible and actually muster up even just one follower, or be myself and type as I would normally.

I’m Catherine. A 17 year old girl from Nottingham, England. I don’t really have that many interests, and that’s what makes this blog particularly… challenging.

I love to write and, even though my A level results didn’t say so, I’d like to think I’m okay at it. Seeing as I have a journalist for a father, I probably should be.

It’s strange how he does this, my dad that is. He can inspire me on so many different levels. I’ve even thought of making a blog just about him, and the (what I think as) awesome things he does.

Yet, the probable reason for writing all my thoughts down into this scroll-bared text box is to figure out who I am. As uninteresting as that probably seems, maybe writing it down will get me somewhere. Make feel as though I want to write more, push me into succeeding down the path of magazine editing. That’s what I wanted to do when I was about 15. Now, I’m not so sure. Being as easily persuaded as myself, seeing something wondrous that brings in a lot of money is enough for me to settle.

Anyway, I’ve started it now, and I already feel slightly addicted.

Possibly a bad sign.