Zack's Life.

My name is Zack, I’m 22 - although I still look 17 on a good night (thank god). I’m about 5 foot & 8 inches short (you see alot from down here) & I’m weighing in at about 65kg. I’m mixed race - primarily English & Chinese however there are a few others mixed in there (obviously Irish, who isn’t).

I’m a law student at the University of Salford, however I’m planning to change course to Psychology with Criminology next year and even potentially move universities - sorting it all out at the moment. I have a mission to stay a student as long as possible. The real world isn’t a place you want to be fighting in at the moment - I imagine we’ll all see some crazy shit happening over the next couple of years. Before University I worked for quite a few companies (actually, a fuck load) - some changes by choice, sometimes I fucked up or just moved homes but it was all good experience and I wouldn’t change the way things have happened. 

In addition to University I run a company with one of my friends, Max - although we started in November 2010, it does seem like years ago. After meeting via mutual friends things just all clicked into place and Wallis & Young Ltd was born. Although the company sounds like a law firm, it’s actually a holding company for several creative projects we have started to roll out and it’s quite exciting watching them grow. 

Although online I have thousands of friends and even in the real world I have thousands of acquaintances, I have very few real friends. I’m very social and I get on with people really easily but I’ve learnt over time that trust doesn’t come with friendship - it comes with time and sometimes with some friends it doesn’t come at all. I’ve moved around the country alot so sticking with certain friends has become almost impossible.

I currently live in a big house in Greater Manchester - sharing with several people, a couple of friends and then some randoms. After living on my own it’s nice to have people around - life can get pretty lonely sometimes and although it may only be passing someone in the hallway, or seeing someone in the kitchen it does make you feel less alone. 

I love music, but who doesn’t really. Currently addicted to Spotify, you can take a look at my top artists on last.fm by clicking here. But overall - Death Cab, The Postal Service, Metric, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Coldplay, Florence, Fleet Foxes, Kings of Leon… are amongst my faves. 

I have 2 tattoos - one of my left forearm which is a red origami crane, this represents freedom to control your control life. The other is a black dragon on my chest above my heart and is there is protect my heart. I guess my most common look is vans, skinny navy blue jeans & a polo shirt… or a shirt with a jumper.

I guess that is a good insight for now, if you want to get in touch fire me an ask by clicking here. Bye for now. 

Oh yeah, 2011 has kicked off really well. Back home in Manchester now and to my knowledge all my housemates are still back at their parents - so I’m enjoying wandering around the house half naked (and sometimes naked). Have been very lazy this weekend and ordered take out from Dominos and Just Eat everyday! Grrr, really need to stop. I guess I made an effort by microwaving a jacket potato yesterday but it failed four times and was still hard (I’m blaming the potatoes).

In other news, I’m trying to stop getting distracted and start the 4 essays I have and the revision I have to do for exams next week. It’s really not working, but I know I’ll figure it out. It’ll be a couple of all nighters and several trips for coffee. Sort of excited in a way, I just feel a buzz because I’m a student and I’ve wanted this for so long, now I can say I am one. *insert little laugh and dance here*

I have got well stuck in to my sexy new diary - not exactly sexy but I have a fetish for blank pages. Already after only 3 days, I have meetings scheduled with Max tomorrow and a trip to London on Thursday. Plus several days I have to wait for deliveries from bargains I ordered in the Christmas Sales. I’ve added all my essay deadlines and a trip to the Apple Store on Sunday or Monday (dependent on when my student loan clears) and a trip over to Widnes to visit my lovely mum.

Oh and a project Max & I have been working on was launched on the 1st. If you have a minute take a look here. It’s called ‘somethingeveryday’ and is a creative community with some key collaborators posting one update per day - primarily poetry but a few special additions in the mix too. It’s an exciting, energetic and inspiring project which has already attracted massive interest. Max is currently managing the creative side whilst I manage development & marketing. 

Finally, if you have a minute - go and check out my corporate blog… which I’m keeping for more lengthy articles about stuff which interests me - from social media, gadgets, music, etc… hosted on a domain but powered by Tumbler. You can check that out here (you can follow too).

Bye for now. I hope you’re all sticking to the big plans you made… come and make 2011 a big one with me. 

Jeez, that was an adventure. Having all the police dogs in Manchester Piccadilly Station jump on me and then getting semi naked for all the police men. Lucky enough I walked away a free man!

Anyway, besides from the random inspection I’m home :)

I’m going to open this blog by saying times are tough. Why you may ask? Well, despite what the media says - as a country & in many cases as individuals we are still very deep in a financial mess. The country this year has seen some powerful changes which will make their way into the history books for sure.

For me, this year has been most certainly a year of reflection. When my relationship ended on the 29th of January 2010 my career seemed to get a massive injection of energy when I landed a really great position with Groupon. Although I was as I’d describe ‘broken’ by the previous events, the career really kept me going & through this I started a recovery & started to believe in myself again. 

I was with Groupon for several months and it was fantastic - working with a startup which had massive potential and massive investment it was certainly something I’ll always remain proud of my involvement in, a great sense of input into the building of such a fresh brand. Plus, during my time I got to pretty much live in hotels in London which allowed me to really escape from the problems I left in Manchester. 

Moving through now, leaving Groupon in the second quarter I started working with a big advertising agency based just outside of London. Again, it seemed to land on my door and felt like it was all a gift to help me recover and get back on my feet. I was given great responsibility and was initially project managing a rebrand - more great experience. During my time there, I relocated to Brighton & really came to life. Meeting new people and discovering myself in so many new ways - it was certainly a place I fell in love with and it was the perfect place to be during the summer months.

Then, revising Manchester on a scheduled weekend up north I was weighing up the idea of moving back after summer to enjoy city life once again. I heard it was University Clearing and I genuinely had little hopes of getting in - with the current changes in the world, getting into university through the normal method isn’t easy - never mind just showing up asking for a place a few weeks before.

Anyway, getting up bright and early - I went down to the University of Salford took a deep breath and filled the forms out. Then it was decision time… what course from the small list on clearing interested me. Naturally I would of chose Marketing, Psychology or Business - none of which was under clearing so it was new ground completely. I selected Law and then had to have an interview with the head of law admissions. His name was Simon, I’ll never forget - an older guy, quite tall and looked like he’d been teaching for years - but a nice guy completely. He went through some pretty standard questions and offered me an unconditional place. In my honest opinion, it was all fate - it really couldn’t of went any smoother. 

Okay, moving on through the year - obviously now knowing I was starting a law degree in September I had to shape the final few months around this. I relocated back to my old apartment in Manchester for a few months during which I had a blast with some old friends, had a couple of parties and really got back into the swing of city life. I then decided I wanted to jump into the student life with full swing… so I decided to move out of my apartment (where I lived alone) into a shared house in a student area of Manchester. One of my friends already lived there and it was an amazing modern family house - so I moved in.

September only meant one thing - University. Oh boy I guess it has been exactly how I expected it to be but in other ways a little different. Whether I choose to stay on this course is yet to be decided, going to run this year through and move to a southern university next year - hopefully going to get a course transfer too for Applied Psychology & Criminology. Law is an interested subject alright, but it really is all a little boring - still very traditional. 

Some of you may say - what a wasted year!? But in all honesty I think staying at University as long as possible is great. Now 22, after working for so many different companies for years… I learnt very quickly that working life is tough. Those earn mornings and late nights, the stresses of working with unreasonable people and being pushed to your limit - the stress isn’t worth it. I’m enjoying ‘student life’ and the freedom it brings - I’m going to make real use of the next few years. 

Now, it’s December. Just finished the first semester and will be returning home soon for Christmas. A few other things have happened this year which have made this year very memorable.

One of the biggest being my name change. It’s a shame to say but Big Brother doesn’t give you much credibility - it turns you into a character not a person. Professionally it has helped in various ways but the majority of the time it’s just got in the way, so I needed to assume a new alias for the future. Liam is now one of my middle names and I chose Zack because I thought it was a little different… plus my mum said it was her second name choice. 

Also, started a new company with one of my friends Max in November. Wallis & Young Ltd is all about creating change & redefining various norms. I’m sure you’ll see what I mean over the coming months as I blog about new projects, but it’s got alot of potential and alot of energy is going into the core ethos of everything we do. Watch this space for some exciting happenings.

I think I have covered the key areas. Of course, there is so much more - friends have been lost, friends have been found… I’m getting my confidence back & I have found myself… or the person I have always wanted to be.

I title 2010 as ‘the year of reflection & reinvention’ I guess this comes down to really thinking for hours on end about the past, learning some crucial lessons about life & reinventing myself - not just through alias but some of my core values have undergone some real changes. All in all, I’m a much happier person because of it. Still highly ambitious of course, but I guess a little more grounded and with alot more experience in hand.

Here is to 2011, I sure hope we have an exciting & successful year ahead. Have a great Christmas & I wish you all the best for 2011. 

Zack x

(Source: zackyoung)

Okay, it’s over 2 months since I became a university student and I thought I’d write about my first impressions of university life… from experience and not from presumption.

Well first off, I’m studying a law degree so I guess my take on studying a degree will be different to the media kids or the music tech kids… very different boat and I’ve learnt that fast!

In the first week all of the girls and the very few guys (yeah, only about 10 guys on the course in total) looked very energetic and in my words a little swotty. I tried to test the water to see what sort of people I was dealing with and most of them come from ‘means’ so their approach to student life was clearly going to be different.. or was it?

Anyway, first year - no actual part of your degree if anything more of a ‘start up’ year just like in business. I skipped and still continue to skip the odd lecture - these cold mornings aren’t the most exciting times to be sitting in lecture theatres. For the first few weeks nobody I had made friends with skipped not even one lecture but that soon changed. The fire has started to burn out and lectures are missing 20-30% at a minimum, naturally seminars have a better turnout but still - people continue to skip… which is cool with me, at the end of the day - we all have hangovers to deal with right!?

Quite an interesting bunch of people on the course and with very conflicting opinions about many subjects which is always good to play with - throwing in the odd common to see what sort of reaction I get is quite an amusing task.

Then, the social side - not much has changed, if anything I get more excuses now…’oh I have work to do’ than prior to uni when all I heard was… ‘I’ve got work in the morning’ and my response would always be the same.. so it usually didn’t cause any issues other than an extensive spend on redbull & coffee.

Now I feel sort of ‘at home’ I’ve now become part of the Student Brand & Strategy Department - basically a department which includes students in the branding and marketing decisions… quite an exciting part of my life here really as it’s my passion. Plus, they line your pockets with Amazon vouchers which is a plus too.

I guess my major issues at the moment would come down to tiredness, laziness and not really getting passionate about some of the cases which are used - some being very old and not very relavant to anything I have or probably will experience. I guess that is just something I’ll have to get used to though. Nothing to do with the quality of the course but I’m pretty sure I’ll be back down south for my 2nd and 3rd years - purely because I think the scope for work opportunity in what I do already is greater and I have more friends down south too… I’m abit bored of Manchester now.

Oh well, there is my low-down of University life. I’m glad I can tick this off my list now… something I’ve always wanted to do but never really had the opportunity and fate sort of handed me this chance so I’m very greatful.