Hello from Plaistow

I'm Dominic Norton, a young L&Q resident living in Plaistow. As well as hanging out with friends and the like I also play basketball for the England U16 team and have been supported in achieving this by L&Q. Over the next few months, I will be writing a blog for the L&Q website on what's happening in the world for young people and L&Q. It's really just some random thoughts, but I hope you enjoy.

As I get older my borough of Newham is continuing to change drastically along with my role in the community. The Olympics is only around the corner and you can already see excitement in people's eyes. The area is getting a well deserved make over and I'm proud to be living in an L&Q house in the area. I'm anxious to see how our country performs especially in my sport basketball and I'm sure with the home support of thousands we should perform as expected.

I am also becoming more and more involved in the community having the chance to have a greater say in how I think my borough should be. I feel it's important to have a consistent amount of activities that youths want throughout the whole year to actually keep us interested in those activities and develop the skills needed to get better at them. I also think more events that get the community interacting and socializing are needed. This may resolve problems between neighbours and improve positive relations in the neighborhood.

On a slightly more personal note, as thousands of Year Elevens I have GCSE's upcoming and I feel confident that I will do well. I've been revising hard in order to do my best, but it hasn't just been hardcore revision that helped me gain the confidence I need - classical music has also helped immensely. I've begun to listen to classical music to help me relax and also help me focus on the exams ahead. Even though I've been concentrating on the GCSE's I've maintained a steady balance with my basketball training in order to prepare for the Fiba European Championships in Estonia this summer. I expect a lot from the great squad we have and know we can return with the knowledge we've achieved something great.