Things I'm glad I did when I was younger

At 25 years old, I'm hardly the queen sitting on the throne of wisdom (I mean, I am a queen, but that's beside the point). But I'm also not the wild child I once was (much to my mum's delight I'm sure). While I don't buy into the whole lifes-over-at-30-especially-for-women trope (bad vibes through and through), I do know that I feel like quite a different person now than I did when I first entered my twenties. I don't know if it's the pandemic or just the inevitable passing of time or a bit of both, but it's got me to thinking about all the things I'm glad I did when I was my past self, that have brought me to where I am right now.

Partied HARD

I used to be like Jesus on Easter weekend; disappearing on Friday and returning on Sunday. Well, technically, it was Thursday nights that were my kryptonite, but you get what I'm saying. I think on most weeks, I had more nights out than nights in, and most of these contained a mixture of funny, crazy and cringe-worthy stories that will keep me smiling forever. I didn't think twice about it when I was 18 or 19, and didn't really consider it a rite of passage or something I needed to do while I was young. I just knew I could never say no to a night out! But now I'm 25, I don't have the stamina anymore. SERIOUSLY. When people said you can't hack nights out when you get older, I assumed they meant when you hit 40, not your mid twenties. My tolerance to alcohol has gone down, my hangovers have gotten much worse and on top of that, I now don't have the time to spend an entire day in bed hungover since I became a boring adult with responsibilities and chores and blah blah blah. That's not to say I'm a total granny now; obviously I still love a night out. I just can't party quite like I used to. So looking back, I'm just so glad that I really made the most of that stage of my life while I was in it and really enjoyed it to the max. 

Spent time with my grandparents

Time is the most precious commodity of all and unfortunately, this is a lesson often learnt the hard way. I was fortunate enough to know all 4 of my grandparents, 2 of them up until I was 11, and 2 of them right up until I was 24 (feel very lucky to still have my grandma now). I suppose that gap made me treasure the 2 I had even more, and I was always conscious to make the most of whatever time I had with them. I also knew I didn't want to just know who they were as grandparents either, as old people. I wanted to know all of their stories! My grandma was clearly the one who passed the wild child gene on to me (it definitely didn't come from my mum who was known as a goody two shoes) and I've laughed at her accounts of 5 day vodka hangovers and not even remembering who my dad was until him and my mum had been together for months on end. And my grandad had nearly 90 years worth of stories to share, from moving all the way to Australia via a 6 week boat trip, to meeting my grandma for the first time and having to show up at her very busy factory job to ask her out in front of everyone because they certainly couldn't just poke each other on Facebook as a follow-up back then. I always made a point of arranging one-to-one things with my grandparents because that's the best way to spend quality time IMO and since losing my grandad, I'm all the more glad for that. Knowing that he got the chance to tell me stories that he'd never gotten around to telling anyone else in the family, and that we got the chance to bond over our shared love of Mediterranean food, means I can look back with no 'what ifs' or 'if onlys'. Time is precious and I know I was very wise to make the most of it while I could.

Remained focus where my career was concerned

I can't say I was particularly one of those people who felt like they had something they just knew they had to do. I didn't have a calling the way that doctors or actors or artists normally seem to. The one thing I did know is that I didn't want to go to uni and that I wanted to earn plenty of money to buy enough clothes and shoes and handbags to drown in. So I decided to follow 2 things; what I was good at, and what I enjoyed. A following of the head and the heart, if you will. And I have to say that it's a strategy that's not sent me far wrong. Starting in fashion (what I enjoyed), my career in marketing (what I'm good at) has taken me into law, pharmaceuticals and now engineering and I'm proud of the fact that I've never taken my eyes off the prize. I've never allowed myself to become too comfortable or stale in a job that no longer serves my long-term goals and I'm constantly assessing where I'm at and where I want to be. Even when I was 19 and partying on work nights (and turning up hungover the next day), I never lost sight of what I wanted. Thanks to the grit I had when I was younger, I've established myself without any need for a degree or a path I didn't want to take. That's definitely something I can be glad of.

Stayed single until I found someone who truly made it better not to be

I suppose my world view of relationships is quite an interesting one. My parents are teenagehood sweethearts who are just as in love now as when they got together aged 19, all of my family is made up of similarly happy couples who have married for life (there's never been any divorce in my family), and I grew up watching Disney films, rom-coms and drama shows that have you rooting for true love to prevail. On the flip side, I've also always noticed that people are unfaithful (like, a lot), that a lot of people stay in unhappy (or even toxic) relationships that clearly aren't right and that some people are seemingly happy to be in any old relationship just for the sake of not being alone. From a young age, I knew that could never be me. No thank you. So rather than searching for love in someone else, I fell in love with myself instead. I purposely always stayed single while I partied and built my career and blossomed into the woman I was destined to become. After all, I never thought it wise to try and find the perfect person for you when you didn't even know who you were yet. And by the time I got to the point where I was a young woman with self confidence and self worth that were both absolutely through the roof, I knew I'd never accept anything less than what I deserved (and what I'd grown up seeing). Which was a pretty extensive list in the end; someone intelligent, who matched my sense of humour, who had light eyes and nice lips and who never wore shoes with no socks (along with a whole host of other very specific things). My grandma always said that I was mad; that what I was looking for didn't exist and that I should stop being so picky. Turns out I didn't have to look all that far to find him, as I ended up sat right next to him when I joined a new job. I still can't say I was particularly looking for a relationship when I found Ollie but I had no problem seeing that I'd found what I wanted. And the best part? Getting to tell my grandma I told her so!

Went on holiday with my family

I've always been too blessed to be stressed, especially where my childhood was concerned. A childhood filled with exotic holidays and amazing family adventures. When I reached about 17 or so and thought I was too cool for school, I told my family I wouldn't be going on holidays with them anymore because I was an adult now and I'd be going on my own holidays. And then like a Tory government with a terrible policy or Covid plan, I did a complete 180 and backtracked fully on what I'd said. Because I realised that I'd be an idiot to turn down free holidays (duh), so I've now adopted the following mindset; I will continue to go on holiday with my family forever (well, as long as they'll keep having me). I'm so glad that I had a change of heart when I was younger, because the memories we've made together in those years since have been incredible! And with a city break in Cologne, an African safari and a skiing trip to Bulgaria all on the cards over the next year, I've never been more glad of a decision.

Kept my diaries

I started writing diaries when I was 14. At first it was just a place to pour my dramatic teenage heart out about all the boys I fancied and all the petty drama that'd happened with my friends. But then it became something I really enjoyed doing. It became something that made me realise that my writing is a talent and not one I should overlook. Fast-forward to now and copywriting is a huge part of what has made me successful in my career and is still one of my number one skills. Who knows if I would've realised that if I hadn't used thousands of pages of gossip-girl-esque material to hone it? I mean, I'm not saying all my diaries are solid gold or anything; a large part of them are absolute crap. But when I dip into them every few years, there are a number of passages that are beautiful and articulate and probably the stuff of a great novel. Of course I'd rather die than see them published but I'll also never delete them either. I kept 4 diaries in the end, one for each year from 2010-2013 and they've eventually become a time capsule for my much-younger self, like a photo that perfectly captures who I was at that time. I stopped writing when I got my first job and life got a little too busy to document my every waking moment, but I far from gave up on my writing. Because less than a year later, I started this blog. And the rest as they say is history...