Lessons of two thousandth and fourteenth year

10 things I learnt this year:

1. I am way too obsessed with my old school.

Leaving a school you were part of for 14 years is hard, and letting go has been one of the more difficult parts of the graduation process.

2. I have the best support system around me.

I am thankful for every one of my family members, even the ones I rarely speak to. My friends. There is absolutely no way I can describe what they mean to me. If you're reading this, thanks kids. Much love.

3. Applying for university is a bitch.

4. Gap years are the best thing that happened to humanity.

This is the first time in my life where I have down days and can just stay in my pajamas all day and not do very much at all. However saying that, getting out and doing something is a much more intelligent way of wasting time! Also, it is a year, granted you have your grades (WORK HARD THE FIRST TIME, IT REALLY PAYS OFF!!) to do something you have wanted to. Whether it is ticking something off your bucket list of simply getting your first job!

Go out and be productive.

5. I hate babysitting.

6. This may be a controversial one. I like learning and liked going to school everyday and getting even just one new piece of information into my very small head.

7. I lose things far. too. easily.

Wallet, phone, card, drivers license, jewellery. I'm terrible with keeping track of my things. It's not that I don't treasure them, I'm just a shit treasurer. It's not great considering that I am travelling on my own for 6 months!!

8. Spontaneity is an amazing thing.

I have planned my whole life that I never allowed time to just wake up one day and decide to do something outrageous. If I could save up the money to, I would throw a dart at the map on my wall and go there with a backpack and a camera the next day. But of course that doesn't happen in reality.

9. Writing a blog is hard.

It's not like I do it particularly well. With very few people reading it I can write what the hell I want. But to write in an articulate and composed manner is bloody diffcult.

I MEAN I could WRITE WHATEVER THE FUCK I WANTED AND no one would GIVE TWO SHITS

but I don't do that cause I would love to look back at this age thirty and think. Dayuumm, you were/are one weird human. Without the thought of how I could be bothered to edit my sentences to look like ^going through my head.

10. Do more of what you love.

I've sat around on my ass for a couple months, but I have quite enjoyed it because it's been laced with little things that I have absolutely loved. Like walking in Wales, visiting one of my great friends in NYC, going to a trampoline park (A video will be up of that soon..), drinking to a paralytic state (not planning on replicating that. EVER.)

I spend too much time thinking of what people think of me. From a couple years ago I was one of the only ones who did competitive sport in my year at school and there would be minor comments like: "Why do you bother?" or "You're absolutely crazy for waking up at 5am and going to compete." BUT, in the end I represented Great Britain and people now respect that it is something I am passionate about. My friends and family accept and support the fact I have to get up at 4.30am on a saturday morning and jump in a lake that feels like 0°C.

So those simple lessons are all I have learnt in the last year. Pretty bad going, eh?

-E ॐ

"The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have"

#personal