I've been gallivanting about to Sheffield and seeing my brother and family recently. But on my travels, I came across an article called 'Things every twenty something should realise'. Although it wasn't a great post, it got me thinking; if I were to re live these past couple of years, late teens to early twenties. What would I want to know that I didn't? And these are the things I came up with.
1. Spend less time getting ready in the morning - I distinctly remember getting up at six in the morning to leave the house at eight thirty, no one needs that much time.
2. Hit the snooze button less.
3. You are what you eat - don't fad diet, buy a really great cook book and learn to cook.
4. Run - everything gets better when you run. Less stress, more sleep, better skin, better confidence.
5. Realise that it's okay to take a break from partying, and read a book instead.
6. Know that reading a book is a lot better for you than reality TV, as much as you like it.
7. Always wear a condom.
8. Make a bucket list.
9. When you think you're missing out, you're not.
10. Sex is always better when you're emotionally involved with a partner.
11. Savings accounts are cool.
12. Stop expecting your relationship to be perfect, work at it, and if your other half doesn't work at it, ditch them and find someone who will.
13. Spend less time hating life and more time listening to people, because they're really interesting.
14. The most interesting people are those who are interested in others - so be interested in everything, art, music, media, criminology, aerospace engineering, business and accounting.
15. If you're going to get a tattoo, have an idea, then if you still want it in a month, then get it, because you know you'll still want it.
16. Don't raise your voice, better your argument.
17. Don't have secrets, if you have secrets, people can have power over you - my creative writing teacher told me this once and it stuck with me since, and he is the most emotionally healthy person I've ever met.
18. Live for a year in a big city, or abroad.
19. Make plans for the future, don't expect to stick to them, but make plans and get excited about things.
20. Don't be afraid to fall in love.
What would you tell your twenty year old self?
Love always,
Hey y'all,
So I've taken this time off to attempt to sort my life out. In all honesty, this post is going to be a mix of happiness and sadness - because I found it difficult to sort my life out. I realise that I rarely take pleasure in doing anything anymore, and everything that I actively do is all to please someone else and not myself, so then I asked myself what do I want? And I couldn't come up with an answer, I don't know where I want to be in five years, ten years, twenty years, and anything that I did come up with was quickly quelled by the fact that I would never have the funds to do such a thing, or that I'd never have the determination. I have no goals, no aspirations and no determination to stick at anything I would half like to do, what kind of life is that? I'm 21 and I can't dream.
So I've decided to go back to basics because thinking about this was stressing me out, and as I said in my previous post Learning to be beautiful, I need to make myself happy before anything else.
One thing I decided to kick in the face straight away;
Fitness.
I used to work out quite a lot, but have drifted back in to couch potato mode. Exercising does you so much good that it seemed like a good place to start. I heard about this programme called 'Couch to 5k' run by the NHS, where in 9 weeks, you can get from being a couch potato to running 5k (or solidly for thirty minutes). You download a podcast each week, which you listen to whilst on your run, and they - the NHS people - have created a playlist with the right running tempo, and a lovely woman called Laura who coaches you, whilst you alternate between running and walking. I'm on week two, and so far it's going well.
So if you're feeling a little blue after summer, maybe this will keep you going through winter, give you something to aspire to!
You can find everything you need to know about the Couch to 5k here, and you can download the podcasts from iTunes.
All my love
I've never written a post like this before, it's not going to be about a payday product I've been longing to get, or my excitement over my new Mom jeans. It's about learning to be beautiful again.
I'm not really an emotional girl, I'm happy to listen, but I'm awful at advice, and when I'm sad I'll hole myself up in my room and not emerge for days on end.
Recently I've had to be human, which is why I've been away from SDT for so long, too long. Unfortunately, my better half and I broke up, we're still on good terms and have promised to be friends in the future, but in the meantime, I'm having to learn to live life without him, and after six years, that's probably the most difficult thing I've ever done.
Few people are content with who they are, what they're doing and where they're going, and it's important to learn to love ourselves before we can love others, and expect them to love us, otherwise there will either be this little devil, niggling away in the back of your head, which prevents you from living your days the way you really want to.
When you're next having a bit of a rough week, take some time out to remember why you love yourself, and if you don't know, then it's time to change a few things.
Often we spend so long in relationships, whether it be with your family or other half or friends, that we begin to take them for granted, make sure you remember the exact reasons why you love them, and go out of your way to do something nice for them, send them a kind text, meet them for lunch buy them a small gift, without a doubt they'll appreciate it.
It's not a crime to mope for a bit when bad things happen, sometimes we need to realise that crying and remembering are good ways to deal with it, we need to grieve to move on. Find someone to talk to, and if you don't have anyone to talk to, or don't want to talk to someone who's close to you, look in to finding someone impartial that can listen. And remember, you're not sick, you're getting better.
I like to imagine future me, like this really awesome super Sherry who's teaching creative writing, or writing for a magazine, happily married and travelling, with a cute little one bedroom apartment, and I think I have to go through these sad times to get to that point. And even if things change, it'll be okay because I'll love myself and be prepared for whatever life has to throw at me.
So I'm going to take some time out from blogging for a couple of weeks. I'm going to Estonia and Russia anyway, perhaps getting out of the country and seeing some new beautiful culture will help to clear my head. Until then, enjoy the sunshine and take care of yourselves.
Love always,
