Although I won't be posting this on the day it is written... today is the 8th of December. Which means exactly 6 months ago, I turned 18... and exactly 6 months from now, I will turn 19 (June 8th, hold the date, I am always up for drinkies and present giving).
6 months is not a particularly long time, generally 6 months go past and I haven't noticed a thing change. But for me, these last 6 months have had big-time effects on my present and future life... blimey. When I realised it was my 'half birthday', I began to have a little think about what's happened in the last half a year and by God it's been a bit traumatic and life changing, slight over exaggeration there.
A couple of days after my 18th birthday, I went out on a work night out and ended up meeting a future life partner (now ex-life partner). Having been single for a good old while, there is nothing like throwing a man-shaped spanner into the works to make life a bit more exciting. Cue the realisation that we were both moving to the opposite sides of the world, and a couple of months later we said our goodbyes as I headed off travelling and he moved for 10 months to the Caribbean. Although that's not quite the hunky-dory ending we both wanted, we get along really well and still talk, so if anything I have made a nice new man friend. Over the following few months despite a few bloke-encounters here and there, I have decided fully that to get into a relationship would be stupid as I'm leaving in January. I may not have a big spoon to keep me warm at night, but I do have my dog, my best friend who is back from uni AND I don't have to buy any extra Christmas presents, so who is the real winner here...
So as I just mentioned, in August I left my everyone behind to go away with my two best friends. Every year thousands of British teens go off on 'lads/gals holidays' after completing their A Levels. Under the pretence that just this once, they won't come back a lobster, hoping to gain lad and ladette points and quite frankly, having sex with anything that moves. Call me the cynic here, but whilst there is always a slight appeal of a girls holiday, me and two of my best friends decided if we were going to do it, we'd do it properly. So in January, whilst all the rest of our friends were organising their Zante 2k13 holidays, we booked a flight to Istanbul... and a flight back from Corfu with a month in between to do whatever we wanted. Our path went down Turkey, across the south west coast, and into the Greek Islands, where everyone was... Australian? Bet you weren't expecting that. SOON, I will do a whole post on my travelling shenanigans, but for the mean time, as you can imagine travelling as a three was always going to be a roller coaster, and although they are still two of my best friends, I would definitely not reccommend it. However, for the most part, those 5 weeks were the best of my life... people go to find themselves travelling, I think we'd all admit to losing a bit of ourselves....
In Bodrum, south of Turkey, the day after we headed onto a private yacht courtesy of our hostel owner, each one of us were feeling mortally sick. And not because of our (fairly severe) hangovers. Instead, we were sat at a table in the 38' heat, staring at our phones. Ruths was the first to ring, we all held our breaths as she picked up and whispered a barely audible 'Hello'... to my sister. Sarah had volunteered to go up to the school on August 15th, and pick up mine and Ruth's A Level results. Sh*tting it, did not even cover how we felt. Whilst Ruth and Tess were both depending on their results to get in their chosen universities, I was waiting on mine to find out what kind of uni I would be applying to come September. Thankfully, we all did well, both girls got into their chosen uni's, Ruth in fact, went on to study at an even better university because her grades were higher than expected! An hour boat trip later, to our next destination of Kardemena, Kos (party island) and we most definitely celebrated our success in style. And then regretted it the next day.
September to December has been a whole lot more quiet compared to my action-packed summer. I went back to my job at Pizza Express, slightly skinnier due to malnutrition abroad, and a lot more brown. I then started looking around and applying for Universities, and eventually after much deliberation and receiving all 5 offers, hallelujah, I have chosen to study at Royal Holloway University of London (see below. it is incredible). I have now finally booked my flight to Italy, where I will be living for 8-9months from January the 24th, and so for the next few weeks will be sorting out all of that, a long side going through with my parents everything they need to know about Student Loans etc, because they will be left in charge primarily, whilst I am abroad.
It's been a bit of a crazy 6 months, and as I mentioned before, the choices I've made and the experiences I've gained will almost definitely change and effect my life forever. But that is out of my hands now, so here's to hoping the next 6 months of my life (and yours) are just as exciting and eventful!
Ciao for Now x
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