A few weeks ago, I celebrated my 19th birthday; like many others it wasn’t the conventional way, but I was able to celebrate it with the people closest to me. I’m actually rather relived it was an ‘insignificant’ birthday- 2020 has definitely taken away important milestones from people (leaving high school, college or uni) so in some twisted kind of way I feel lucky a global pandemic decided 2020 was the year. I am, obviously, trying to make light of a devastating situation spanned across the world- but I do believe that a bunch of us might head into 2021 with a new perspective and motivated to do the best in life.
That’s kind of what this post is about. I wanted to take my 18th year on earth and write down what I leant- what am I taking from it. Being 18 is kind of a ‘big’ thing, you can vote, drink, you’re an ‘adult’ but depending on your circumstances still treated like a child. It’s about breaking through and trying to be independent before you have to properly fend for yourself; or at least, that’s how I’d describe being 18.
So, what have I learnt?
Firstly, ‘going out’ sometimes isn’t all it cracks up to be and sometimes a bar/pub crawl is the way forward. Not to bring my drinking habits into a semi-professional blog but being able to go out drinking is one of the highlights of becoming 18. I’ve found through my journey into clubs is that I’m just not the biggest fan.
Not that I’m never stepping into one again (at this rate no one will be going in one in the traditional sense until next year) but I’d much prefer heading to the pub or 6 and talking; which brings me to my first learning point. I like talking to people. For people that really know me this is a shock- I routinely say how much I dislike people as a whole, but you never know who you could be sat or stood (2 metres away) next to in a bar. My Dad can just turn around and talk to the next Ben Bill or Dave; and seen as though we’re related, I can only hope that has started to rub off on me.
Voting. Now that I can vote, I’ve found that your political points become a lot more valid in conversations; because people think they can make you vote the way they do. This is more of a personal thought than one I can make into a general census but I’m going to try.
This year especially politics is something that can be brought up in every conversation and as someone who comes from a group of family and friends who don’t shy away from talking about it I’ve found that the points I’ve made might actually be listened to. I’m not sure if every young person feels this way but when I was sixteen, I felt that no one really cared about my stance- on anything. Now I’m 18 I’m determined to make sure in serious conversations every single voice is heard.
On a final note, Remember to Vote! It’s important and your chance to have a say in the future- don’t waste it.
I should mention about the ‘trying to adult’ part. It’s just a fact no matter how old you are you do spend your time trying to adult, it could be anything from cooking to cleaning to starting a new job but adulting takes time and at 18 getting used to the feeling of being independent is a good start.
I’ve always fancied myself at succeeding at being independent but there have been moments where I’ve thought about running back home. I’ve been going through my first year at uni and there been plenty of times where I’ve questioned myself so much, I’ve nearly jumped on a train back home and never looked back.
What I’ve realised is that is adulting. It’s about standing back up when you’ve failed or carrying on when you feel like you can’t or don’t want to. It’s about prioritising what’s important to you, sticking to it and supporting the things and people you love. It’s never smooth sailing and most times you probably have no idea what’s going on, but you carry on. I’ve spent my 18th year carrying on and now I know I’m supposed to be on this path and I’m going to do everything to make sure I do the best I can, success or failure.
Talking or success or failure, I’ve had success in places I thought I never would. Exercise. Exercise has been the bane of existence for me since the beginning of my time but in my 18th year I realised that I could actually enjoy running. It started coming up to my recent birthday so if I’m still going by the time, I’m 20 past me is congratulating future me because I deserve it.
Not only has running helped me with the physical insecurities I’ve battled with since high school, but it’s also helped me mentally. Running has given me the time to really think through my thoughts and make the realisation that sometimes, I worry about things I can’t control so I should, well, stop that.
I’m the person who wants to sort things out on their own- I don’t really talk about myself much- it makes me feel uncomfortable (I realise that this is something I should also work on, but we’ll start with baby steps.) So, going running and allowing that time to process what’s happening up in my little head has really helped and kept me motivated to do things like this!
Blogging has also helped in its ways, I mostly write about Marketing or Public Relations but at times I find myself writing about how I’m feeling or any unrelated life advice I can give out (sounds weird coming from a newly 19 year old but if I’d like to share things I learn.) Sometimes a good old fashioned write out your feelings so it feels like your sharing is the way to go- only I decide to whack it onto a website in the hopes it might help someone at some point in their own lives.
Heading into the next year of my life I want to set out some ‘ground goals’ that I should maintain or complete over the next 52 weeks.
The first one is as mentioned, staying on the running/exercise hype I’ve found myself on; Hopefully by next year I will have shredded time off my 5ks and can run a substantial amount longer too.
My next goal is to stick to university. Seems simple but I don’t think the little voice in my head telling me to run for the hills is completely put to bed yet and so keeping him tucked up and snug while I head into my second year is an important focus for me.
Finally, my main goal in life, that I will really want to be focusing on this next year is to take every opportunity and make sure I’m doing all I can to be a better person and better my career, better the people around me- I’m staying positive no matter what gets thrown my way.
This has been a little bit of a ramble post for my first one back, but thought it was important to get it out for myself- I’ll be looking back at this in July next year and accessing whether I kept to my goals and be thinking about what I’ve learnt as a 19 year old. So, I’ll see you next year, future me.
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