Young and sweet only seventeen

"Youth is wasted on the young."

- Oscar Wilde 

Most people say that life gets better after school ends.

And it does, for most.

But why is it that at just seventeen we are supposed to make, essentially, the most important decisions of our lives?

We’re supposed to know where we’re going in life, what we want to do, where we want to live, how we want to live.

All before actually becoming an adult.

I remember finishing year 12 and being so excited for the future, but now, at (almost) 21, I don’t see how any future I imagined at seventeen could match the future I see now.

We need to travel, to work, to experience life before life happens. 

Why are we so focussed on kids making life choices, and why are we so oblivious to the fact that it’s okay for them not to have any friggen clue about anything.

Leave them alone.

The younger generations are always useless, anyway.

(Kidding.)

WANDERLUST

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."

- J.R.R Tolkein 

We dream of places we’ve never been. We long for people we’ve never met. We crave the feel of a different ground beneath the same sun. When we have sun, we want snow. When we have rain, we want the sun. We spend the night hours dreading the morning, and the morning hours longing the night.

When we feel lost, we travel. And when we travel, we often feel lost.

Why do we always want to be somewhere we aren’t?

Is it because we are unhappy with the way things are? With the life we have? What is it about the unknown that makes it so exciting?

Wanderlust, it’s a bloody confusing thing.

Six months of firsts...

Hey guys!

So today I've done something different. This is an assignment I did for Summer School on a major event in my life. It's lighthearted and will hopefully make you want to travel and leave you feeling good!

Ciao! X

Travel Etiquette

Since I’ve travelled a bit in my time (Europe, North America), and since I have a couple of friends who just recently travelled/are still travelling AND my sister is getting home from two years in France tomorrow (lucky biatch) I thought I’d do a little tip post on travelling etiquette.

1.       Stay off the drugs.

 When I was staying in a hostel in Vancouver I picked a mixed dorm (possibly a mistake) and one of the guys in the room decided to snort speed (in front of two of us in there – he was gracious enough to offer us some. We declined). He then decided to go party – which was fine. At 4am he arrived back in the room, climbed into bed with my friend (they’d met once) and when she awkwardly pushed him away he stuck his head out the window and screamed for his friend who was assumedly wandering somewhere on the main street 6 floors below. Not so fine. If drugs make you do stupid shit, seriously just lay off. Or get a single room.

2.       Don’t lie in bed all day.

YOU ARE NOT AT HOME! It’s uncomfortable for everyone if you lie in the room all day and emerge only for the bathroom. Explore the amazing city you’re in dammit.

3.  And DON’T for the love of God come home at 4am and turn on all the lights.

So. Much. Hate.

4.     Clean up.

It’s not your bedroom. I’m not your mother. Clean up your bloody clothes. And if you’re cooking in a shared kitchen CLEAN UP. Other people want to eat too.

5. AND OHMYGOD IF YOUR SHOES/UNDERWEAR SMELLS THEN DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT JUST LEAVE THEM.

Air that shit out or burn it. Either way get that smell outta here.

6.  Actually talk to your roommates.

The amount of times I’ve stayed in a hostel and the 6 other people in the room don’t mutter even the tiniest of squeaks is phenom. Seriously, just talk. We are all travellers, we are all poor. We could be best friends.

7.    Carry a map on you, and always carry cash.

Seriously, you’ll get caught out. And you’ll probably need to tip people – in America pretty much anything you do requires tipping. So carry at least $2 on you at all times.

8.    Buy a watch.

You can thank me later.

9.   Call your mother.

While you’re out meeting new people and getting ridiculously drunk she’s distraughtly waiting for the phone to ring. Give her a quick a-ok message. You’ll save the poor thing from biting her nails to the bone.

10. And lastly be smart.

My first trip to New York my friend and I were so tired we jumped into a mysterious looking van, got locked in and then realised we weren’t actually in a taxi. Worst. Feeling. Ever. Never have I prayed so hard.

I also spent a night in the Grand Canyon jumping through a toilet window to escape the security men because I was under 21 and drinking and they were asking everyone for passports. Fun times.

So have a blast, be courteous, know things aren’t going to go exactly the way you planned, be open to new things, travel cheaply and travel far. It’s only going to happen once.

You can read my travel blog here!

Growing up or not growing at all?

Today as I was ‘studying’ (10 mins writing, 2 hours Facebook) I found myself looking at MySpace. Yep, MySpace. Lawl.

Since I chucked a tanty and deleted mine years ago, in a stroke of genius I guessed a friend’s password and voila! I was on.

Looking at all the pictures from what seems like forever ago, I couldn’t help but wonder:

Do we ever really change from who we are in High School?

And I don’t mean physically. Yes, we look better now, we’ve lost weight/put on weight, changed our hair, changed our clothes (thankfully). But, when it comes down to it, we still have the same values.

We are friends with people because they’re cool, or something we aren’t. We look up to people who we deem as successful. We follow trends (or push against them). We enjoy drinking and parties and socialising. We’re still addicted to our phones and the internet. We use food to make us feel better, and sitting in circles is the only way to have a conversation.

We still value ourselves above anyone else. We’re still full of hopes and dreams and wonder. We still gossip, we still have crushes. We make friends. We lose friends. We’re still obsessed with celebrities and clothes and magazines.

So maybe we never really change, we just get older. We might’ve become more worldly, seen new things, met new people but are we actually different?

Maybe we are, maybe we aren’t. But go forth! Young Jedi's:
Travel the world, try new food, meet new people, visit places that amaze you. 

But never forget that High School (love it or hate it) is part of the reason why you are the way you are.  

Everything's better in hindsight anyway. Am I right, or am I right.