Christmas is the time to see family, eat ridiculously unhealthy amounts of chocolate, to get very very merry and of course - if you're religious, celebrate the birth of Jesus. But this Christmas has ended up to be sooo much more than that. It dawned to me that when I get back to college, in January.. I won't have long left. Scary scary scary thought for me as for years I have been wondering what to do or if I am making the right choices in doing what I want to do. It's crazy when you look back on such a short space of time, even just a year and realise how much has changed within yourself and what's around you.
This summer I decided to take a big leap and move in with my friend. It was a little bit of a spontaneous thing and a definite leap into the unknown. Kate had a spare room in Exeter and since I go to college in Exeter and have lived in a small town my whole life, I decided to give it a go. I had a job promoting for night clubs and was having the time of my life, I learned lot's of new skills like, independence, money control, how to wash clothes and many other everyday things that had never occurred to me in daily life. It was such an amazing experience but I can't lie to you, it wasn't all roses. The bills started rolling in and the expenses started adding up and living in a city in comparison to living in a small town with your mum having everything done for you was a big reality check! I was really having the time of my life but I was realising that money was not to be taken for granted and there were things that I couldn't do that all my friends were as I had to make sure I had enough money for little things like food or bills. I am incredibly lucky as I have an amazingly supportive family, and especially supportive mum, who I could always talk to about any of these worries and she would really help me. In December I thought it was time to go though, so unfortunately had to say goodbye to my very first flat, which was sad but also very happy. I had lots of very fond memories here and I knew Kate would continue to live here so I would always be back!
My decision to leave was a very hard one, but I think it made the most sense at the time. I am only 17 after all and only work weekends as I am still in full time education so it wouldn't really be feasible to continue there. I also have uni to think about in September so the more money I can save, the better. I also have plans to go to L.A. In the summer to visit my brothers and gain new experiences with a couple of friends so that is another exciting expense I have to consider! (I will of course be blogging all through that!)
The Cruise.
In 2010 I had gone on my first cruise with my mum. It was a bit of a tough time so mum spontaneously booked this holiday, and if I'm honest I wasn't too excited at all. I was at the age where 2 weeks away from my friends in the summer was a horrible idea and I didn't want to miss a thing. Still, we went and I had honestly had the best time of my life. I met the most incredible people ever and made some life long friendships. Completely unexpected. This time round my mum wanted to suprise my sister and take her with us. I was, this time, very excited by the possibilities of what could be ahead of us. It was once again an amazing experience but completely different to the last! We went on Royal Princess ship in its maiden season so everything was new and exciting. The facilities for every age are incredible. In all honesty I'm half Egyptian but have never really met any other nationalities in my life, not enough to actually befriend them. I know it sounds awful and completely ignorant, but I guess I had never really been given the oppertunity, so coming on this ship on Venice and meeting all of these people and being pretty much the only English teen on board was a total shock! It was an absolutely incredible experience though and it really expanded my mind on these different cultures and people. Then, of course, there's the actual travelling part of a cruise, so going to these beautiful countries and seeing these historic landmarks that are hundreds and sometimes even thousands of years old is an experience I would suggest to absolutely anybody. It really shows you that there's so much more to life than your front door.
The ship itself was beautiful and was stunningly made with the most happiest, helpful staff who really couldn't do any more for you. The food was international so they had pretty much anything you can imagine, with a burger and pizza joint out on deck (insane, right?) all in all it was such an incredible experience and if anyone is contemplating it, don't even think about it, do it! It is of course a lot of money, but so so worth it in every single way.
Festivals.
Before this summer I had never reallllly been to a festival, other than local one day ones and I was determined to give it a go! I used to go camping when I was little, so thought I would be prepared for what was to come and absolutely love music, especially live music so thought it would be perfect for me and I wasn't wrong. I literally had the time of my life. The first one I went to was in Newquay called Boardmasters. Kate and I had worked in Newquay just before the festival doing some promoting so we knew where everything was and two other friends, Liv and Grace also came up with us. It was such an amazing time as I just love the freedom at festivals, you can do whatever you want whenever you want, listen to the music you want to listen to you and I find everyone is so friendly! The next one I went to was called Bestival in the Isle of Wight and that was a completely different experience compared to the first, but equally incredible. It wa very different as we took the car for Newquay but for the Isle of Wight we didn't so that was a little bit of a different experience not being able to have the freedom of driving into town or having absolutely everything in the car but it didn't really matter. We saw the likes of Snoop Dogg, Bastille, Rudimental, John Newman, literally, just to name a few. Unfortunately we did miss the man himself, Elton John as the girls had jobs to get back to but I'm sure there will be another time! I will do a full write up of the festivals I attended probably a bit closer to festival season with all the do's and dont's. I would say that if you're looking to go on your first festival, Boardmasters would be an excellent place to start as it eases you into it and it's a reasonable size, so you shouldn't get too lost and if you do it's not the end of the world. The vibe is very chill and fun and most of the festival goers I know, started off here.
All of these experiences I have had this year have been absolutely incredible and I'm completely aware on how lucky I am to have had these. I'm also very lucky on the people that I have in my life and have met or become closer to in 2013, all of these little things that have contributed to the year to make it so special. It's nice to take some time out sometimes and be a bit thankful of what you have! This year has really helped me grow as a person, realise the full potential to things and taught me to grasp every oppertunity that comes your way. So this is just the very beginning and I'm excited to see what becomes of 2014.
Happy New Year.
