It's Saturday! The day which seems to be becoming my official blog day.
It's been a strange week, it's been one of those weeks where you wonder to yourself if the life you are living is the one you that was meant for you? I am in no way writing this is in a whiney emo sort of way, I am super grateful for everything I have, it's just been a case of so much happening in such a short space of time I have literally woken up wondering how I got here!
Let me explain a little. I grew up in a small Devonshire town in the South West of England. It's the kind of place where everyone knows everyone and knows everything about everyone, not an awful lot happens, it's a little bit stuck in a time warp and most people stay in the area for much of, if not all of their lives. When I was at primary school, I had 2 best friends, I won't name them, we'll just call them B and C. B was always perceived as the clever, beautiful one who would go on to do great things, C most definitely had her strengths too, she was the one with the big personality who everyone wanted to know and be friends with, then there was me who kind of sat somewhere just behind these two. I was never dumb, far from it in fact but I was never popular or attractive either. My parents forever used to compare my successes to these 2 girls and still do to this very day despite having no contact with C for well over 10 years. So what's my point? Well after spending much of my childhood and adolescence in the shadow of these two, no-one really expected much of me, there was a time everyone was convinced I would be a teen mother, then there was the time no-one thought I'd do much post college other than maybe get a little desk job and settle down young.
Obviously things have not turned out this way! If you look back at my early blogs on this site and the ones I write now things have changed a crazy amount! When I was around 12 years old C once told me if I had no ambition I would be homeless as an adult. Her ambitions changed every week. At the age of 16 i was given my first SLR camera and I went on to study photography at college and that is the path I have been on since. I never planned to go to university, but I went just so I could spend another 3 years of my life doing what I loved on the off chance it might be the last 3 years doing it before entering the working world.
I left Devon at the age of 23 and moved around several times. I am now settled in Birmingham, West Midlands - I never saw myself ending up here in a million years, London maybe, Bristol perhaps, but never here. I live in my new house with my boyfriend of almost 2 years with an amazing career with good prospects and it all seems to have happened by accident - even though I know full well it certainly hasn't! I have had to work my ass off to get to where I am today and I couldn't be happier for it.
I feel a detachment from my childhood, I was always just 'Little miss just above average who would be ok in life' which was fine but I think I have come much further than that. Is it ok to be proud of yourself for that?
For the record, B and I are still very good friends, we see each other whenever I head back down south and usually have a great time. She is happily married now and a full time mum studying accounting. I don;t know what C is doing now, we had a massive falling out at school and never fixed the relationship. I'm not too gutted about that really.
So yeah, there's my mini life story, I'm not sure why I shared that with you all, it's just something that has been stuck in my mind this week and now it is out on paper (well screen at least!) I feel I can leave it there and go out and enjoy the rest of the weekend with my gorgeous boy. I think some sausage and waffles are in order!
It's been a strange week, it's been one of those weeks where you wonder to yourself if the life you are living is the one you that was meant for you? I am in no way writing this is in a whiney emo sort of way, I am super grateful for everything I have, it's just been a case of so much happening in such a short space of time I have literally woken up wondering how I got here!
Let me explain a little. I grew up in a small Devonshire town in the South West of England. It's the kind of place where everyone knows everyone and knows everything about everyone, not an awful lot happens, it's a little bit stuck in a time warp and most people stay in the area for much of, if not all of their lives. When I was at primary school, I had 2 best friends, I won't name them, we'll just call them B and C. B was always perceived as the clever, beautiful one who would go on to do great things, C most definitely had her strengths too, she was the one with the big personality who everyone wanted to know and be friends with, then there was me who kind of sat somewhere just behind these two. I was never dumb, far from it in fact but I was never popular or attractive either. My parents forever used to compare my successes to these 2 girls and still do to this very day despite having no contact with C for well over 10 years. So what's my point? Well after spending much of my childhood and adolescence in the shadow of these two, no-one really expected much of me, there was a time everyone was convinced I would be a teen mother, then there was the time no-one thought I'd do much post college other than maybe get a little desk job and settle down young.
Obviously things have not turned out this way! If you look back at my early blogs on this site and the ones I write now things have changed a crazy amount! When I was around 12 years old C once told me if I had no ambition I would be homeless as an adult. Her ambitions changed every week. At the age of 16 i was given my first SLR camera and I went on to study photography at college and that is the path I have been on since. I never planned to go to university, but I went just so I could spend another 3 years of my life doing what I loved on the off chance it might be the last 3 years doing it before entering the working world.
I left Devon at the age of 23 and moved around several times. I am now settled in Birmingham, West Midlands - I never saw myself ending up here in a million years, London maybe, Bristol perhaps, but never here. I live in my new house with my boyfriend of almost 2 years with an amazing career with good prospects and it all seems to have happened by accident - even though I know full well it certainly hasn't! I have had to work my ass off to get to where I am today and I couldn't be happier for it.
I feel a detachment from my childhood, I was always just 'Little miss just above average who would be ok in life' which was fine but I think I have come much further than that. Is it ok to be proud of yourself for that?
For the record, B and I are still very good friends, we see each other whenever I head back down south and usually have a great time. She is happily married now and a full time mum studying accounting. I don;t know what C is doing now, we had a massive falling out at school and never fixed the relationship. I'm not too gutted about that really.
So yeah, there's my mini life story, I'm not sure why I shared that with you all, it's just something that has been stuck in my mind this week and now it is out on paper (well screen at least!) I feel I can leave it there and go out and enjoy the rest of the weekend with my gorgeous boy. I think some sausage and waffles are in order!
So does A and B still talk? If you ever ran into A would you say hi to her?
I hope you have a good week.