To all of you lovely people who have been with me since the beginning of my blog, I’m sorry that I haven’t posted anything in a while on here.
I’ve been working on a different blog offering up travel experiences, cheap travel options, and things that I’ve learnt along the way.
You can find a link to it below, so if you would like to see what I’ve been up to then follow the link and you can see there!
https://allthingslizzie.wordpress.com/
🙂
1) Be yourself.
This may seem like an obvious thing to do, but we spend so much of our teens striving to be someone we’re not. Whether you looked up to the cool kid in your year, or the person who appears to have been out of the sun for the past ten years of their life and hung out at rock concerts on the weekends. Maybe it was that super clever person who took every test they were ever faced with; with ease and aced it each and every time. Or maybe you wanted to be just like your older and more well rounded sibling. Each of us looked up to someone and fought to change parts of ourself to be more like them.
So my advice for your twenties is to finally be yourself. Let yourself love all of the things you love… Whether it’s travel, photography, sport, writing, music… Whatever. Love it, and talk about it whenever you the opportunity to. People really do want to hear about what interests you whether you believe it or not.
2) Follow your dreams.
You’ve done the hard bit of having to slog through education just to get that piece of paper to tell your future employers about. You’ve worked damn hard for it and you’ve got it – congratulations!
Maybe your parents told you not to study that drama degree you dreamed of because jobs in this field can be hard to come by – so maybe you studied something like business instead. But it’s over now. Are you sitting here with that massive itch that’s nagging at you to finally give in and give it a good old scratch? Do you wake up every morning and dream of a life of writing every morning that you are on your commute to work?
Do you sit on the tube looking through national geographic traveler and look down at your smart attire wishing you could exchange it for hippie pants and flip flops, on a beach somewhere in Thailand?
Your twenties is the time to itch all of those scratches, jump on all of the planes you want to, write all of the books you’ve been meaning to write one day. The time will come when you have to settle down and work a sensible job and provide for your children and family – but nows not it. And you will never be able to shake the ‘what ifs’ in the back of your mind if you don’t try it now.
3) Fall in and out of love.
Do we really only just have ‘the one’? I don’t think so. I think we have many ones throughout our life. Your twenties is the perfect time to go and figure that out. Fall in and out of love. Get your heart broken. Adore and be adored. Kiss all of the frogs and cry to your best friend when another frog hasn’t phoned you back when they promised they would.
One day, one of those frogs who you kiss will become your prince. But maybe there will be a few princes or ones out there before you find the one that is going to be the rest of your book and not just a passing chapter.
So enjoy eating far too much ice cream and drinking too much wine while you cry about a heartbreak. Remember you are only in your twenties. Your time will come.
4) Exfoliate.
Dry skin, ain’t nobody got time for that.
5) Ask that cute boy at the bar for his number.
Girls, wake up. This is the 21st century and the rolls are changing. If you can go up for that job with the equal pay to your male counterpart then you can most certainly pluck up enough courage to ask someone for their number.
There is nothing quite as attractive as confidence. So go and shake what your mumma gave ya and use it.
6) Say yes.
You’ve got work tomorrow so you probably shouldn’t go and have some cocktails with the girls. This is true.. And sure you will feel a little rough at the desk tomorrow. But you are never going to get this time back to be a yes man. So go and be one.
7) Say no.
As much as I agree with doing as much as you possibly can with your days and nights… Let go of the fear of missing out. Sometimes it’s okay to swap a night out or two for a night in with your slippers and trashy tv. It will save your bank balance, give you some time to catch up with your friends and family properly without the loud thrum of music surrounding you. And more importantly – it will give you some time to just get to know yourself.
8) Say ‘I love you’.
Don’t ever forget to tell your loved ones just how much they mean to you… You never know what could happen tomorrow.
9) Learn something new.
Now that we’ve finished education and aren’t studying for study’s sake anymore – don’t forget to educate yourself. Pick up an instrument, get your tongue around a new language, learn about others, practise a new recipe. Sometimes there is no greater reward than the things we learn.
10) Have fun.
Life is too long and serious to take yourself that way. You have enough time during the day at work to be serious… Don’t forget to play and have fun too.
Ever since I was a little girl I’ve had my head constantly buried in a book upon every given opportunity. Once my reading ability surpassed the requirement for one of my childhood faves – the very hungry caterpillar. And other classics such as Green eggs and ham. I discovered fairy tales.
Fairy tales set me up with an expectation of meeting my prince and falling in love and living happily ever after. Even all adult rom coms are a fairy tale in there own right – so I feel I can be slightly forgiven for still holding the happily ever after expectation in my mind.
I’m 23 and have had a few long term relationships. One of those being with the man I thought I was going to marry and have children, a dog, a house – the whole works with. But now at 23 with very little dating experience due to all of my long term relationships stemming from friendships I feel like a bit of an ardvark when it comes to dating.
One day two friends of mine suggested joining Tinder for the craic. Living in Italy at the time of downloading the app with a very small circle of friends (3 – including myself) I thought, why the hell not?
Let me tell you, Tinder is a very different kettle of fish to all of the fairy tales that have been in my mind growing up.
For those of you who have never used Tinder, I will briefly talk you through it. You browse through people’s pictures and you can swipe left for yes and right for no. If you swipe left and they also swipe left on you then you can do a little victory dance as you have now reached the message round of the game. If you swipe right then you never have to see those faces on your screen again – nor have to hear from those people. As simple as that.
So here’s a list of some of my thoughts on Tinder.
1) How on earth have so many men obtained a photo with a Tiger?
2) God damn, people are far more active than I care to be.
3) What’s the deal with stating your height? Is it only guys that do that. Am I supposed to state my height? I haven’t stated my height.
4) No I don’t want to have sex with you random stranger.
5) Oh gee, there goes another tiger pic.
6) Ooh please be the ridiculously good looking one – next picture – damn. That’s just your friend. Should I swipe left just to ask about your friend? Nah. Right it is.
7) Oh shit. It’s my friend. This is awkward. Swipe left. It’s a match! Brief funny chat about finding each other on Tinder followed by never speaking of it again.
8) Well there’s another one of my friends. Same process follows.
9) Hello jail bait, you are definitely not 24.
10) Insert another ‘willing to lie about how we met’ bio here”
My first dating encounter was with this Australian guy in Rome. We drank beer and went for a quick touristy wander before I had to get my coach home. We swapped facebook and have kept in touch as friends ever since.
My second dating encounter was with a guy near my home town. We went on 2 dates fuelled with alcohol and chats about travel, whatsapped a lot and then called it a day.
My third was with a 5’11 New Zealander. Or so he stated – but he definitely lied about his height. And also seemingly photoshopped the majority of his spots out of his pictures. This was going to be awkward and so I did the only thing for this type of situation – I got drunk. He spent the rest of the evening unnecessarily raising his eyebrows suggestively whilst I tried to hide my shudders. He also showed me photos of his coffee machine… He had a lot of photos of his coffee machine. When enough time had passed for me to leave without appearing to be harsh, he went in for the kiss. I dodged the kiss like a ninja and gave him a handshake. That was probably a little insulting but there was nothing else for it.
So although I’ve definitely gained more dating experience from Tinder, I don’t think it’s quite for me.
Is it wrong that I’d much rather have a nap, some snacks and abuse my Netflix account? Maybe this is why I’m so horrendously single.
You should follow me.
Follow me through meadows, jungles and deserts.
You should follow me to the mountains, the sea and the moon.
I have so much to show you.
I’m standing here.
Why can’t you understand that?
I’m watching you cry about me,
But I don’t want you to cry.
I want you to smile and laugh and do a stupid dance like you used to.
Why aren’t you doing any of these things?
I want to hold your hand,
I’m trying to grab it,
But you don’t know that.
Why are you so sad?
I’m right here.
I’m singing along to the song you keep playing.
Please stop crying.
I’m watching as you take another sip of that vodka.
That can’t taste nice straight,
But you’re not even flinching.
You’re writing something.
You look determined…
It’s nice to see you looking determined again.
Why do you look so weak?
Your eyes are struggling to stay open.
Maybe you should take a nap,
Yeah. I think you should take a nap.
Wait, what is that empty packet of pills on your bed next to you?
Did you take all of those?
I’m right here, why can’t you see that I’m still right here?!
I haven’t left you like you think I have.
I need to call you help.
It won’t work, I can’t do it.
God, please – someone call for some help.
I’m screaming now.
Trembling.
You won’t wake up and nobody is calling you help.
Why are you tapping me on the shoulder?
Why can you see me now?
We’re here, but your body’s there.
You shouldn’t be here.
You’re not supposed to be here.
Take my hand and let me show you the world.
Let me show you Countries, languages, people and laughter.
Let me show you love, hopes, dreams and disaster.
Let me teach you all that I know.
And let me learn all that you do.
Take my hand.
Let me show you pain; and even more let me show you fear.
For I fear what will happen if you don’t take my hand.
Let me walk and run and show you all that there is to be seen.
Let me tell you my thoughts and all of my secrets.
Take my hand and don’t let go.
For if you let go then I shall fall.
I shall fall to the darkest of places and I don’t know if i can come back.
Take my hand and hold on tight.
Hold on tight and hold it safe.
For if you take my hand, my hand is yours.
Take my hand and tell me I did nothing wrong.
Take my hand and tell me you didn’t either.
Take my hand and tell me you still want it.
And throughout all of the long silences you have still wanted it.
Many have taken my hand; but only you have truly owned it.
You took my hand and you let it go.
You let me show you love, people and laughter.
You let me show you dreams, hope, fear and pain.
You took my hand and you showed me hope.
You showed me love.
Throughout the long silences; you are my disaster.
You took my hand and you let it go.
You let it go, and you let me fall.
You let me fall and you let me cry.
You took my hand and you let it go.
You let it it go and you let me go.
You let me go and you let me fall.
You let me fall and you didn’t catch me.
I took my hand and I showed myself countries, languages, people and laughter.
I took my hand and I felt pain, fear and disaster.
I took my hand and I felt experiences joy, hopes and dreams.
I took my hand and I didn’t let go.
I took my hand and I won’t let go.
Dear wordpress,
Recently I have become lazy with my blogging and my posts have become few and far between.
Sometimes you fall into a pit of feeling that you have nothing of worth to say, you become distracted by everyday life and your words stop hitting paper or a keypad and are voiced to those around you instead.
That combined with a broken computer make for a concoction of neglecting your own writing and neglecting reading the words of others that you admire. So here I am typing away on my phone trying to think of what to say.
My life in Italy is about to come to an end, and In 2 weeks time I will embark on this crazy new adventure called trying to find my feet and settling down for a while in the UK. This both terrifies and excites me.
Being 20 something in the 21st century is something to be both grateful more and also to be somewhat dismayed about. It’s strange. We have all of these opportunities at our feet. We can travel, we can study, we can do pretty much anything that we decide to put our minds to.. Except for being royalty.. You pretty much have to be born into that one.
At 22 society both wants me to travel and live the dream, but it also expects me to be in a job and well on the way to a great career that will see me through the rest of my life. Is it just me that finds being in their 20’s really difficult, to the extent of wanting to curl up and cry on the sofa for no reason whatsoever at least once a week? Or is that the norm amongst us young adults?
So anyway WordPress, I can’t promise to be outstanding at keeping you up to date for a couple of weeks… But I can promise to have some great stories to tell you soon.
Love Lizzie.
I just came across this poem that I wrote a few years ago.. I thought I would publish it here…
I knew you once, I’m certain I did,
But this person that you’ve become is a person that I barely recognise.
And as I watch you spiral into another emotionless fall;
I can’t help but wonder – are you aware that you’re killing us both?
Sometimes I wish you could be a fly on the wall in your own life,
If you could see the damage you’re creating all around you…
Would you still continue to hurt yourself so?
If I screamed, cried, shouted..
Would it make any difference?
Would you hear me if I told you that I can’t watch you die?
I knew you once, I’m certain sure I did.
You should probably know that I fell in love with you. You are unlike other cities I have visited before, where I have found myself despising the hustle and bustle of some cities… I couldn’t help but find it one of your many endearing qualities.
You made me want to tell you all of my secrets,
all of my desires,
all of my thoughts and hopes.
Florence… the truth is. I love your art, I love your people, I love the live music around every corner. I love you!
I’m 22, I’m single, I write, I teach and I travel.
This pretty much sums me up, this is the me that I am happy being.
It’s a funny one though, one receives an array of reactions when admitting to others about being such a species.
You get the twenty-something girls who are all, ‘You go girl, embracing your independence and freedom, you don’t need a man to tell you who you are or where you are going!’ I mean, cheers girls for having my back… but lets all calm down a little.
You get those types who repeat ‘single’, back to you like you’ve just passed them an out of date chocolate bar to munch on. Their nose falls out of joint, and their lips grimace… and they don’t want to stand too close to you just in case this single disease is contagious in any way. EVERRRRYONE STAAAAAND BACK… CORDON OFF THE AREA STAT… YOU DON’T WANNA CATCH THE SINGLE VIRUS.
Then there’s the sleezy boys that want to bang you; who flash this victory smile, cock their eyebrow and are all like … “Single, you say…?”, which makes you want to kick off your high heels and run as fast as your little legs can carry you.
One of my favourites has got to be the ones concerned over my body clock. “But… don’t you want to have children?”. I’M 22 YEARS OLD! I do want children one day; but I also want to wrestle a crocodile and come out of it alive, save the world, have lunch with the Queen, publish a book, travel the entire world, Skype Obama… but none of these things are going to happen anytime soon.
I have had long and glorious relationships, I have been happy singleton, I have been a bitter singleton, I have been a depressive singleton; but what is it with today’s society that finds it so difficult to allow you to just be any of those things? Everyone has an opinion.
There are so many articles full of relationship advice about how to snare your perfect man, keep the guy, get them all chasing etc.
Girls, my advice. Just be.
Be single, be taken, be you.
Drink too much wine, drink water until you can’t physically drink anymore… but then drink more anyway. Your bloated stomach and full bladder will hate you for it… but my god your skin will be glorious. Have days where you forget to shave your legs,travel, dine, party, walk…. be free little happy you.
My Grandfather always told me to be the change that I wanted to see in the world. As many grandparents often are… Mine was my biggest fan. He thought that everything I did was wonderful and was proud of all of my achievements… Mainly consisting of epic Lego towers and spelling b’s.
My grandfather had me down for saving the world and winning a Nobel prize in the process… He was just waiting for the day where he would have to dust off his best suit and hat to sit in the front row and grin wildly as I received my award.
My Dat really did have the biggest heart that I have ever known… And I have always thought about him with every big decision I have made; and whether or not he would be proud of me.
Recently my Dat would have found himself feeling uncomfortably disappointed in me; over the newest Facebook phenomenon and my reaction to it.
#Nomakeupselfieforcancer
When I first saw this spreading all over my Facebook newsfeed… I thought that it was a ridiculous notion. Not the charity part… I’m all for charity… But I couldn’t quite comprehend how placing the word ‘cancer’ to sit alongside a selfie would ‘raise awareness’ for such a horrific disease that has entered all of our lives at one stage or another.
I read an article titled ‘Girls, your face won’t change the world!’, and I agreed with it entirely. It spoke about how just saying the word wasn’t raising awareness whatsoever about the disease…. And to a certain extent I do still agree with this.
The word isn’t telling people about the disease, how we can prevent it etc… That much is still true.
But it is doing so much more than that. Figures have shown that the cause has raised over £1,000,000 for cancer research so far.
We are all unfortunately taught about cancer at some stage in our lives… But we are not however taught about donating and contributing and what a huge difference it can make. So for me, Nomakeupselfieforcancer has done just what it promised it would do. It’s raised awareness. An awareness for charity and donations… So for that I salute you ladies.
You have made me to a 180, followed by several backflips in regards to my feelings on this.
Social media has seen many fads running all over it… From ‘neknominations’ Which involved people trying to outbid eachother in how much alcohol they can consume at one time… This led to some very tragic deaths.
Next we saw ‘Nicknominations’, which involved posting a picture of Nicholas Cage in a designated mood given to you by the nominee.
Now we have ‘Nomakeup nominations’. Which has not only raised a vast amount of money for cancer… But has taught young girls that they can strip off their war paint every now and again and still look beautiful 100% natural. The magazines which we insist on reading teaches us how to apply it… So well done Facebook for teaching us how to take it off.
I think my main problem with the ‘Nomakeupselfieforcancer’, was the posting of a donation which I thought at the time was for karma point boosts. I mean, you wouldn’t buy a sandwich for a homeless person just to get your mate to snap you doing it So that you could put it on Facebook would you? No you wouldn’t… Because that would be strange.
So I found it bizarre that suddenly donation pics were everywhere… That is how I saw it. But in hindsight, why the hell not? Why shouldn’t donating be cool? If you posting a picture of your donation on Facebook inspires at least one other person to do the same… Then I applaud you. Seeing donations and good deeds as cool, and making others want to jump on the bandwagon too is probably one of the best things that has come out of Facebook.
So well done girls.
Good on you boys for getting your slap on.
Your face really can change the world… Or at least make it a better place.
My grandfather would be proud of you.
