When I was fifteen I wrote a post to my seventeen year old self, which I then followed up with a response letter in a blog post a few months ago. It was so interesting to see how much I had changed in my views and what I wanted to do with my life since then as well as look back on who I was back then and so I thought why not do it again? This time I am writing to my twenty one year old self from the viewpoint of my eighteen year old self.
Hi Twenty One Year Old Meg,
Remember how ever since you were fifteen you said you wanted to live in the city? Well, here you are living in London and studying something that you (hopefully still) love with your whole heart. There's nothing better than that and I really hope you are still enjoying it in the way that you imagine yourself to.
Right now, at eighteen you are on your gap year and want nothing more than to go back to education and be able to write essays and do weekly shoots. There is something about being surrounded by like minded creatives and always being pushed to develop your skills that you are craving at the moment - that and the idea of having a routine where you're consistently busy are two factors that just sound so appealing for some reason.
As you read this are now also currently about to finish your second year of university and head into your third (and final) year of work. How is it going? Hopefully you've managed to go on tours and shoot live music more often, after all this was half the appeal of uni in London rather than somewhere else.
Here's a few things that I really hope you have achieved so far:
- Shoot a tour for a band (yes, at eighteen you have already shot a few bands and shows over the past few months but to go on tour would be the biggest dream, please say you have been on at least one tour so far).
- Have checked off at least three of the places you wanted to visit on the ten places in ten years list.
- Learn to drive! Hopefully by now you will have got your shit together and actually learnt to drive, this will help so much when you are back home as well as generally being so much more convenient.
- Have a creative job instead of something that you are working just to be able to afford life, right now the idea of still being a barista or something along those lines doesn't appeal to you at all. You want to begin to put your mark on the creative industry and the sooner, the better.
As well as wanting to have achieved things I wonder if you have found love, or are you still learning to enjoy your own company? Are you still somehow dating the same version of the same boy over and over without even realising you are doing it until your friends point it out to you? Have you moved on from guitarists that make you cry, perhaps you've found a drummer that can make you cry instead - anything to avoid another heartbreak over a guitarist who will most likely write a song about you.
Are you still vegetarian, and have you managed to get your shit together transition into veganism yet? If not that's okay too, but hopefully you've been consuming less dairy in general.
Finally, are the friends you have at eighteen still around? Have you made new friends too and if so what are they like? Who are they?
Whatever happens, I hope you are happy with your life and that you are on track to being the kind of person you want to be. Perhaps you are even closer to that than you realise, perhaps you are further away from it than you planned. Whichever one it is, as long as you are working to better yourself it will be okay.
I think that's all for now.
Love,
Meg.
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