twenty one & a little life update

Oh hello there, (unintentional) long time no speak.  I am now old!  Twenty one to be precise!  Of course I say that (somewhat) in jest as I’m aware twenty one isn’t exactly ancient, but well, years seem to be flying by pretty bloody quickly.  And I am now the not-even-slightly proud owner of several grey hairs.  Wish I was joking with that one but alas, the greys have sprouted.  How the bloody hell did that happen?

To quote myself a year ago, ‘being in your twenties only really counts from 21’ and here I am, still not feeling like I’m ‘in my twenties’ but also feeling like my teenage years were yonks ago.  Twenty one feels like a very in between-y age.  In some ways old, and in some ways very, very young.  Some folk this age are still at uni and living the full time student life, and some folk have been working full time for 3 years, buying nice cars and killing it in their careers.  Some don’t seem to have grown up at all since Year Nine, and some are having babies and talking about maternity leave and breastfeeding struggles.  Basically, some are very much still kids and some are fully fledged adults.

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Falling down the rabbit hole of Facebook stalking people you went to school with (and remembering people you’d forgotten existed) is enough to see that 21 is a real mixed bag of an age.  And amongst those of extremes, there are some of us hovering somewhere in between, feeling like a proper grown up one day and a floundering mess of a teenager the next.  I mean, I feel like I deserve a medal when I manage to make it in time for the train without rushing and/or forgetting anything – as you’d expect any functioning adult to be able to do on the daily.  ‘Tis a bloody achievement for me.  However I’ve also been told several times lately that I seem ‘switched on’ for my age and have my head screwed on, so I must be doing something right.

Sidenote: something else I’ve been told increasingly often lately is that I look Russian.  Honestly, I’ve been asked if I’m Eastern European so many times.  Never realised I looked that way but apparently so!  Looking ever the more Russian the older I get.  Almost feels like a disappointment to reply that nope, I’m just from Lancashire.

So yes, twenty one is a weird limbo land, but I think I’m going to quite like it.  ‘Old enough to know better but young enough to get away with it’ springs to mind.  It’s the last ‘big birthday’ before 30 (whatever that means), so I guess it’s supposed to be a significant age in one way or another, right?  Exactly what makes it significant I don’t know, but I’m happy to believe that 21 is interesting stage in life.

As for my actual life at the moment, wishy washy thoughts aside – I’m currently working two jobs (as of very recently!) whilst studying part time and I’m pretty happy with how that’s all come together.  Certainly isn’t what I thought I’d be doing if you’d asked me 3 years ago, but I’m taking opportunities as they come and hoping for the best.  The combination of astrophysics + modelling + social media might be a tad… unconventional maybe, but I enjoy all three so we’ll see how it works out!  My Instagram bio description of ‘blogger/model/student and winging it through all 3’ couldn’t be more accurate, honestly.  Maybe one day I’ll change that to ‘knowing exactly what I’m doing in life’ but something tells me that won’t be happening any time soon.  Life currently involves spending lots of time reading about quantum physics in the sun’s core whilst attempting to block out loud conversations happening next to me on a (usually busy and delayed) commuter train to and from Manchester, so it’s an interesting challenge, let’s say.  Still working on a good routine to get lots of work done and leave plenty time for fun/chill/gym/going places, but I’m getting there.  I have a good feeling for twenty one!

Lily Kate x

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Photography by Simon Jones