Hi, 

Is that the way to start a blog nowadays? I don’t know. I’d like to say that I’m here because my blog called and was shouting my name like McDonald’s delivery does most of the time. But to tell you the truth, I’m here because I didn’t cancel my WordPress subscription in time and I’m a firm believer in getting my money’s worth so the blog is back (can also be read in Elton John’s voice as the bitch is back), but it is a great reason for me to get back into writing because I’ve always loved it but as I’ve got older, the grand old age of 23, I struggle to make time to do it as life gets busy. But here we are ready to go with the flow and try to blog again, a statement I have said many, many times over the years I have had a blog. 

I wrote my very first post a few years ago now at the age of 16 and it is safe to say I’ve changed a little bit since then. I thought a nice way to welcome myself back into blogging would be to sit down and reply to my “Dear Future Lia” post that I wrote back then. I wrote this letter to Lia in five years which would make me 21, it seems a little bit mad that I’ve gone past 21 but here we are 2 years late. 

Dear 16 year old Lia, 

Hang on in there, looking at the timestamp for when this post was originally written you were going through a lot but things get better. You’re a lot stronger now and I’m proud of you for many things. I’m not sure how to start a letter to my previous self, we’re a bit awkward aren’t we? So I’ll get straight into it. 

You still drink a lot of tea but maybe not on the levels you used to when you didn’t have to buy your own milk. You do have a milkman now which is fun and after a year the novelty has still not worn off, that two days a week you open your door and the milk is just waiting for you. Fun fact now you like fancy tea and girl, you even try to drink one peppermint tea a day. Snapchat karaoke sessions aren’t a constant in your life now but rambles happen. Oatmeal and raisin cookies are still incredible however I’d say it’s now just cookies that are the best thing to grace the earth, you aren’t fussed on flavour as long as it is a cookie. Taylor Swift does still shake it off and is doing pretty well for herself. Don’t worry, you never did have to go to extreme cases to see Arctic Monkeys live but you have seen them now. You did sit in the silent section of the library at University trying to get tickets and screamed when you got through getting some funny looks in the process. You have now seen the Lion King, but only once and you don’t remember what happens but hey still counts. Guess what? Bees, you love them. No need to be scared of that kind of buzz, be scared of a wasp buzz they don’t care who they sting. We like some cats now but moths are very much still a no no, why do they have a need to fly at your face? I know I’m pale but do I look like a lightbulb?!

I’m sorry that you asked about A Levels because wow, we hated them. Awful. In fact you’ve blocked those entire two years out of your life. Could we paid to go back in time and do our two years of A Levels again? Nope. One million pounds you say? Still not a chance. But you got through them and got into University. We stuck with the same A Levels we had originally thought of, English Literature, English Language and Psychology. You learned to like Othello after you needed to study him which didn’t really help you. Funny thing about University is you did go and you did not study journalism. You studied Psychology and came out with a 2:1 and do you know what? We are so proud of you, because it was hard. You wanted to drop out during the first year but your Mum talked you out of it which turned out to be a good thing. You were a Course Rep and a Department Rep and now your job involves both of them but in terms of “what do you want to be when you grow up?” you have no idea. But that’s okay because you are 23 and you’re allowed to be unsure, despite what your brain tells you on a regular basis. 

Driving is still pretty cool, although the price of petrol nowadays is not. You do not want a Range Rover or a Porsche, you remember loving Minis and wanting one when you were tiny? Well you have Maureen the Mini and you love her. You’d be terrible at parking a Range Rover because you hit at least two walls a week in your tiny car now. Someone help the world when you ever get a bigger car. You’ve done a fair few roadtrips with Arctic Monkeys being blasted out whilst singing your heart out and they were all as good as 16 year old Lia imagined they’d be. 

We don’t read our horoscope that often anymore, why did we stop doing that? Will add to to-do list to start again. By the way, we still love a to-do list. 

“Are you confident with your appearance and who you are?” I’m not gonna lie 16 year old Lia this one hit me in the gut. You and your appearance don’t always get along, and when I say don’t always it is mostly a no from me but you’re learning. It makes me sad that 16 year old Lia was learning and 23 year old Lia is probably harder on herself now than 16 year old Lia was. It is a journey, and there’s diversions and there’s road closures and there’s temporary traffic lights that break and stay on red, but we’ll get to our destination at some point. You’re confident in who you are now and you never feel more confident than when you are dressed in a very colourful outfit that looks like a child has picked it and your Dad looks at you in a “why” kind of way. Trust me, he does that often and we don’t even live there anymore. There are days when you struggle with confidence and question your worth but you fake it until you make it and channel your inner Elle Woods. Spoiler alert, somewhere in between 16 and 23 you discover the film Legally Blonde and it changes your life. You have indeed started to see more of the world, and the UK, and have been to Paris, Malaga, Albufeira, Halkidi, Cologne and Edinburgh. The places in the world are just as wonderful as you’d hoped they would be, but there’s a lot that needs changing in the world and now you have a lot of opinions and stand up for the underdog. 

You have indeed moved out. Just over a year ago you bought your very own home with someone who became very important in your life just a few months after you wrote your Dear Future Self letter. You have a lot of mugs but you did take over 20 to a charity shop the other day so I am going to take that as progress. Candles, yes! We’ve discovered TK Maxx and love a good shopping trip to stock up on candles, but really we see candles anywhere and we will buy them. Quotes are still a strong feature but not everywhere. Pictures everywhere are something we are working on! In your head they are up and in their specifically placed homes but right now you still need to find cool frames and the pictures to put in them. During University we were excellent at getting out of bed but now we are very much anchored in. 

After having a quick scroll, I can confirm your Instagram did get less selfie-ish. We did delete all of our pictures pre-2015 and probably some post-2015 too which is sad, we wish we could laugh at ourselves. Not going to lie, to say I love a list, a bucket list is something we don’t have. I wish I could see what was on 16 year old Lia’s bucket list but I guarantee it was taken from Tumblr and she hadn’t heard of half of the things on there. Maybe creating a bucket list is something you should add to your to-do list. For peak organisation we have an “ongoing to-do list” in the reminders app on our phone, we love not giving ourselves a break *insert toxic eye roll here*. But I think it is safe to say you haven’t messed your life up yet. 

I’m not sure how to sign this off so I’ll go with a mini speech from 23 year old Lia to 16 year old Lia. I wish I could sit you down and tell you that everything will be okay and things will work its way out. You will go through so much Lia – you’ll experience losing people to death, you’ll experience friendships ending that you thought would never end, you’ll be shocked to your core, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll question yourself so much and you’ll process so much. Some things take longer to process than others but you’ll carry on and you’ll be strong. You’ll meet some really, really great people and some of them stay in your life for a long time and some are pretty temporary but that is okay too, because you learn that not everyone is around forever and that isn’t a bad thing. Friends is still your comfort TV show and trust me there will be so many times that you don’t have the words to say to express how you’re feeling so you just whack it on and cuddle up with a blanket and it will work and you’ll feel ready to face the world again. So carry on, Lia, we have a good life ahead of us. 

Oh, and spoiler alert, not long after you buy a house you also buy a puppy. He is a boxer and his name is Elton and he becomes your little best mate. 

Carry on carrying on, 

Love from 23 year old Lia x