Thoughts On Turning 21

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LOOK WHO IS OFFICIALLY 21

Twenty-one years. I’ve been alive for 21 years…goodness knows how I’ve made it this far, but I have by some miracle and I’m ready to embark on the next 21 years of my life. It’s been one heck of a rollercoaster ride and at times I’ve just wanted to stop and get off…but I’ve persevered through awkward teen years, bad hair dye and overdramatic eyeliner. It’s crazy just to think how much I’ve grown in the past couple of years alone, let alone in my whole life and I’m pretty proud of the person I’ve become. Sure I can be loud and overwhelming but I’m also loving and sensitive…and I love pizza probably a bit too much, oh well. In the past few years, I’ve stopped trying to be who people want me to be and have instead become the person I want to be. The person I should be.

I was extra excited for my birthday this year, I’ve made several plans including a dinner with my family, Sam & 2 friends and then a night out with some great friends (so I expect I’m very hungover when this post goes live). Then I’m also celebrating with another night out when I get back to uni…because is it even a 21st if you don’t have multiple celebrations? I’m going all extra this year and even got massive 21 balloons in rose gold cause I’m a cliche blogger. Although I’m not normally someone that likes to be the centre of attention (unless I’m performing), this year I’m going to enjoy it and accept it.

If you want to see my thoughts on 2017 and how my life went then be sure to read Looking Back On 2017
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MISTAKES ARE PART OF GROWING UP

There’s no point worrying about making mistakes because everyone makes them and sure some are bigger than others, but in reality, I wouldn’t be who I am today if I didn’t make the mistakes I had. I’ve laid at wake many times in my life with thoughts running through my head and overthinking situations that honestly don’t even need to be thought about more than once. Sometimes mistakes can lead to funny stories, such as walking into the wrong gender toilets on a night out…or if Dominos make a mistake with your order, ring them and request they send out the new one free of charge. Mistakes don’t just have to be bad, they’re character building…except certain mistakes such as cheating…that’s not a mistake, that’s a decision.[/pipdig_padded_text] [dd-parallax img=”https://alicia-smith.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/420F4B94-1A54-464B-97FC-6843B9F06A66.jpg” height=”650″ speed=”3″ z-index=”0″ position=”left” offset=”false”][/dd-parallax]

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ALWAYS BE KIND

It doesn’t cost a single penny to be kind to someone, during my teen years I probably wasn’t the nicest person in the world and I paid the price for it and didn’t have many friends. Now I try to be kind to everyone and I’ve seen that now more people want to spend time with me and chat to me, even if I still don’t have the biggest friendship group I have several close friends that mean the world to me. I also love nothing more than chatting away to the little old lady that decided to sit next to me on the bus because I had a friendly face, or pulling funny faces at a sad child to cheer them up. Sometimes just smiling at a stranger on the tube or in the street can make their day.[/pipdig_right] [pipdig_padded_text]

DON’T LIVE IN THE PAST

There’s no point living in the past because you don’t have the ability to change it, instead of clinging to memories of a relationship let them go and see what new things you can discover. You should live in the moment, and it’s something I’ve tried to do a lot more the past couple of years and in doing so I’ve been a much happier person and while I’ve also been looking to the future, there’s no point planning your entire life out because you never know what’s going to happen. Just 3 years ago I thought I’d be auditioning to go onto a west end stage and now I don’t want to because I’ve found something I enjoy just as much (blogging) without the pressure to be perfect and fit a certain mould.

EAT THE WHOLE BAR OF CHOCOLATE IF YOU WANT

Gone are my days of stressing over my weight or size, and while I used to try and come off as body confident it was a much as it seemed, but now I’m loving my body. Yes, there are still ways it could be improved but I don’t hate clothes shopping or being naked in front of somebody else like I used to. While I try to eat pretty healthy, if I want to eat a whole chocolate bar of whole Dominos pizza second time I’ve mentioned Dominos in this post…can they sponsor me yet? to myself why shouldn’t I? Sure it’s probably not the healthiest decision but as long as I’m not doing it every day there’s no reason not to indulge. My curves are beautiful and I shouldn’t be ashamed of them[/pipdig_padded_text]
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HAPPINESS IS KEY

Being happy in life has always been one of my priorities, after being bullied for several years and struggling to find happiness in certain aspects of my life, I can now say my happy in nearly every aspect of my life. I’ve learnt that only I can control my happiness, no-one else can control what or who makes me happy…only I have that power. One the places I’m at my happiness is tucked up in bed with Sam binge watching some sort of show with the rain tapping on the window, or sat outside in the sun with my nose in a good book.

Life is so much nicer if you’re happy, everything is slightly easier…even when everything goes tits up there’s some sort of silver lining to everything. Just having a more positive outlook on life makes life seem more positive in general, also only doing things that make you happy is always a good thing. There’s no point doing something if it’s just going to make you miserable…unless it’s a necessity and then always try to balance it out with something that makes you happy.

PHOTOS ARE A MEMORY IN THE RAW

Since blogging I’ve gotten back to taking more photographs. I used to be extremely snap happy in school and loved documenting moments but I felt out of the habit in college because I was so busy training and studying to make sure I got into uni. Now I’m always taking photos and carry my camera most places I go. I recently ordered a ton of photographs to pop into a blogging scrapbook I started on in the summer of 2016 and kind of fell off doing because I got distracted by university and blogging and life really. However, I love nothing more than looking back at photographs and remembering what I felt like in that moment and what I was experiencing in my life etc.
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Photography

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All photos within this post were taken by my myself on my Olympus Pen E-PL7 in unnatural lighting. They were then edited on Photoshop CC 2015 and VSCO.
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