Here is to an adventure

I am about to start the biggest adventure of my life. For the last 17 years I have stuck to the same routine, lived with the same family and done basically the same thing every day. I mean, sitting in a different seat at dinner time is a bit of a crazy move (and dangerous, Matty’s reaction every time the seating plan changes is lethal). Every single decision I have made in the last 17 years has either been run past someone else or made for me. But recently I have had to make some huge decisions on my own. 

My first decision, America. In approximately 6 months time I am going to being flying out to America for 3 months of working with children with special needs in American summer camp. And let me tell you, I am bricking it. I have never been so terrified of anything in my life. It was only a couple of weeks ago that I went to London alone, only for a few hours, and even then I was shaking for most of it (there are some scary people in London, including one guy outside Victoria who tried to convince me that actually, I was mistaken, he wasn’t a creepy 50 year old guy who hadn’t showered in a while, he was really a 5 year old girl who was lost, could I help her find her Mummy?). But in 6 months I am going to a new place, with new people in a completely different culture. But, despite me being terrified, I have never looked forward to anything more in my life. I will be working with some incredible people (kids with special needs are the best, I’m telling you), I will learn more from 3 months in America than 2 years of college. It is going to be crazy, but it is going to be amazing. 

Next decision? The whole ‘what I am going to do with the rest of my life’ decision, no biggie. For 14 years I was certain that I was going to be a doctor (when I was younger I had to write why I wanted to do it as part of a school project, I wrote 2 pages on how much money doctors earn and how you get to live in a house that has a fridge that looks like a cupboard). But when I turned 15 I realised that I probably shouldn’t be basing my life decisions on wanting a cupboard that turns in to a fridge. For the last 2 years I’ve gone from teacher, to speech and language therapist, to unicorn, back to speech and language therapist, and then back again to unicorn…the amount of times I’ve had a genuine conversation on the bus with Bryony where we both feel a suitable career option is prostitution is actually a little bit worrying. I salute anyone who has had me on the phone (mainly Donna…sorry!) whilst I’m having a ‘let’s sort out my career’ evening who has tried to convince me that actually, maybe there are better career options for me than ‘professional Candy Crush player’ and possibly sitting in a corner crying for the rest of eternity is actually probably not that beneficial for me (I wasn’t having any of it, in case you were wondering). I’ve finally decided what I’m going to do with my life. Hopefully, providing one of the 5 universities that I’ve picked wants me, I will be going on an adventure next September to study mental health nursing. I can’t even change my mind now, and as much as that scares me, it excites me. (Any advice welcome, I’m bricking it!) 

So here is to adventures...BRING. IT. ON.