
Turning 20.
Hello again! Here is my new article about Turning 20 and coming to some realisations as I get closer and closer to adulthood!
I celebrated my 20th birthday a week ago today and since then I’ve come to a lot of realisations. Before you say it, no, this wasn’t just because my age had changed. There have been a number of events within the past week that have changed my perspective on life.
The Birthday.
If you’re reading this I imagine you’ve celebrated at least 16 or 17 birthdays in your lifetime and you’re probably aware of how different your special day feels as the year goes go on. This year was one of the first where I wasn’t really excited about it being my birthday and for me this was strange as my birthday is one of my favourite days in the year. To start off the big day I was awake at 7am ready to tackle my 9–5 shift which wasn’t the biggest of my concerns considering my friends and family tend to refer to me as a workaholic.
Of course it turned out to be one of the busiest days of the year whilst but again that didn’t bother me and I was looking forward to the celebrations afterwards. I’m not going to go through every hour of the day so to cut a long story short -
I met with a few friends. We went out and got absolutely slaughtered. Of course we regretted everything the following morning.
Which in my opinion is how every teenager should spend their birthday - if they’re of legal drinking age of course. The only problem is I wasn’t a teenager anymore and I had a lot of adult tasks to do that next day and nothing was getting rid of this hangover. I finally got up and showered and went about my day gradually feeling better as the hours went by. Birthday finished, onto the next topic.

Getting things done.
For me personally I never feel the pressure of completing tasks until the very last minute, surely I’m not the only one? When it comes to University projects I usually find myself leaving it until a couple of days or maybe a week before the deadline at which point everyone else has finished. Somehow I still manage to do really well in these projects but I end up wondering if I didn’t leave it so late could I do better? This got me thinking about my productivity and how I was tackling these projects.
As I mentioned earlier I’m a bit of a workaholic and I love my job but I also love everything about my University and the course. The only issue is I can never seem to find the motivation to do anything uni related. There are probably quite a few reasons such as -
My sleeping pattern, eating habits and all those types of things that ‘adults’ are supposed to do.
I’ve decided that it’s time for me to sort this out and start focusing on myself more to make sure I can make the most of my time and be as productive as I can as well as making sure I’m keeping myself healthy for obvious reasons. I’ll make sure to keep you updated on how this goes.

Keeping calm.
One of my biggest issues is getting as stressed out as I can possibly be over the smallest of things. If my Mum laid eyes on this section of the article she’d happily tell you all about it. No matter how big or small an issue is I always seem to get myself way more stressed than I need to be. Recently I’ve been asking myself what’s the point?
Being a student and living in London is quite stressful as I’m sure you can imagine or relate to. One of the most stressful things in my life right now is me moving house. For whatever reason estate agents like to make it as difficult as they can for students when it comes to securing a new property -
For somebody like me who is easily stressed out this is not a good combination.
So back to me asking myself why bother getting so stressed out, I’m going to try my best not to do this anymore. At first it seemed so difficult but then I sat down and realised that there’s no point working yourself up over things that you can’t change. I think this is something you have to realise yourself as you’re growing up and being exposed to new situations in life. Again, we’ll see how this one works out but hopefully I can keep my cool.

Not everything has to be expensive.
Anyone that knows me well enough can tell you that I love to shop and it never stays within my budget. When it comes to clothes and shoes I love to have the latest of everything - let me remind you that I am a student. Luckily I work in a well paid job for my age and it lets me treat myself (more than I should). To list a few of my favourite brands: Stone Island, C.P Company, Adidas, Balenciaga and everything in-between, of course I can’t afford the higher end brands such as Balenciaga and Gucci but I still love them.
I’ve spent a lot of time reading about minimalism lifestyles recently and learned to appreciate how it all works. I don’t have to buy the most expensive item in the store just to prove anything to anyone, all that should matter is how it looks. Like I said before, if my Mum is reading this she’ll be sat behind the screen screaming -
I told you so, you never listen!
But like I mentioned earlier, sometime you have to realise things yourself. Your parents can’t decide everything for you and sometimes you have to explore and maybe make those mistakes or come to some realisations on your own. That on its own has been one of my biggest realisations to date.

So there it is, my second article. Hopefully you can relate to some of the things that have been going on in my life at the moment or maybe even take something away from the article. Let me know of any similar situations you’ve had or any advice you can give in the comments below!
Tyler.
