Love from, Florence Grace

Being a responsible adult is really not my forte. Having recently turned 21, you'd think I'd be able to fend for myself pretty well. However, when I poured a pan of boiling water over my hands whilst trying to drain my noodles the other night, I realised I'm about as far from a responsible adult as you could ever be...and it's probably always going to be that way! I don't eat properly I can go hours without eating. I'll go the whole day and not touch a single piece of food and then it gets to 11:38pm and I find myself eating a Doritos share bag and some crab sticks. Don't ask me why these are my go to snacks, I honestly don't know. Regardless, how can I ever expect to look after another human being when I can't even feed myself properly? What's a cup of tea? Or any hot drink for that matter. I don't know how to make a cup of tea or coffee and I think this is why no one ever wanted me for internships when I was younger. I cook for ten ...

So in case you missed my onslaught of social media posts celebrating my 21st birthday over the last two weeks, guess what? I just turned 21! I'm basically a fully fledged adult now (supposedly) and yet there is so many 'adult' things that I literally cannot do. In fact, some of them I can't even comprehend doing. I figure now is a good a time as ever to work on accomplishing at least some  of these things, so here's a list of things I want to do before 22. Learn to cook. I don't mean just shoving chips in the oven or boiling some pasta. I mean actually learn to cook something from scratch, like a proper adult.  Learn to drive. HONESTLY I can not go on like this. I'm still torn between the balanced pros and cons of driving v. not driving but I need some form of independence and I feel like this will happen through driving.  Go to the dentist alone. (Make the appointment too...) Go to the opticians alone. Ditto above.  Get a 'proper' job. I...

As an adult now, I often look back on my childhood and think about things that I wish had been different- not necessarily because I feel that these aspects were bad but because I just wish they'd been...well. You know, different. So here's a list of things I often think about and wish were a little different!  I wish I'd been asked to do chores. Yes, really! In a way, I'm incredibly  lucky because I had such an easy, relaxed childhood. There were no chores lists or rotas, me and my sisters literally did nothing around the house- as bad as that sounds! Our parents were made to do so many chores from such a young age themselves, they didn't want our childhood to be the same. While they were making cups of tea and dinners for themselves from the age of about 9, if not younger, me and my sisters have never  had to do anything like that, other than tidy away the toys we played with! But as good as this sounds, now at 20 years old I am an ill equipped adult. ...

So money is something that I think worry about a lot. I usually whizz through my entire pay check each month, usually with little to show for it, wondering where it all went. Often, I think about how I'll ever be able to afford to move out, live independently, pay for driving lessons should I choose to have them...the list goes on. Of course, the reality of the situation is that I realistically won't be able to save any real money until I have a full time job and then I can afford to save a couple of hundred a month to put towards moving out whilst still having money to spend on myself. However I've now encountered an obstacle. The obstacle being, my younger sister's earnings. Her wage is already higher than mine as it is, but she has an awful  lot of money in the bank right now, and she's just started to work full time so this amount will only increase! It made me sit back and think, boy, I would love  to know I had that much money sat in my account...

The other day I went for lunch with two of my girl friends, one of whom is pregnant. We hadn't seen each other in a while so it was really good to have a nice long catch up. Some of the conversations we had included topics such as senile parents, the cost of nappys and raising a child, moving out, petrol prices and how much it costs to run a car, engagements, job problems, financial issues, baby names and relationship problems. At the time, I didn't even notice it. I was just chatting away with my friends, talking about all of the issues we were having with life. Now, when I think back to that lunch date, something hits me... I am an adult . I was talking about nappy prices! Baby names! How much petrol to put in a car! Just a couple of years ago I would have been talking about the latest school drama, what essays we'd been set, had I missed an assignment, gossip from last weekends party. Now me and my friends are talking about proper, grown up things. I mean, ...

When I was younger, I wanted to be married with children by the time I was 20, and had decided I would not have children later than 25, because I wanted to be a young, pretty, cool mum like my mum was. I think that was what influenced this naive idea- the fact that my parents were married with children by the time they were 22. This, and the fact that a lot  of Jacqueline Wilson books I was reading (she was my favourite author) featured young, single mums who were pretty and cool and all had babies when they were 16.  It wasn't until I reached 16 myself that I realised how far off 20 was- the answer? Not very far. I had started to consider university and further education. I couldn't possibly have a baby whilst at uni! I made calculations in my head. Finish uni by 21, baby by 22, 23 and still be a young, cool mum with a degree.  Then I reached 18. 20 was creeping ever closer. I had given up on the idea of uni, much to my school and my parents disappointment...