Lifestyle Review: 5 Life Lessons I Learnt Before Turning 25

Tomorrow is my 25th birthday. I will have officially existed on this earth for one quarter of a century. Now whilst I don't think age really matters, and many of you may be reading this and thinking "that's not old", I can assure you that there are days when I definitely feel it in my bones. But with age comes knowledge and so here's a few things I've come to learn...

A lot of people have come and gone from my life in the space of 25 years - some that I'm still saddened about and some that I know was for the best. I've come to realise that friendship break ups are unfortunate but common for people around our age - we're finally finding ourselves and our situations change. We have work, relationships, our own goals and sometimes it's hard to juggle. Life just gets in the way. People grow apart and people have silly arguments that they leave unresolved. Some people, however, are garbage people that you were better off not having in the first place. The good thing about being a 'grown up' is that we get to choose our friends. We're not bound by circumstance, we don't have to associate with the people who don't bring anything to our lives. That doesn't necessarily mean that we don't miss those who've moved on, however. Personally, I'm much happier with maintaining a small, close circle of genuine friends over a large group of fair-weather friends who only get in touch when they want something.


I think it was very easy to make excuses not to do things in my early twenties but I soon realised that no one was going to help me but me. You are the master of your own destiny. When I left uni, I set myself a set of goals and I sort out to make them happen. It took a lot of time but I did it. That doesn't mean it was easy but I found that when I stopped to break down the necessary steps, I could do it. I think that's the same for a lot of people fresh out of Uni also. Much like I did, they come out and don't always know what they want to do and feel lost. It's easily done. However, the best thing you can do is set yourself goals - big or small and you'll see that you can pretty much do anything you put your mind to. It might take months, years, money and unfortunately it might be tough but you'll get there.

One of my most basic rules of life that applies to everything. Don't be a dick. Don't like someone else's opinion? That's fine, just don't be a dick. Don't like someone's makeup or style? Don't like someone/thing or a particular race or sex? That's also fine (although not really), just don't be a dick about it - keep it to yourself and don't act on it. We all slip up and make mistakes sometimes but this is a good lesson to always have at the forefront of your mind.

A wise woman once said "Choose your battles, babe Then you'll win the war" (well done if you didn't have to google that).Whilst I don't get involved with blogging dramas on Twitter and whatnot, I have witnessed a lot of it on my feed lately. I'm sure that most of it feels justified to the parties involved but mostly I felt that they just didn't need to waste their energy on replying to someone who had clearly ignored the don't be a dick rule. It can also mean letting go of the little small things, such  as an annoying habit your partner has or when your friend said something that was a bit blunt but wasn't really the end of the world. I've come to learn that you can't fight every battle in these instances and sometimes it's best to just let it go and carry on or decide to walk away entirely. Don't sweat the small stuff, baby.

This kind of links back to not being a dick and picking your battles but I've come to learn that not everything is so black and white in life. Recently, I've found myself thinking that maybe "live and let live" really is the best option in life. When I was younger, I had some very strong views and opinions towards life - things like sex, drugs, life/death, feminist issues etc. Whilst my fundamental principles and beliefs have stayed the same, as time's gone on a lot of these opinions have changed because I've changed. I've come to learn and accept that no two circumstances are the same - there's no right or wrong way sometimes. Except with racial hatred - that's just wrong. No two ways about that one. Don't be a dick.

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That's it for my so-called words of wisdom and pretending I've got it all figured out. I do, however, feel that I'm not doing too bad for someone of my age and so I'm feeling pretty proud of what I've managed to achieve thus far (even if some days I feel a little boring). So tell me, what are your favourite life lessons? What miles stones did you achieve (or hope to) before your 25th birthday? As always, I love reading your comments so please do leave me lots of lovely ones below. Also - a special shout out to my wonderful Dad who's birthday it is today (20th May). He really is an awesome Dad and I'm looking forward to celebrating with him tonight.

Until next time,