Today is December 31st 2019, the last day of the year and the last day of the decade. Honestly, only now has it dawned on me that this is the end of the decade, which is mind boggling to me. So in a bid to totally embarrass myself, I thought I’d make a little blog about the last 10 years of my life.

2010 - 12/13 Years Old

In 2010 I was a year 8 and later a year 9 student in secondary school, I didn’t yet understand how to maintain my hair and style it… I’ll save myself having to write this a further 5 times because I was very late to figuring out curly hair! In August 2010, my mum, sisters and I went to New York, I’ve included this lovely photo of 13 year old me in front of the Statue of Liberty, looking… interesting. This was actually the year I got Facebook, an interesting thing to remember about a year but lucky me, it gave me an easier way to find the embarrassing pictures I need for this very blog post!

2011 - 13/14 Years Old

Nothing amazingly memorable happed to me in 2011, though it’s still a year I look back on fondly. I hear a lot of people say they hated their school days, but I loved those days, I enjoyed the structure and social side of getting up and going to school 190 days of the year. I was in a group of around ten friends, had our own little fights and problems but we also had a lot of inside jokes and nonsense humour that only made sense to us. This is the year I referred to in my ‘Welcome to my Life’ blog post. I stood up in front of my whole class, 30 14 year olds, (this is probably the most judgemental group of people I could’ve chosen to do this in front of) I stood up and I sang Lady Gaga’s ‘Telephone.’ I really don’t know how I did that, I was confident as a 14 year old but to sing in front of people?! Well, go me!

2012 - 14/15 Years Old

This is a brilliant picture my dad took of me while we were in my favourite restaurant, Tea for Two in Cyprus. In 2012, the world celebrated the fact the mayans were in fact wrong... and the world did not end, my home country hosted the olympics and I… well I survived another year of being a teenager! In 2012 I finished year 10 and moved into my very last year of secondary school where I would take my GCSE’s in English, English Literature, Maths, Science, Drama, Dance, French and History. This was the year I really fell into the blackhole that was YouTube, I found the people that i still watch, Achievement Hunter, RoosterTeeth, iJustine and LDShadowLady. I discovered my love of videos, content and online personality and I loved it, and I wanted to somehow be a part of it, little did I know I would make it my little hobby when I was in my early 20s.

2013 - 15/16 Years Old

This year was a little bit of a mad one, by August, I finished year 11, I had my leavers prom, and received my GCSE results. I got average grades, a mix of C’s and D’s but I was just glad to have them over and done with. In England, the legal age you can finish education is 18, so when you finish secondary school, you can either stay in school and complete your last two years in Sixth Form or go to a college. I chose to stay.
So in September of 2013 I said goodbye to my friends who went to college and started my first year of sixth form… which ended up being the best academic year of my life. In December 2013 (after many rejected interviews) I landed my first ever job, in a clothing shop in my local town centre. I was so excited about a job, I didn’t care about the money I was earning (minimum wage, which at the time was £3.72 an hour) my own real money. I spent the first month or so turning hangers the right way an labelling sale stock, I made friends and after Christmas I was even put on tills, though I did learn some people are absolutely terrible to retail workers. It wasn’t the most riveting job but I had got the job, made friends and was saving for a big trip I had planned for the next year, Austin, Texas.

2014 - 16/17 Years Old

Possibly the weirdest, coolest, saddest, most interesting years of my life so far, and at only 22 now, I know there’ll be weirder ones. From January to July I finished up my first year of Sixth Form and spent the spring and summer days with my friends in town, in the park and partying. The house parties were some of my favourite memories with my friends. As much as I’d like to relive all those memories, I’m sure my friends don’t want our teenage memories all over the internet. By the end of the summer I started a new job at a local toy shop, and now had two jobs. Now this next part is a little sad, and I won’t be adding all the details to this story. In early September of 2014, my friend died. He was a really good friend who always gave me amazing advice on our walks home after school and gave me a million brilliant memories. The fall out from that was huge, obviously, and honestly, the rest of 2014 was a blur for me. Those four months are pretty much lost.

2015 - 17/18 Years Old

Another whopper of a year, aye? The closer I get to present day the more I remember about each year. This was another year of change, this time a huge one for me. Once I had finished Sixth Form in May 2015, my school life was over, and I was an adult. That was terrifying because I left everyone and everything I knew and started university, and began studying a Foundation Degree in Moving Image. I had the interview in February and achieved my necessary grades in Art and IT in August to be able to join the course. I decided to live at home and travel via train (huge mistake) to study, but all my friends did. I watched everyone leave, Winchester, Hertfordshire, London, Cambridge, Leicester, Chichester. Name a place and someone I know probably left and went there! I lost contact with a lot of my friends from home but made friends with and met new people at uni. I spent a lot of time on trains, ah the trains, Southern Rail… But the views on my way to and back from uni everyday were phenomenal. Rolling country hills, castles and boats on the sea, it was one of the things that made travelling everyday (two hours+) to university worth it. On my 18th birthday I got my first tattoo, on my left wrist and it said ‘Breathe in the Air’ from my favourite `Pink Floyd’ song.

2016 - 18/19 Years Old

In January of 2016 I uploaded my first ever cover to YouTube, I sang ‘Karen Don’t Be Sad’ by Miley Cyrus. It is still my highest viewed music cover on my channel to date, click here if you missed it. During my time at uni, I found out that my love of movies and filmmaking was growing but I found a love and passion for another path… Childcare. My mum is the owner of an Early Years setting, and needed some volunteers during the summer after my first year of university. I helped her and found I loved the children, the staff and even the paperwork. I have now been at my job for nearly four years, it’s tiring and can be stressful, but I love what I do. Though I was seeking a different career path in childcare, I continued to study at uni to finish the FDA in case I ever needed it or wanted to return to film.

2017 - 19/20 Years Old

During 2017, I finished up my FDA in film and left university behind, some of my friends then continued the course and achieved a BA in Moving Image. From the course, I gained more knowledge in photography, filmmaking and editing that I now put into my hobby of making videos on YouTube. After I left university and continued working in Early Years and began studying to be an Early Years Practitioner. In September and October I did a little bit of tourism and travel and visited New York for a second time and Florida for the third. As you can tell from the number of times visited, these are some of my favourite locations ever. I went back to the city that never sleeps for five days and visited all the tourist places, Central Park, One World Trade Centre, went on boat rides, it was amazing. Then we flew down to Florida for seven days, we went to Disneyland, Universal Studios and saw Cirque Du Soleil. The flight to Florida from NYC was the worst flight I’ve ever been on, it was bumpy and terrifying but I made it! I was most proud of being able to travel without my parents, fly on three flights in 11 days and pay for it all myself.

2018 - 20/21 Years Old

This picture is me, about half an hour after I took my driving test and passed! That was the most relieving day ever, for those who know me personally I had taken many driving tests before that point and failed because of being scared I’d fail. But in 2018, a year and a half after tests and lessons, I did it! The following week I bought my first car, which I still own, though I need an upgrade soon as it failed it’s first MOT with me and will likely fail it’s next in May 2020. But it’s my first car, and it has a special little place in my heart and it’s served me well. In June I saw one of my favourite artists, Taylor Swift at London’s Wembly Stadium. I have loved her and her music since her song Love Story hit charts in the UK in 2009. Luckily I saw her perform my favourite album of hers, Reputation. This was honestly a dream come true, and was an amazing 21st birthday gift from my mum. A sad part of 2018 was in October when my doggo, Izzy died. She was 10 years old and had a great (maybe even spoiled!) life. She was a good egg and the house is still quiet without her knocking around.

2019 - 21/22 Years Old

Even with everything I achieved and did in the last decade, 2019 is my all time favourite year of the 10’s. I finished my level 3 studies for childcare and the biggest thing I did this year was kick start making music. After years and years of singing and writing rubbish, I found some things to work from. I had actually life experiences to write from and an created an EP that will come out in the next decade. I am phenomenally proud of what I have made and written. This year I also got in contact with a lot of my friends that I lost contact with. I now see them more often than not and we’ve buried all the hatchets and I’ve very fortunate to have made amends where needed and very glad I reached out and got them back in my life. Whether they wanted it or not! I (of all people) even found an exercise class I want to keep up with, Boogie Bounce. I go every Monday and work on my stamina, tone up, get moving, have a dance and have a bit of a laugh jumping around. Not only did I get more physically healthy but mentally healthy too. This year as been a very introspective year for me, I’ve learned how to be alone and how to work on myself and improve myself, and I’m now at a point where I’ve realised I don’t need anyone else, it’s okay just to be me with me for a little while.

That was my decade in short (well as short as I could while reliving 10 years of my 22 year life)!

I hope everyone reading has a great New Year, and whatever 2020 brings you, try not to get hung up on the smaller, insignificant things that happen to you. I had two very important conversations with friends these last few weeks and both of them told me two things that I aim to live by in 2020.

“Try to stress less and live more”

“Just take a leap and see where you end up. Worst case, you get a funny story”

Thank you to my friends who gave me these pieces of advice, I will hold on to them. Thank you to my family friends and to anyone who has been in my life during these last ten years, maybe in 2029 I’ll do another of these, but then who knows what will happen in these next ten years…

But I’m excited to find out what will happen next…

Reba vs. The Last Decade

Happy New Year!