As I get older, each year seems to fly by even quicker than the last. For me 2008 feels like just yesterday yet tomorrow will be the start of 2017..?! A lot has happened this year and I wanted to reflect on the main events that have happened.
Also suuuuper duper sorry for not posting in ages. Life has been so hectic since summer ended and even though I’ve been meaning to sit down for a couple of hours and write a post, it’s just been pushed to the bottom of the list. However this is kind of a good thing as this blog was to help me cope with my feelings in a constructive way so not posting in a while has meant that I’ve been doing well with myself and my mental health. Yay!
Anyway, back to the post. This year I took my A levels, finished school, attended Leavers Prom, went on a girls holiday, went to Hong Kong & China with my family and Adam, started my apprenticeship at Atkins, started a part time degree in Civil Engineering and turned 19.
Leaving school is one of those things you can’t really imagine happening and when it does, the reality of it all hits you at once. You think back to the days when you were in year 7 and looking up at all the sixth formers in their own clothes and folders of work. Admiring them and remembering how mature but also sometimes how intimidating they were. Then you look at yourself and realise that now this is how all the other kids lower down in school see you. How foolish and naive was 11 year old you.
I’m not going to sweeten this up in any way because honestly A levels sucked. I think of all the things I would have done differently if I could start sixth form all over again but none of it really matters now because I have everything I could ask for. I’m an apprentice in the structural engineering team at a global engineering company, the company is sponsoring me to do a degree in civil engineering and on top I’m also being paid. A degree with no debt? Win win! Yes my grades weren’t great but I managed to scrape my way in and now they are all behind me. I just have to concentrate on doing well in the next chapter of my life which is definitely more significant than A levels.
Most of my friends have gone to university with the odd one or two taking a gap year. It has been so great to be able to go and visit some of my best friends at their uni’s and see how much fun they’re having and all the new friends they’ve made. Leaving school shows you how much more to life there is as you meet so many new people and realise that none of that petty drama at school matters. Over this year I’ve been trying to teach myself that it doesn’t matter what people think of you. Saying this is much easier than putting it into practice of course. I am the sort of person that wants to be liked by everyone but the reality is you just can’t. I think back to all the times I was so caught up in my own little world because someone said something nasty about me. How much it upset me, how much I cried and how now that person is completely out of my life and damn right irrelevant. “You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there’s still going to be somebody who hates peaches.”
Starting my apprenticeship and being introduced to the real working world has made me grow up so quickly. Whilst most of my uni friends are going out and getting drunk 3 times a week, I’m working Monday-Friday and doing college work either in the evenings or at the weekend but I wouldn’t change a thing. I’ve met two of my best friends at work who make the early starts to get into Birmingham that little bit more bearable and I’m still very appreciative and thankful to be paid to study a degree.
I can’t really sum up 2016 in a paragraph. I don’t see how you can sum up 12 months in a single word of good or bad as so much has happened that I probably can’t even remember. All I’ll say is that every year lessons are learnt and memories are made and this year has been no different. See you in 2017.
-K xxx
May you live every day of your life. 