At the beginning of 2010 I was 16 and about to finish the last 6 months of GCSE exams. I'd already moved to my Dad's house, had my appendix out, started a relationship with a boy I liked and mourned several people from my family in just a few close years. When I opened my exam results I was nervous, but I achieved a double A* in ICT, A's in Science, Religious Studies and Child Development, B's in English Literature, English Language and History, and C's is Spanish and Maths. At this point, I'd already decided that for my A-Levels I would choose History, Sociology and Psychology with an AS Level in English Literature. Throughout the next two years of studying those topics my baby sister Sofia was born and she is honestly the light of my life, my little best mate and she is a joy to be around. She's just turned 8 and it just shows how fast the years have gone by. I started going out drinking and had an amazing time with friends. I applied to study Law at Northumbria University and was accepted when I achieved an A in Sociology, a B in History and Psychology and a C in General Studies in my A-Levels.
I moved up to Newcastle and still managed to communicate with my little sister despite being 3 hours away from her. I met my flatmates and for the next year, they were all great friends. The closest person I became friends with was Andy, and we used to sit and watch TV together every time we couldn't be bothered to go on a night out. By two months in I knew he was someone I highly valued and was an all-round lovely person. Not long after the next semester started I ended things with boyfriend and a few months later ended up dating Andy. In our third year of uni, we got our own flat together and it tested our relationship, especially while both doing dissertations and end of year exams but it showed our strengths far more than weaknesses. We both graduated in July of 2015 and moved to my Dad's the next month.
During my uni experience, I began to develop pains in my body and couldn't decide whether it was in muscles or bones. I don't know why it had to be just one of the two but it turned out it was both plus nerve pain. After a lot of pushing to see a rheumatologist I finally was able to go and a doctor said I had Benign Joint Hypermobility Syndrome. This was an out of date term for Joint Hypermobility Syndrome but regardless I wasn't listened to properly and ended up back in the same hospital for another opinion eight months later. This doctor formally diagnosed me with Fibromyalgia and only verbally diagnosed me with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. I only found out it wasn't on my medical notes when I had a letter through the post that didn't mention it at all which only enraged me. It took until April 2018 for me to have it confirmed by a doctor and added to my medical notes. It took 4 years, which isn't even 'that' long in regards to being diagnosed with this condition. All in all, I've now been experiencing pain (I did have pain with EDS before but it was nowhere near as extreme) for over 6 years now.
An achievement that really should be highlighted is starting this blog. It began in February 2014 so we're coming up to the 6 year anniversary in a few months. I've worked with many amazing brands and PRs and although sometimes it's hard to keep up when you're in pain, I'm so thankful I can post when I can and some brands are understanding of this. I've managed to review hotels and restaurants, share my experiences of living in Liverpool and Newcastle, share holidays with people and review a lot of makeup and skincare. I'm really grateful for the opportunities I get.
Since graduating, we went to Los Angeles together as I won a competition to go which gave us a range of emotions and experiences and we'd definitely go back again. We saved up for years and finally last year we were able to buy our first home. Aside from leaving the kitchen cupboards in their place and painting them, we fitted new worktops, tiled the walls, plumbed in a new sink, changed the flooring and the result went from a dark scratched up kitchen to a bright white and grey one. We also fitted laminate flooring in four rooms of the house, dug up a fair bit of the garden, daringly painted our living room navy blue and so much more. That was a whirlwind of four months of renovation and it was so worth it. We made the decision to not have a TV in our bedroom too, to allow us to have a better nights sleep and that was another great decision for us both. Instead of having a dining room we have a creative space and beauty area room that stopped us cluttering up other rooms. Our house is our safe space and right now I don't even want to think about moving at some point.
I suppose the last big achievement for me was deciding to get married. In December 2017 Andy popped the question on a trip to Newcastle to visit for the first time since leaving. It was absolutely freezing! A year later we booked our wedding in, so in the first half of 2020, we will be getting married. Obviously, we have had to split the money between the house and the wedding, with the house being a priority, but 2020 felt about the right time for us. Not everything is sorted yet but we are most of the way there and glad we've made the majority of the decisions by ourselves. I will share a lot of the process and things like the invitation and the dress post-wedding and I'm looking forward to that too.
For things I'd like to achieve in the next decade, there's only a few things I'm certain will happen. The first will be to get our own dog. Our family dog Charlie lives with my Dad and has just turned 12 but I do miss having a dog in the house. I do think we will eventually move house in the next decade, partially for another project to work on as we love renovating, but also for a bit more space. I have my fingers crossed that I'll continue to work from home on blog things and move properly into freelance work too. We are hoping to have our honeymoon in Disneyworld in Florida but it really depends on money. We are thinking about having a 'minimoon' not long after the wedding so that if we don't get to have our dream honeymoon then at least we can have a little holiday to have a break. Aside from that, I'm not really sure what will happen.
