You can move away from yourself

In 2009, just before I was going to move to Scotland and naturally was being very excited and happy about it, I remember my Dad saying something like "you can't move away from yourself".

But, dear father, I really think I have.

Or, maybe not moved away from myself, but definitely moved towards a new and much happier self. I know this sounds like a cliché, but when moving abroad I really felt like I got a chance to reinvent myself and start afresh.

And I think I succeeded. If the quiet and insecure schoolgirl I was at 15 saw myself now, nearly 10 years later, I don't think she would recognise much.

I guess, however, that this is a natural part of growing up and doesn't necessarily need to involve moving (far) away. Being in your (mid-)twenties simply is great - I love how your confidence increases for every year that passes (though I haven't reached the don't-give-a-damn-what-others-think stage that some middle-age people seem to be at quite yet...). In other words: screw that age-crisis that some people my age seem to have! I certainly don't miss being a teenager! Do you?

It also always makes me happy to see that other people who I remember as insecure at school seem to have thrived and found their ways in life.

I wish someone had told us about this while we were in school. That this isn't all there is to life, your school years aren't going to last forever and that there is a whole new and much better life just around the corner. Because at the time it really felt like it was lasting forever.