I was born on July 5th 1989, in Bath.
On August 24th 1992, my little sister Emma arrived. I don't really remember much about this time, my earliest memory of us together was me building her a tower out of blocks, her knocking it over and biting me! Ouch!
Our childhood was great. One thing I'll always remember was that we used to ride our bikes up and down our street a lot, using the drain covers as traffic lights. In the school holidays, we used to ride our bikes out in the garden as soon as our Dad left for work. Primary school was fairly normal, at the age of 11 I went to the local secondary school.
On April 15th 2003 we moved to The Netherlands, we moved to a small town outside Den Haag called 'Wassenaar'. Although I was nervous, I was so excited, I'd become a person I didn't recognise, and I didn't like who I was.
One of my favourite memories of living in The Netherlands was school, for a girl who'd hated school, I loved this one, I don't know if it was the group of friends I'd made, or the teachers, either way, it opened up new opportunities for me, including trips abroad. At the school in the UK, you were lucky if you got a trip to another county let alone another country!
In August 2005, we moved to Hamburg, Germany. This was a move I really didn't want to make, I'd already figured out what A-Levels I wanted to do, and loved my group of friends. Even looking back, I think living there was when I was at my happiest.
Upon moving to Hamburg, I felt so sad, it wasn't sad like I felt when we left the UK, this was a different sad, this was almost like a physical ache. The sadder I felt, the more I withdrew from things, I shied away from making friends, and buried myself in listening to my ipod. I also started wearing a lot of eyeliner, black clothes, and found myself in a very dark place. All I knew was that I didn't want to be there or anywhere else anymore.
June 1st 2007 was graduation day, I'd spent the past year of school making friends and finally finding myself fitting in, but I was still so glad to be leaving that school. After prom, we went to Bodrum, Turkey, for our senior trip. These were 2 weeks filled with booze and partying, it was the first time I'd pushed myself out of my comfort zone for nearly 2 years!
On September 10th 2007, I left home, and moved to Dun Laoghaire, just outside of Dublin. I remember going through security at the airport, and seeing my Mum disappear into the crowd of people and just bursting into tears. I cried the whole flight, I was scared and because of the way I felt having moved to Germany, was worried how I would cope on my own in a different country.
I had enrolled in college, and had started my course, I made a couple of friends, but when I got back to my flat I felt so alone. I lived with a family and rented a bedroom from them, it was a small flat, and it was difficult to get much privacy, even with having my own room. All I longed for was my next trip home. Any time there was holiday, or a long weekend, I'd fly back to be with my family, I started to see Hamburg as home, even though I no longer lived there.
My course finished on May 16th, and on May 17th I left Dublin, I was so excited for the first time in 4 years. My family had left Hamburg and moved to Vevey, a small town in Switzerland. I was excited to see my family again, live back at home for a while, and just get myself back to who I wanted to be.
I spent 6 months living in Switzerland with the family, I then moved to London, I moved in with my best friend from Hamburg, and 4 of her friends from uni. This filled me with anxiety, the night before I left Switzerland, I had major doubts if I could put myself through the whole living away from home thing again.
The day I arrived at the new house, it was raining, our house was up (what felt like) a fairly huge hill. Having lugged a huge suitcase, a laptop, a makeup train case, and myself up the hill, I looked a crazy mess. I'm talking mascara down the face, and sweaty (nice!) I don't think it mattered though, as a group we had a great year living together.
My friend and I then moved to another house, with one of the girls we lived with in the first house, and a girl from her uni course. This was the first time in my life I'd lived in a house with just girls, it was a great time, hair henna nights are a particular highlight! We spent a year living together, and it was a year of exploring cocktail bars, and enjoying nights out together.
In August 2010, my family moved back to our original house in the UK, I moved home in September, I started a job at a local hotel, where my sister also worked at the time, this made things difficult for us, living and working together made us argue and fight a lot. She soon left for a new job. In the meantime I'd become good friends with one of the chefs. Nearly 3 years later, she and I are the greatest of friends, I'm godmother to her beautiful daughter, my sister and I are so close, and always find ourselves on adventures to various places.
I'm a strong believer of everything happens for a reason, through feeling so low, lost and lonely through the latter 4 years of my teens, I can safely say I'm in a much happier place now and given the chance, I'd love to live abroad again. I don't know what my future holds, but I'd like to think I can remain happy.
