Growing up/Independance

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Growing up and achieving independance I think can be one of the most difficult things a person does.

 This coming from my own personal experience after being thrown into the adult world at the age of 19 after my Mum passed away in December 2006. I’ll freely admit that I have a relatively priviledged upbringing and even though we were not incredibly well off, we didn’t often worry over money and my perception then was if I needed money I could get it. When I was in college I was a typical teenager who would spend their part time monthly wages in one shopping trip(oh them were the days!).

On the 23rd December 2006 I was thrown into the adult world. Losing my brand new car, left with outstanding debts, losing my family home and changing my entire life to surive. Giving up Uni due to financial reasons and trying to find my way but starting a completely new chapter. 2007 was my year of mistakes.

I avoided bills whilst I was unemployed like it was the plague and as they built my worries became unbearable. Taking on a loan so I could move out of the family home which I had to leave due to it being a council property, moving into a stupidly expensive privately rented 3 bedroom house with a friend I couldn’t afford, making mistakes with credit cards and eventually having to admit my failings and rent only a room and build this up again.

But…now to the positives. In the same year I secured myself a job as a Sales Administrator at a translation company, even after admitting I took on a crazy expensive house I rented rooms for nearly a year and a half, cutting my bills each time and eventually giving up driving to save even more money. In that time I’ve also been promoted to a Coroporate Account Manager and now rent a very moderately priced (still expensive) 2 and a half bedroom house and working on getting my debts out of the way by the time I’m 25. I’m also looking into starting a new degree part time whilst I work as my goal in life is to make my Mum proud and a degree is something she’d always wanted me to get.

I would love to go back to May 2007 and slap myself in the face…the person I was, was immature, inexperienced, stubborn, snobbish and just different. But then again I was a teenager and bound to make mistakes. I now love looking forward to the future, my family are my friends, I’ve built up what I’ve got and proud of what I’ve achieved. I’m proud to be a 21 year old completely independant individual and would love to tell other young people, your bound to make mistakes but everything is life experience and enjoy life for the moment and the small things, not material things.