Turning 25?!

Eeep, so over the weekend I turned 25.

Twenty-five.

It wasn’t the most thrilling of days – Grant had been working the previous night which meant he slept all day and then I worked a night shift that evening. I did have plans to get my hair cut (6 months without a cut was much needed) however that didn’t go quite to plan and wasn’t exactly the cut I had in mind. In fact, I wouldn’t even define it as a “cut”, I basically had the quickest trim of my life. She failed to put a single layer in, attended to my grown-out fringe or otherwise given me anything I had asked for. The whole thing took less than 30 minutes, of which around 5 minutes was actually spent cutting, baring in mind I have super long hair. I was actually super shocked when she said “OK, Done.” When I finally stepped up and looked down at my cut hair on the floor, there was the smallest whisps of hair. It looked as if someone had been in for a fringe-trim. I don’t even know what happened – it wasn’t as if I hadn’t mentioned any of these things prior to cutting! Perhaps she just hated me. Perhaps she was still in previous-client mode, I just don’t know!!! But at 25 years old, you would have thought I would have been able to say something there and then and not step up and walk away – but I just felt so awkward and embarrassed – instead, I smiled, paid, thanked her, walked away and cried. I wasn’t even upset by the crap ‘cut’, I was upset at having spent £40 on what felt like absolutely nothing and the regret of not having said anything. To add insult to injury, when Grant finally awoke he said “Did you not manage to get your hair cut?”. Lessons learnt: don’t get your hair cut on your birthday.

It seems slightly unreal to turn 25. I was definitely one of those people who thought they would be forever young. I know 25 isn’t exactly old, but it’s definitely that age where you’re absolutely 100% no longer in your early 20s. For one thing, I can no longer tick the 18-24s box of a questionnaire and as my friend rightly pointed out, if I were to audition for the X-Factor (god-forbid!) I would be in the category of Over 25s. Oh man, how I would love to be 23 forever. I already use anti-aging skincare, pay into a pension and often have serious doubts about being too old to pull off most of my wardrobe that was purchased as an 18 year old me.

As a child, I used to think 25 was the age where you had everything set-up for life financially and the years afterwards were just growth on growth. How wrong I was. My car is ready to fall apart, our meals are 90% made from all Morrisons Savers line, we’ve never experienced central heating and our building site home is 80% empty with little to no furniture. Hell, I haven’t even been to the dentist since I was 17. But we’re working on it all… slowly.

In a non-career, un-skilled job, it’s super common to settle down early, with the priority to get married and have children much closer to 20 than 30. I’m constantly questioned about when I’m going to get married and when I’m going to have kids. I hate that expectation, that “peer pressure” and those irritating people who truly believe its because your relationship must have serious fault. Life isn’t just one single path. Besides, did I mention I can’t even afford non-value-range-food?

I have little expectation about what I’d like to achieve before hitting the big 30(!), but I would definitely like to see more of the world and I’d strongly hope our home renovations in this house will be mostly complete. I’d like freedom from the paycheque, worry less about money, have more money, not cry over a wasted £40 because actually it’s a huge amount of money to my pathetic bank account. I want to enjoy the excitement of looking forward to all those typical life-moments to come in the future, without the rush to get there, or the care for other peoples judgemental on-lookings. And lastly, I’d quite like to be bold enough to tell someone when they’ve given me a crap haircut which lacked everything I had asked for. Get some friggen’ guts girl!

So, onwards to the next five years before I hit the big 3.0! Ahmygad.

To end this post, I share with you one of the best pieces of advice about life, straight from the 90s “Always Wear Sunscreen” – I recommend a listen, it’s somewhat catchy and has a great message.