It’s my 21st birthday!
This time for real.
I’ve already had 2 celebrations: one in a club with my friends, and the other with my family, so for the longest time I’ve felt like I was already 21, but today it’s happening for real.

It’s not directly related to my year abroad in Spain, but I figure this is a good place to write down my hopes and goals for my 21st year of life.

1. I hope to be at peace with my appearance, more specifically my hair.
   I have a love-hate relationship with it. When it’s straight, I like it for a day and then stress out about the amount of heat damage I’m going to have. Yet, when it’s curly, (especially when you’re trying to rock day 3 or 4 hair), I always feel super unattractive and fed up. I always thought I was almost made of steel when it came to being influenced by the media, especially social media, but recently I’ve realised how the euro-centric beauty ideal of long straight hair has managed to seep itself into my conscience. The idea that afro hair like mine needs to be relaxed, pressed or covered up with a wig or weave, has me all kinds of fucked up about my own beauty, appearance and my relationship with my hair.
   So yeah, long story short, I want to be able to love and appreciate my hair and thus my appearance as a whole.
2. I hope to become more patient.
   I think I’ve mentioned before that my Granddad is literally an angel. He has an abundant amount of patience for anything and for everyone. I want to be more like him in being more calm, understanding and kind.
3. My goal for the year is to become fluent in Spanish.
   Okay so this one is year abroad related. It’s said that when fully immersed in a language is should take 7 months to become totally fluent. Seeing as I’m here for at least 9 months, there’s absolutely no excuse for this not happening. I’m only 2 weeks in and uni is definitely a bit better than the dire first week, so I’m hopeful that this goal will be achieved.
4. My goal is to get my body back.
   So I’m sure some would consider this a bit superficial but, ya know, don’t currr. Everyone has that thing about themselves that they think is their best feature. Some say eyes, hair, etc. Mine is my body and right now it’s not the way I want it to be. I want my abs back, I want to feel cute in clothes, and I want to be able to walk up the stairs to my flat without passing out and having an asthma-attack half way through the journey.
5. My goal is, and I hope, to live my best life.
   The other day I was thinking about the fact that so far, for 21 years, (my entire life that I have memory of), I’ve been in institutional education. I thought to myself, ‘I can’t wait to finish uni, have a year doing nothing where I can actually live life, before having to find a job’. Then I thought, come on now, you need to live your best life now. NOW IS THE TIME.
   I want to travel around Spain this year and discover different places (and foods lol). I want to meet good, kind, positive people and keep only good vibes around me. I want to experience and appreciate my friends and family. I want to go looking for adventure and find it.
   Basically, I just want to have fun.