My Dancing Shoes |
Having a sister so much younger than me is not only a great way to keep vaguely connected with fashion (which I wore 20 years ago - tribal prints anyone?) and music (I can't go there without sounding like my mum) but it also makes me consider what I might have wished I knew before embarking on some of my more 'interesting' teenage adventures.
Of course, my sister does not wish for me to give her advice because that would be, like, majorly embarrassing. So instead, here are the things my teenage self would tell her, from one 19 year old to another (with just a little hindsight thrown in......).
1. Dance, dance, and dance some more! Go to clubs, gigs, festivals and house parties. Throw yourself about with abandon and enjoy the agony that is your feet hurting from 3 hours on the dancefloor. Get dizzy in the moshpit; it will leave you beer-soaked and exhausted but it is exhilirating.
2. Be your own person. Trust your instincts and do what makes you happy, no one knows you better than you do, don't let other people make your decisions. Be it on boys, what dress to wear or whether Dappy would win in a fight against Plan B - make the choice your own.
3. Don't dumb down your life. Is Kerry Katona's 'new body' really important to you? Fancy spending your days watching people arguing about the paternity of their children? I didn't think so. Stop watching Jeremy Kyle and reading Heat magazine immediately.
4. Dream big. Make your ambitions massive ones, they will inspire you to achieve more. That said, I did start out my first half marathon thinking "what if I won it?" Now, that's just bloody ridiculous, of course I was never going to win but it did give me the boost I needed to get to the end. After which I felt elated, then crippled and sick, and I cried because I couldn't find Mr K. Sometimes getting what you want feels weird. But that's not a reason not to do it - go after the big stuff!
5. Wear a bikini. That flat stomach of yours is amazing, it won't look like that once your children have finished with it.
So that's it. I'm sure there's more, but my 19 year old self is busy figuring out how she's going to get to a house party that's 10 miles away when she can't drive and has no money for a taxi.........
My sister wishes it to be known that she most definitely doesn't read Heat or watch Jeremy Kyle :)
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