You can throw me into a new, scary work situation or into a seminar where I have to present or an exam and I am utterly fine. More than fine. I am competent, hard-working and actually rather good. But the train journey to get to that work situation? The lecture where I obtain notes for that seminar? The hours spent at home revising for that exam? Awful. When I have to do things for or to impress others, I am fine. Doing things to make my life easier I am awful at.
Do you know why this blog is called “A Clock That Does Not Work”? It’s from that old saying, “Even a clock that does not work is right twice a day”. It’s in reference to me being a total embarrassment of a human being, but still managing to cope.
Things cannot stay this way. I am 21. I will be graduating from University next year. I will be getting a mortgage, having a house, a job, and generally be having to look after myself. I need to grown up.
So, In my head over the past year or so, I have been compiling a list of sorts. It’s nothing definitive, and it will certainly be added to or edited as time goes on. I’m calling it my Grown Up List. I was considering starting another blog entirely to document my progress in this, but I think sticking it as a weekly round-up here will have to do. I currently have four and a half blogs. I think that’s enough.
These are all things that I need to do in order to move towards being a proper grown up.
The Grown Up List
- Take up running. Or swimming, or badminton, or something. Some form of exercise that isn’t dancing on the xBox 360 or skipping.
- Go through my clothes and throw out anything that doesn’t make me look utterly fabulous.
- Find a red lipstick that actually suits me.
- Find make-up that actually suits me.
- Find a wine that I like. Occasionally drink a glass of it.
- Buy a lot of beautiful vintage clothes and wear them every day.
- Learn to walk in heels.
- Buy a pair of heels that I could wear when there was a moderate amount of walking to be done.
- Read all of Jane Austen’s books, not just Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility.
- Sit down and think about all of my opinions and why I have them.
- Debate a controversial topic with someone without bursting into tears halfway through.
- Learn to control my temper.
- Stop letting my hair get gross and having to hide it with a headband.
- Establish a skin-care routine that isn’t just shoving some stuff on my face in the shower, mainly to use up all of the eleventy-billion products I have bought and neglected.
- Get some kind of bikini line wax. I’ve never done it. I feel I should, just once.
- Get in control of body hair in general, actually. I tend to forget about my legs for months on end until it looks like I’m wearing furry trousers. My eyebrows are utterly ridiculous for two weeks of the month (until a nice lady comes to my house and waxes them for me)
- Get control of my head hair. Get a cut. One that suits me. Decide if I’m going to leave it natural, dye it the red I lust over or do something else entirely. Maintain whatever style I decide upon
- Find a hairdresser who makes my hair looks AMAZING. This, I imagine will help with the previous goal.
- Stop biting my nails. Stop, when I am in control of biting my nails, picking my nail polish off.
- Buy three properly fitting bras, that I change every 6 months.
- Have co-ordinating knickers to said bras. Just, y’know, white knickers for a white bra, black for a black bra. And wear them. Just in case I get hit by a bus.
- Actually sit down in front of my make-up mirror to put make-up on, rather than rushing round like a loony.
- Learn to blow-dry my own fricking hair properly.
- Learn to control my swearing.
- Find a way of drying after a shower that doesn’t involve me sitting in towels on the lid of the toilet shivering. I spend an hour drying after a shower, it’s ridiculous.
- Remember to change my sheets once a week.
- Go to London, on my own, without having planned every second of my journey the night before, and not get lost.
If you have any more ideas, please share them with me. I can't go on being so pathetic.
I've still not done most of those at 27 if it helps.
ReplyDeleteAs someone wise once told me "everyone wastes their 20s"
dye your hair red dye your hair red dye it RED!!
ReplyDeleteYou can always get rid if it doesn't work out, red fades reeeeeally quickly.
The rest of the list made me laugh. And gulp. And think in a small voice 'I should probably do the same'.
x
Oh hell. If that's what it takes to be a grown up, I am so far from adulthood it's untrue (although we knew that anyway. I spend most of my life feeling like an utter fraud). But for what it's worth, my tuppence worth on a few... x
ReplyDeleteFind a red lipstick that actually suits me - if you ever manage this I shall be deeply jealous. I've still not.
Find make-up that actually suits me - try MAC. Get in there and get someone to play with stuff
Find a wine that I like. Occasionally drink a glass of it - start with the stuff that's not too challenging. I'd recommend a chilled glass of Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough region of NZ, for starters.
Learn to walk in heels - start small, and not too stilettoey (the thinner, the trickier). Heel, toe.
Buy a pair of heels that I could wear when there was a moderate amount of walking to be done - get cabs / develop hard feet. These are your choices
Get some kind of bikini line wax. I’ve never done it. I feel I should, just once - do. It's not nearly as bad as you think. Take two ibuprofen 20 mins before your appointment.
Go to London, on my own, without having planned every second of my journey the night before, and not get lost - knowing where you're going is overrated. You make the best discoveries when you get lost.
I love this list and I am proud that I have actually managed to do quite a few of them! :) I graduate in about 2 weeks and I am terrified but it will all work out in the end :)
ReplyDeleteMaria xxx
Adults. Aren't they terrible bores?
ReplyDeleteI walked and danced in heels this weekend for the first time in months. Well, I might have taken my shoes off a few times on the dance floor. LIKE ALL THE OTHER LADIES except those who wore flats. People who know how to wear heels are a myth, I tell you, a myth.
Yes to bras that fit, though. And to Emma.
On my list is 'learn to cook asparagus'.
ReplyDeleteMy best tip for heels is get ones with some kind of support to keep them on your feet, like a strap or a T-bar, or those heeled shoe-boots.
Dean - I want to be non-wasting my 20s, I want to be FABULOUS by the time I'm 25!
ReplyDeleteSarah - Dying it is a pain, though. I might just settle for a decent cut
Blonde - This is why I adore you. You give good advice, you talk much sense.
Maria - I hope so! I'm getting quite scared of next year and having to be all grown up
C - I'm not going to be a boring adult, I'm going to be a wonderful adult that everyone wants to know and be friends with. Ahem. If heel-wearing-ladies are a myth, maybe I'll just settle for being able to walk 20 metres with them on.
Nicola - Oooo, thank you! Asparagus is fine to cook; I steam them or grill them. Lovely!