Friend Holiday #1 | Dear July | 3

Dear July,

This year we got off to a slightly bumpy start, but all of a sudden things took off and I've barely had time to touch back down before I'm off on more adventures.

You've brought with you a landmark moment in my life already within your first 10 days which makes me optimistic about the remaining 21. In an extremely impulsive and out of character decision, when asked by a friend on Friday if I wanted to go on a 'lads holiday to centre parcs' on Monday, I resisted the urge to say no which is my default answer and after much deliberation, decided on Sunday that there was nothing to lose and I would go, although the plan was to stay until Wednesday instead of Friday. I think the fact that I absent-mindedly packed enough clothes for a few extra days if necessary and ended up staying until lunch-time on Thursday speaks volumes about the trip.

For a long time I've avoided things out of the fear I will feel anxious but recently I've had a change of heart. It is exactly this attitude that has made my anxiety worse, limiting things I feel comfortable with. I've decided that I will no longer miss out on things because of possibilities and I couldn't be more glad that I had this change of heart before going on holiday with friends.

Although I'm at that age where we're playing grown ups, pretending to be adults because of the legal label we were given after our last birthday but still very much figuring out how to live that label, going on holiday with friends really made me realise that I will be okay moving out in September, although I do wish it was those people I was moving in with. Living with friends for 4 days acted as a sort of tester for uni living in my mind and it's made me far more excited than I was before. It also showed me that it's hard to be home sick when you're with people who feel like home.

As friend holidays go, ours was very chilled. We didn't go abroad to an island inhabited mainly by tourists and go clubbing and get drunk every night. We went to a forest in England and played card games and pool and just enjoyed living in each others company for a few days. My favourite moments were quite honestly the little things, like sorting out and eating dinner together or the staying up late chatting purely because we could. Although there aren't really obvious stand out moments in my mind that I will look back on every day and remember, I will remember the trip fondly purely because it made me feel absolutely content when I have struggled to feel that in the last month, and I'm very aware how much of that had to do with the company kept for those 4 days.

So, July, although initially it looked like we weren't going to have as much fun together as we have during our previous encounters, things are certainly looking up and with a family trip to London happening tomorrow, the end of the adventures is not quite in sight yet, and I wouldn't want it any other way.

Here's to making many more memories in our time together this year, July.

Lucy x