I Just Turned Eighteen

I just turned eighteen – and I mean just. But I don’t ‘feel’ eighteen. I’m not sure what it’s supposed to feel like, but I’m pretty sure I don’t feel it… But turning eighteen has made me reminisce about the past eighteen years, and there are a few people I’d like to thank.

Firstly and most obviously, my parents for just, making me really… but really – thank you parents for giving me all the support anyone could ever wish for, even when I do things which are really stupid! Secondly, my brother for sharing a sense of humour with me, and always making me feel as though a rubbish day can have a little bit of sun. To my family and friends, thank you for making me feel worth when it’s hard not to see past the failures. And thank you to everyone – even the kind strangers on a bus who offer you a seat, or an American till worker helping me figure out what change I had in New York – for helping my experiences to have a flicker of fun in them all.

Thank you, also, to all those who have helped me to gain enough experience for my future – to everyone who reads my blog, to those at the BBC for letting me gain work experience (and to the woman who made it happen!) to everyone reading this now, you’ve helped me so much – and to the organisers of What’s On, I thank you for giving me the opportunity month after month to do what I love.

This year has been a bag of mixed emotions. Although my exams were the most stressful they’ve ever been (well, until this year) the results day was worth it, by setting me up comfortably for this year’s exams. When my friends and I managed to survive climbing over mountain after mountain and treacherous terrain during our Duke Of Edinburgh Award (without those ladies I really don’t know if I’d have finished, but the endless laughter of the absurdity of the least outdoorsy people managing to fall in cow poo every five seconds made the treks bearable). When I got offers from all of the Universities I had applied to – and that my first choice university was my lowest offer! Getting the chance to speak on BBC Radio Cymru on International Women’s Day was one of the most exciting things I think has happened in my life. Completing my last show with my stage school after acting for eleven years.

Seventeen has been brilliant. It’s also been hard. But with the summer on its way, and the prospect of getting in to University spurring me through my exams, I can’t wait to see what eighteen has in store. With my last day in secondary school next week it seems that eighteen has a great beginning. And the fact that I can drink (legally)!

Thank you to everyone who made seventeen great. Let’s make eighteen spectacular.

By Tirion Davies