Regrets I have and how to overcome them

This whole idea of having no regrets? Well, everyone has them, and the only way to avoid making the same mistakes again is to learn from them. Everyone has regrets.

So here's 3 things I regret and what I've learnt from them.

1. Going on a second date with someone that you have absolutely no interest in. After feeding the ducks on date 1, walking round and round the same lake, getting colder, all of a sudden the heavens opened. Sadly, it was not the dawning realisation that I'd discovered 'the one'. The sun was not smiling it's rays down upon us, it was in fact pissing it down.
So we ran back to the W reg Renault Clio and did not passionately kiss like the scene from the rainy boat from The Notebook. We drove to Morrisons.
After all this, I decided for some reason that date 2 (bowling) would be a good idea. This resulted in 'Jack's a dick', which is now widely known as the get out clause for any bad date in my entire friendship circle. I literally had to ask a friend to ring me fake crying. In future, I'll just be honest. Lesson learned.

2. Underestimating myself. I'm aware this sounds a bit cheesy. But I've come to realise that I'm actually quite good at a lot of things. I'm just incredibly harsh on myself in lots of ways. I'm very good at 'what ifs', but when I actually take a step back from the situation, I realise that things really aren't that bad.
It infuriates me when other people tell me I can't do something, or will find something hard, and it infuriates me even more when I soak it in and say nothing to them. Actually, who is anyone else to say you can't do something? No one. They aren't in your head, your position and haven't lived your experiences. How do they know? Well it's quite simple, they just don't.
If someone tried to tell me I couldn't leap across the Grand Canyon in one jump, I'd be like, 'cheers for that advice, thanks for the tip-off', but I've almost abandoned my career before it started and spent a year feeling worthless because I listened to someone else underestimating me in the past. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. What a waste of time. You make yourself happy, if you know you'll be fine, chances are you will be.
So when I feel rubbish, I try to make myself aware that I'm underestimating myself and that others might be too.

3. I will eternally regret trying to grow up too soon. Through my whole childhood I was desperate to be a proper adult and glamourised almost every aspect of what that would be like. I wore make up when I was 12 because I felt like I needed it, and something like that just seems ridiculous now.
 I remember being 3 years old, eating marmalade on toast with my Mum. She went to the loo, and when she came back I demanded to know whether she'd washed her hands, because that's what all grown ups say when you've been for a wee. Little did I know that they only speak in that way to children. Fail mini Liv, fail. I just wanted to be one of them! I relished being a big sister, even though my little sister was bossier than me in her shiny red boots. The devastation.
I think I never really did being a teenager, I felt like I did being 13 to 18 in one year, and I went straight into my career after uni. Part of me wonders, if I just enjoyed being young, how much more really awesome stuff could I have done? I'd probably have made tonnes more mistakes. I could have just been really skint. But that's part of it perhaps. I still really want to go travelling. Maybe I will one day.

So my advice to myself is, be honest, value yourself, and don't grow up too soon.
Hmm, I like that. I'm off to eat some cheesecake.

The reality of your twenties

Being in your twenties is all about realising that how it looked when you were a teenager is in fact nothing like the reality. In your teenage mind, you WILL be a goddess of all things, constantly stunning, (even in the morning) you will be amazing at your job and as a result very rich, and sickeningly happy, because there will be so many people dying to go out with you, and of course you will have met THE ONE (if there is such a thing). Your hair would always be perfect (because you can obviously afford a haircut, yes?) and your skin would be positively glowing. Your chest would also be spot free, above the magnificent boobs that would have sprung into being by your twenties. You would sleep like Snow White, serene, elegant and dignified. There would be no hangovers, and being drunk would never go wrong, because you could only be effortlessly cool, because all of the being uncool would be over by the age of 18. Obviously. Mistakes would also be a thing of the past.

Haha ha ha HA. In actual fact my life is very little like that, so I thought I'd write a post about it, because it's what I fall back on when time is on my hands!

My reality is that I am not a goddess of all things unless that is being a bit weird, and increasingly like Bridget Jones. I am not constantly stunning, but I am quite good at make up :) I usually wake up looking like a deranged panda. A bit like Tim Minchin combined with the hair.
My job is nothing short of challenging at best, but is getting better slowly but surely, and it's been the hardest year of my life, but something I'm very proud of doing.
I'm not rich, but the richest I've ever been, and I'm not sickeningly happy and the crowds aren't clamouring at my feet for a date.
My hair is far from perfect especially in the morning, when a few birds raising their young in there wouldn't look out of place, and I still cut and colour it myself, sometimes, GREAT SUCCESS, others...moving on.
My skin is also a bit poo, but again going back to the make up thing, thank God I have the gift to gloss over Pompeii with limited success. Chest is ok, although my boobs are not magnificent, I can run downstairs without a bra. A minor victory.
I sleep with my knees bent and the duvet over my head, and I'm aware this is bizarre. Neither elegant, nor serene. I am also frequently uncool, as I'm reminded by my students several times a week, and also not so cool when I'm drunk either. And I do get hangovers, and wake up with morning breath that is reminiscent of a mcdonalds that I have no recollection of desiring, purchasing or consuming. With tinnitus worse than yesterday. RINGGGGGGG.
Getting out of bed is also still a royal pain in the arse.

Additionally:
Not getting ID'd being a bad thing
People saying 'oh..you've graduated' then backing slowly away.
Moving back in with your parents
Being the least experienced of all your colleagues ('oh, you'll look back on this and see how far you've come'--Christ, am I that bad?!)
And finally, this little gem..

'When are you going to find a nice young man and settle down?'
Shoot. Me. Now.

All of this is a bit tongue in cheek as you may have gathered. I just have to laugh at my 15 year old assumptions. There are many things I love about my twenties too, in many ways it has been awesome, but the stupid stuff is far more interesting don't you think?