Edge of Seventeen: Birthday Edition

Has it really been over 2 months since I last posted?! Time flies when you're... Extraordinarily busy. I suppose the festive period was always going to be a busy one, especially with the union of family and friends from afar (try saying that five times fast!) as well as the added pressure of January exams to revise for. Needless to say, Christmas and the New Year passed by in a rushed, frenzied blur - as it always does - and before I knew it, I was back at school ready (well, sort of) to get my exams over and done with! I had Maths, Economics and Chemistry exams and finally finished this Tuesday, which was a massive relief... Until results day on March 7th. I'm trying not to think too deeply about my performance in these exams though, as there is nothing I can do about it now. Nevertheless, it's still pretty terrifying to think that these A-levels may well be the most important exams of my life. But it's not like I'm stressing or anything... (Except I so am.)

Anyway, enough with the excuses! I guess a late update is better than none at all though.

And it just so happens that I am turning seventeen today, so I thought that it'd be as good a time as any to write a new post! And since I missed the start of the new year on the old blogosphere, I thought that I'd recap my very own sixteenth year!

This year, I survived my GCSEs. In fact, I surpassed all my expectations and achieved the equivalent of 18 A*s and made it into the national newspaper. I'm still not entirely sure how I managed that, but it's definitely up there with one of my proudest moments.

This year, I started Sixth Form and my A-level studies and made so many new friends. It's crazy to think that I've only known these people for about 4 months, but they're already some of the greatest people I know.
This year, I wrote and sent my first pen-pal letter to Shana on the other side of the world. In a generation where letter-writing is a dying art (in my opinion), it is so important to use something other than the internet to communicate... Not that I'm shunning all social networking, since I'm obviously using an online blog to talk to you all!
This year, I went to my first Sofar Sounds living room gig: a night in a secret location full of awe-inspiring music, friends and a wonderful atmosphere.

This year, I went to Taiwan and had such an amazing time on holiday with my entire family, experiencing the new cultures of night markets and cheap food from street vendors. Being there opened my eyes to all the travelling I want to do and all the places I want to go.
This year, I discovered some great music, read from fantastic books, watched some brilliant games, ate some amazing food and experienced some great things with great people.
Most importantly, this year, I learnt to embrace change a little more and to be a little more open to new things and less judgmental. In essence, I'm becoming a little more like the person I want to be.

I was going to originally post some photos from this past year, but instead decided to just post a few from the recent weeks.

1. Me with breakfast @ The Breakfast Club

2. At a friend's eighteenth birthday party

3. With my mum and aunties @ The Breakfast Club

4. Pardy!

5. The Breakfast Club

6. The last day of school before the Xmas break

7. Delicious breakfast

So anyway, that was just my very brief recap of my sixteenth year! It feels crazy to be seventeen. It feels like a big milestone, what with it now being legal for me to drive! (Which is a scary thought!) And then in less than 20 months, I'm going to be off to university. Another scary thought.

Anyway, hopefully I won't leave it so long until my next post. Hopefully some of you have stuck around long enough to read this! Now it's time for me to catch up on the massive backlog of blogs that I've missed! Happy blogging! :-)

Chloe xxx

P.S. Stevie Nicks' Edge of Seventeen seemed rather fitting for my seventeenth birthday! Incidentally, this year, it's been a pretty quiet one due to being SNOWED in! However, I'm going to be celebrating with some friends next week, weather permitting, which I'm looking forward to!