it’s been a strange year. 

i’m sat trying to think of all the things that have happened because i know, regardless of the thoughts that this has been a shit one, this year has been incredible. there was hive in the snow, there were road trips to london to see my favourite band in the fucking smallest venue ever, dancing and singing to B.O.B in service stations, there was the night that ten americans all packed into my living room to eat pizza, top-to-tailing with megan. there were backstage cockpit singalongs, getting drunk on hideous measures of southern comfort and that night where SS got in a fight. there was the outdo ‘where have i been’ being sung at manchester orchestra despite the fact they’d walked offstage ten minutes beforehand. there was leeds; several times. there was sine ad’s 50th twin show and there was a press pass at slam dunk. there was THE STAGE INVASION during set your goals and me drunkenly singing every fucking word. there was matt wilson suited up and there was watching the starting line from side stage. there was dan brown smashing the windscreen of an ice cream van at middlesbrough music live, and home made pizza with alison gill. i almost killed all of my friends for my 21st, and i cried like a motherfucking baby when i was told that i was getting to go back to venice. the xcerts and i had a sleepover, charli got engaged, we discovered the lafontaines and there was t in the park. THERE WAS THAT FUCKING RAINSTORM. and tears. running into futures and being like ‘CHRISTIAN?!’ in the squeakiest voice you could possibly imagine. i graduated. i went to paris. i had my mind blown in a fucking boat by two insane bands. we had ‘home away from here’ because we were those ‘girls who came all the way from england’. vicky got her arm broken and her stomach exploded but they’re all minor details right? we spent sinead’s 21st birthday in a ball pit, blowing bubbles and giggling. there was screaming my entire way through a touché amore set, getting pushed onto amps, crawling across the stage, legs bruised and swollen and having never felt more free. then there was my week in scotland. there was ‘there’s no i in team’, macbook photos and shoooooeys. there was that overnight train, no sleep and the jared leto-mikey way combo. there was team DIY and harriet’s clipboard. there was a published magazine article and a job offer. there were corridor kisses and an australia band who decided to interview me. there was pensacola every night for four days and that heatwave in bristol. a 6am flight, followed by four days of no washing, awful vodka measures and the casino incident… there was victoria vardy, finally getting the sort of job she deserved, and that strange week away. charli joked about being pregnant and actually was pregnant. i cried my entire way through a city & colour set. there was brixton, which changed it all, before pre-halloween wigs and meeting a nice one, who i’d be okay with keeping. a day in vardy’s bed, her cheesecake brownies and a new found love of midori, before moving to london and starting a-new. 

and that’s a whole other story.

to be completely honest, more things have happened to me this year than i can ever remember or imagine, but i can’t describe how grateful i am for all of it. thank you to anyone who has been around me for the last twelve months, whether it be standing up on that balcony in edinburgh’s corn exchange, squealing with me in a glaswegian wetherspoons, sharing a bed with me in any travelodge or running down the seine with me, desperately shouting bad french at unknowing strangers. this year’s been a strange one, and at times a tough one, but if it wasn’t for every person supporting me, no way would i be in the position i am now. 

this is for us growing up, still young, but no longer impressionable.

no one
is
as
lucky
as
us

not too shabby, right?