At 25 I am beginning to reach the age where you know the person that you are and the person that you want to become. You value every experience that you go through because it gives you a life lesson helping you realise more and more what you really want and what truly matters to you.

I'm not saying that I've learned everything, ah hell no. But I'm getting there. Here are a few things I've come to realise about what's important to me over the last 5 years.

1 - There's only a few real friends in your life who would do anything for you.

Those people who support you no matter what and ALWAYS bring you up rather than put you down. They are the important ones. The friendships that last years and always feel the same no matter how much you see each other. It is so, SO important to surround yourself with the right people.

2 - You rely on those friends so much more than you think.

Yeah I am possibly the worst person ever at replying to people, and moving countries all the time makes it difficult to keep hold of your short-term connections. But honestly, the times when I have felt the saddest are when I don't have friends around me, people to talk to, people to share things with, people to laugh with. Personally for me, I could be doing the shittest job in the world, but if I enjoy the people I'm doing it with, then I'm more than content.

3 - Careers don't just happen overnight.

Nah, it's a long hard road, and honestly most people don't have a clue what they're actually doing. So if you feel lost and confused, then embrace it. The more lost you get the more likely you are to find yourself, your true self. Trust me, I've seen rock bottom and it's almost reassuring that things can only get better. And then when you find what you want, you'll appreciate it so much more. Just make sure you do something that makes you happy. Life is what you make it after all.

4 - You don't have to have everything figured out and your life set in stone by the time you're thirty.

Sure, everyone around you is getting married, or having babies, or buying houses, or getting high-end careers. If you're doing any of those, then congrats to you. But if you're not... it. doesn't. matter. Everyone is doing their own life, their own thing and no-ones life is the same, and no-ones life is perfect. You've got the rest of your life to worry about things, do the impulse things that make you happy while you still can. We're all living our own timeline and although it's hard, you need to stop comparing yourself to everyone else. You'll find your own way and live your own goddam life.

5 - Adulthood is fricking hard man.

Cut yourself some slack, there isn't a manual for life. Making mistakes and bad decisions is inevitable and they're good, they give you those life lessons I was talking about. Bills are a nightmare. Tax is even worse. Forms are always confusing. And I can't be the only one who still doesn't know the phonetic alphabet. Politics is complicated. Dating is even more complicated.

6 - Confidence is actually quite important.

Everyone goes on about it but you do actually need quite a lot of it to get through life. Confidence in your appearance and your personality. Confidence to be able to talk to people and to not care too much about what everyone thinks of you. It has always been a bit of a downfall for me, but I realise that I overthink things and that the only opinion that actually matters is my own, no-one else actually cares that much.

7 - Be unapologetically you.

There's nothing more to it.

I don't know about you but I'm pretty excited to see what the rest of my twenties will teach me and how my life will turn out.