Colyer's Copy

Why turning 30 is going to be awesome . October : Pumpkin spice, Halloween, big knit jumpers, blowing the dust off the slow cooker and drinking far too much wine. But also, for me it means Birthday and this time I’m leaving my 20s behind and entering my next decade. When I was 13, I was obsessed with the film “13 going on 30” I think I watched it well over twenty times relating to the main character Jenna and her mantra, ‘I want to be thirty, flirty and thriving’. Well fast forward and I find myself aged 29, staring 30 in the eyes and up until now – I have been having a bit of a hard time dealing with this realisation that I’ve completed 1/3 of my life already and I am now (gulp) a fully-fledged adult. Thank you, Reddit forums, at 3am while I was busy waging wars on myself and my ageing process you soothed me. However, upon reflection – something we’ve all had time to do during the pandemic, I’ve come to realise that saying “ Hello, my name is Chelsea and I’m 30 Years old ”...

I have been off Facebook for just over a month now until today; if I could sum it up in a nutshell it made me feel mostly ‘free’. Full freedom I feel, would have come from deleting all social media which is a little difficult all the while in lock-down away from loved ones, deleting the likes of Whatsapp and Messenger would have isolated me from those of my friends and family checking in to make sure I was cool ( thank you for keeping in touch you utter beauties, it really opens your eyes – but more on that later).   But liberation! Let me tell you, exciting, wonderful and happy things happen to me in my life even when I am not posting about it online. Sad, frustrating and stressful things are also still happening in my life even when I’m not ‘Facebook statusing’ them. More than ‘free’ I felt I have claimed back my sense of humour. So often I’d scroll though Facebook and be bogged down by the constant barrage of news articles, fake news, political views. Seeing people who a...

Typically speaking, when women get married to men it usually goes without saying that yes, she will take his surname. It’s become a cultural convention in the UK and thought of as the norm; though while it’s not a legal requirement – why do people still change their name?   For those that wish to have children and start a family, it’s an easy thing to take your new husbands name and all sharing the family name.  Meanwhile, others believe that the act is an "outdated tradition" with sexist connotations that represent a woman being handed over like a product from her father to her husband who now owns her - can you imagine!   Personally, I see it as being proud to share the name of my new husband; who’s family have welcomed me into theirs, it bonds us together, shows my commitment and really would make me feel ‘married’ as opposed to if I kept my surname and added ‘Mrs’. - that’s my mother.   However, as much as I am delighted to change my name when I marry, I am absol...