Whether you’ve known you wanted to be a vet ever since you went to the farm on a school trip, realised mid-degree that maybe dentistry isn’t for you or just kind of muddled your way through college and landed that well-paid admin job the minute you left, a career change is a perfectly normal part of life. That’s not to say loving your job and staying in the same industry your whole life is wrong, but we’re so often fed the narrative of bagging that ‘dream job’ and all of your hard work, paying off that when you’re sat at your desk and living the supposed dream, feeling unhappy or unchallenged feels alien - we’re not meant to feel this way. We’re here to try and change that narrative. It’s okay to decide you want a change, whether that’s to a different department, new company or just a whole other career, even if that means a longer commute, taking a pay cut or starting again completely from the bottom. Ava DuVernay was an established publicist before she made the move into filmmaking and directing. Giorgio Armani studied medicine and worked at a military hospital before he became one of the biggest names in fashion. Whoopi Goldberg worked at a funeral parlour before her big break as an actress. 

Growing up, we’ve all probably filled out diaries with our dreams of getting married, having children and living happily ever after. There are even adult diaries with dedicated vision boards for long term plans. Because we all like to set ourselves goals and have hopes and dreams for the future, right? For many, those long terms plans may still look a lot like their childhood diary and are or are well on their way to living out that dream. For some, it might not have quite gone to plan because life got in the way. And then there are others who have done a complete 180. Maybe travelling took priority over buying a house. Maybe they’ve realised marriage isn’t for them. Or maybe, they’re just happy with their lot. The keyword here? Happy. It doesn’t matter if that vision board doesn’t come to life exactly. Or if you want to scrap it and start a whole new one. You make the rules here. 

As we grow, our style grows. You might have been backcombing your hair into a beehive for the whole of high school and couldn’t imagine it any other way. Maybe wearing a lace glove on one hand was your signature at sixth form or perhaps you committed to wearing a velvet floppy hat with absolutely every outfit and vowed to never take it off. We’ve all been there. And so when you decide to go hat/ glove/ beehive free and forget those vows, you have to prepare for the not-so-witty remarks from close friends and family of “who’s this?” and “oh, I didn’t recognise you there.” Eyeroll. Trends come and go, so of course our style is going to change. You probably dress a lot different at 33 than you did at 17. Or maybe you look the same. It’s your style and your wardrobe, who cares if it changes? 

In life, we hear a lot about break ups with love interests, but less so with friends. Whether you’re 5 or 35, losing a friend still hits hard. Because let’s face it, we all want to have friends. And there are so many kinds of friendship we come across along the way. From the friend you met on the first day at school and those default friends-because-your-parents-are-friends to the friend you met in college and clicked with straight away and the one’s you meet through another friend and became inseparable. You might have a huge friendship group, lots of pocket-sized sets of friends (and the multiple group chats that come with it) or perhaps you’ve got a small circle and lost some friends along the way. We grow up and we grow apart – it’s a part of life and changing your mind about friendships is more than okay. Maybe their actions proved they weren’t good to have around; your trust was broken or your mutual interests no longer became mutual. Whether you need to cut them out or just set some boundaries, it’s something everyone goes through so don’t worry!

Like fashion, there are SO many trends when it comes to health and fitness. From clean eating and veganism to the Keto diet and going gluten free not forgetting Cross Fit and HIIT classes to yoga and SoulCycle, it’s a lot to take on board. You may have once eyerolled those who forked out for overpriced spin classes or did one yoga class and strutted around in athleisure forevermore and suddenly you find yourself in said spin class with your workout buddy and planning in your next yoga date. It doesn’t make you fickle - these things happen. Vegans can go for the regular yoghurt if the non-dairy version is out of stock or hit up the chicken shop after a night out. You can download that fitness app just because an influencer is fronting it and then fail to do any of the workouts. Cancel the gym membership, or join one, meal prep or ditch your lunch for the more-tasty looking canteen option. We’re not holding anyone accountable.

#Together