the lucky ones...

When I was about 19, my mum told me that I had always been lucky.

At the time I was a little offended but I knew where she was coming from.

I was ( still am) clever, and at school, college and even uni, I never had to work my hardest to do well. The grades were there, and even when my A Level grades didn't match up to expectations or requirements I still got into Lancaster University, and left home a month after turning 18.

Don't get me wrong, I was never lazy, and maybe by others peoples standards I was working super hard. I just wasn't giving it my everything.

When I left uni with a 2:1, I knew it was the good grade that I deserved. And I didn't feel I had cheated myself, because while maybe I have the brains to have done better, I don't believe I wasted a single moment of my time at university.

But University came to an end, and, I got scared that my luck would too.

I had no real idea what I wanted to do with my life. So, I started an internship, and I threw myself into it. Not because my usual efforts wouldn't have necessarily been enough, but because I was no longer content with just doing what I had to. Before, I just did what I had to because my life was already heading in the right trajectory, now I wasn't sure I even had a trajectory, but if I did I was going to make damn sure it was the right one.

That internship turned into my job. My job turned into confidence. My confidence turned into a theatre company. And that turned me into who I am today.

In many ways I am still lucky, and I am very grateful for so many things in my life, but I guess I also have myself to thank.

Recently two amazing opportunities have been given to me. Opportunities that I have worked for, and opportunities that I am going to have to work, and work hard, to make the most of. One of which, was an invitation from the magazine I pitched to to send the full article to them for their consideration.

It might only be an invitation, but I worked to receive it.

So The Life Project is proving to be pretty successful. Not only have I learnt that working hard pays off, but also that some times, luck comes in the strangest, and most ironic, of places.

After all it was being so tragically single, and unlucky in love, that gave me the idea for the article (and my next show) in the first place.