Today is a special day for me – I am turning 25! On the 25th of February. That’s pretty cool, right?
I never really cared about my birthdays, in fact I don’t expect anything special to happen most of the time and I even tend to forget my own age, but this time it feels a bit more special, as I reached my mid-twenties and somehow this feels quite symbolic. I don’t know if my experience of life and my growth will ever be as condensed as it was in the last five years. So far, my twenties have already taught me so many things, even if I’m only half-way through them. Most of these things have come from being in a long-term relationship, meeting people and owning a business. I’m young, still, but I feel like I’ve already managed to get so much experience, simply because of being so “hands-on” about everything.
Whereas those first five years of my twenties were dedicated to doing, learning and experiencing, I think that the next ones will be dedicated to listening and finding balance. Applying those lessons in my day-to-day life. And while I learned so much about the world and the people around me, I think I still have plenty to learn about myself.
Instead of making a post about “the 25 things I learned in the past 25 years”, I thought it would be good to take advantage of this festive opportunity to rather sum them up as silly facts, random things that belong to my background story, which you might not know about and can be funny. So here goes… I hope it’s not too cheesy.
1. When I was a toddler, I had a sacred trinity of pacifiers. I just had to carry exactly 3 pacifiers with me at ALL times and places.
2. I had a really cute doll stroller which I was carrying around, but I didn’t like dolls. I tucked a tiny evil-looking batman figure in it, though.
3. When I was 9 years old, we got asked to do a “pee test” and we were given a screw-top jar at school. Mine opened up in my schoolbag on the way there. My textbooks were all yellow and stinky afterwards. It was horribly embarrassing.
4. I loved to collect Diddl’s. I had one that was almost half my size!
5. As I was growing up and discovering the joys of makeup, I liked to experiment a lot with it. During a summer holiday, I put makeup on my dad and he looked like a beautiful trasvestite. My family is weird, yes.
6. When I was 14, I had purple hair and was obsessed with japanese manga.
7. When I was 15, I had black hair, was listening to emo rock, played electric guitar and had a skateboard. One day I thought it would be a good idea to go downhill with it. That made me look like an idiot and I hurt myself really bad. The skate rolled all the way down and ended up at the end of the street, nearby a barnhouse!
8. I once tried to roll a doobie in chewing gum wrapping paper.
9. I had been a lone introvert until I was 16, when I finally started to have a bit of self-confidence and make new friends. Those new friends brought me to parties, and let’s say I was not afraid to mingle around. I once was a little drunk and kissed a boy I didn’t fancy at all. Just thinking about that makes me cringe.
10. I got my first tattoo at that age, too. I thought that was kickass.
11. Just before I started studying graphic design, I was making mean collages to express my anger towards modern society. They were pretty dark.
12. Later on, when I was 17, I met David. On facebook. Yeah!
13. A few weeks after we met, we went to a massive David Guetta concert in Paris, together. We got extremely drunk and talked to everyone in the whole stadium. Full disclosure: we listen to MUCH BETTER music now.
14. I hated the first year of my design studies. I almost considered giving it all up and becoming a teacher.
15. On a trip to Thailand with David, a weird old man stopped us in the middle of nowhere to ask for something. It seemed urgent, but we didn’t understand a thing he was saying which made it very awkward. I still wonder what the hell he wanted from us, but we will never know.
16. I made this mural at a teacher’s house on my 3rd year of studies. It was a blast and I think that’s when I realized I want to have a career that’s as creative as possible.
17. I did a design internship at this place. A creative studio held by a bunch of really cool guys. We ate junkfood and watched tv together at lunch time. It was awesome.
18. I became a vegetarian at that time also. Which made it harder to continue with the junkfood. But vegetables made me happy!
19. When I finished my studies, I experimented with having a self-employed status, and my artist name was DISH, which is a little nickname that a friend gave me, and a short version of my family name.
20. DISH was spelled :DISH. My logo had a hidden smiley face in the front. Teehee!
21. Around that time, I tried yoga. My first ending meditation was so intense that I exploded and cried. I think my relationship with yoga was meant to be.
22. I also started being interested in healthy living. One of my first design clients was actually my naturopath!
23. In the meantime, I freaked out about working by myself and looked for a job. I found it and I didn’t enjoy it. So I quit after 3 months and went back to being self-employed. My family wasn’t very happy.
24. While I had that job, David and I looked for a house. We thought our current appartment was too small for us. We found a lovely house and almost sealed the deal. Thank goodness it did NOT work out. It would have been too expensive for us to ever be able to start a business together.
25. At a moment, David was a self-employed designer, just as I was. We lived together, had the same job but worked separately. That made us fight a lot. In January 2015, we threw our egos in the bin and started Kinlake. And so many beautiful, funny, creative, mind-boggling things have happened ever since!
I’m loving my life right now. These last few years have taught me so much and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for me in the next years as well. But let’s not forget being present in the moment. Today, I’m going to enjoy my birthday with my family, with my friends, and the creative things I want to get done! I’m happy!!
