Wine and sunshine

Message to Student Self

Wine and sunshine

Last week I met up with one of my oldest friends. She had travelled from Texas for a wedding and we managed an overnight stay in Edinburgh to catch up with one another and enjoy a night on the town. As students together in Manchester, we shared lots of wild, happy times and quite a few miserable ones too. We now live thousands of miles apart, but the friends from my teens are the ones who still know me best.

Viv came from Belfast and I was a Geordie girl; we became friends when another student showed herself to be a bully. She should never have tried to take the two of us on!

Viv was discussing how our student selves would marvel that we could now stay in a luxury hotel, take taxis, eat whatever we wanted and drink good wine without counting our small change. Back in student days we were always broke but we were always out and about, somehow!

So would our student selves have listened if we could have told them -Yes, you ARE both thin!  Chrissie, you will always have a larger top half than bottom half but others would love to have your ‘curvy’ look. Viv, your hair will always have a natural curl and you will never get much past five foot but petite is attractive too. The two of you are intelligent and will have great careers. You’ll both marry and have wonderful children. You’re husbands will be OK too. You will both meet up in years to come and wonder what you saw in some of the ‘true loves’ that you lost sleep over.

Well we couldn’t know all this and wouldn’t have believed it then, but we do appreciate life now and so we enjoyed spending our cash, having a few drinks, wearing comfy shoes and collapsing into fresh linen BEFORE midnight. Scottish breakfast was good too!

Life is never perfect.We both have problems and sadness in our lives right now and we are still supporting each other and sharing tears, but we do know that living ‘in the meantime’ and enjoying what we can is the way forward.

Here’s to our lasting friendship!

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