In my twenty ninth year I seemingly ‘have it sorted’ - as a friends sister recently said to me. I have a husband and a happy marriage (I am perfectly aware that the two don’t go hand in hand!) and have recently become a mum to a very happy and healthy little girl. We all live in a non-descript, three up-three down, terraced house near Plymouth City Centre.
My nine months of paid maternity leave will soon be up and am to return to a marketing job at Plymouth University earning a comfortable enough crust. My husband is currently studying to become a dentist thus securing our little family’s future.
So what you may ask is interesting about me? Why would you read a blog about this life?
Well, I have a friend, Katie, who is also embarking on her twenty ninth year, in fact she is just one day older than me, but Katie’s life is the polar opposite to mine.
Katie has always loved the outdoors and she gets to share that passion and earn a living doing it, as an Outdoor Education Instructor in Staffordshire. At the weekend she climbs and walks up mountains, in the week she teaches climbing and takes people walking in the mountains. When Katie tells people that she loves her job see their eyes turn green with envy.
She admits she doesn't earn much money, but that doesn't matter, she lives in a nice staff house by herself in the Staffordshire countryside, she has a boyfriend as outdoorsy as her with a VW campervan and she has no children, not even any pets. Her biggest commitment is her car, an Alfa Romeo which she couldn't resist and it didn't matter.
We are seemingly living our lives at opposite ends of the social stereotype scale, the apron wearing Mother and Wife, and the adventure-loving, go-getter.
We are products of a modern age of feminism and post girl power-ism, we made choices about these paths.
But are our lives as black and white as this? Should we, or do we want to, be labelled like this? And what IS a ‘modern twenty something woman’ anyway?
