Rolling down hills in Sintra, Portugal.

My dad keeps telling me that my “20’s are for learning” and every time he says it, I think I love him a little bit more.

To me, learning implies a sprinkle of recklessness, a touch of experimentation, a hint of irresponsibility, and a whole lot of fun. As well as learning, of course.

As an 8-year old spice girl fan with a lip smacker in my pocket and a grade 3 crush, I totally envisaged my 21-year old self to have it completely together. I’m talking ‘Stepford Wife’ stuff: complete with a people mover, husband, a baby or two, and a mother’s group to discuss recipes. It was only when I started to reach said age, that I realized how brutally naïve it was of me, to expect such lifestyle simplicity, at the perfect age of 21.

And by simplicity, I mean simplicity. I wont apologise for being so ruthlessly advantageous of this world. A world that is so huge, crazy, beautiful, wild and insane. Both at home and abroad, there is so much to do, see, laugh at, experience, absorb and fight for. Settling down, right now, is just not an option.

Why? Because your 20’s are 100% for learning! It’s that beautiful mixture of adult freedom and childhood manner. The ability to DRIVE to BOUNCE INC. just before it closes for a late night jump, the chance to TRAVEL to all those places in the MOVIES, and BUY everything your mum said you had to “wait until you’re older” for.

Because now is the time, we are old enough play harder than we ever have before. (Let’s be honest, Barbie was never going to be able to do a beer bong, in a pool, in Mykonos, with friends from Spain.)

Me, I am avidly leaving all consequences for when I am 30 or above, at which time I imagine I will find another excuse to justify my erratic behavior and endless enjoyment of a bloody great time.

Because really, youth has no age.