Dear past self.

Here I am, Jaide from the future. Writing to you from the plane ride destined to home (AUS) after the 2 years in London.

I vividly remember where you’re at right now; you got the courage to step foot on the plane from South Africa to the United Kingdom instead of flying home to Australia with Rachael.

So first of all, well done to that. I know you’re balling your eyes out right now mid flight, wondering how much of your life you have just fucked. Wondering why on earth you would go to a place where you know nobody when you have a whole life at home with people who love you. Why on earth you would throw that all in to be met at the airport by a random stranger and his 6 year old son, just old high school mates with your dad. Well I don’t know why. But I know it was freaking worth it. I know you’re sad about your 4 little legged friend and yeah that’s gonna suck missing her. But your parents are amazing, visiting you twice, listening to you blubber on the phone to them hysterically and also hearing you happy as larry. Your brother and his fiancé end up joining you and you have the best adventures of all time all in London and Europe together- who would have thought!?

And that lanky, tall man you have kind of been seeing for 10 months now, but off and on? Well he finally does get his shit together and joins you! And that’s definitely a story and highlight within itself. Not to be a mushy girlfriend, but simply to have seen him grow from his confused, easily influenced boy-like self to a confident, motivated young adult- that is one of the best things to have witnessed and to have been along side.

And you did it together!

Fuck I’m not telling you it’s happy rainbows from here. You still got a few mountains to climb yet. But do it. Don’t give in. Because climbing the mountains together, laughing and crying, is so much worth it in the long run.

So yeah chin up. Get ready for a lifetime of friendships to enter your world, for adventures you wouldn’t have dreamed of, for struggles that are worth it and for learning patience and having that patience pay off. For meeting people you probably never would have engaged with before and for seeing their struggles and helping them too.

It might be out of your comfort zone, and it might not be finishing your degree, but it’s learning history and drinking jäger in Berlin, it’s being in a dream amongst the tulips in Amsterdam and conquering a 5 month long distance relationship, it’s freezing your tits off in Portuguese waters, its staying in a small drug dealers air bnb in Barcelona, its stacking it and needing a randoms assistance in the Lourve and its couch surfing with locals in Nice. It’s feelings of tragedy from terrorist attacks so close to your door step and overcoming fear and to continue travelling. It’s eating danish pancakes with a danish family, it’s friends going bonkers in Prague, it’s Christmas jumpers in London, Belgian waffles and 455 year old restaurants for xmas lunch in Bruges, it’s fireworks going crazy and counting in the new year in Berlin and it’s cuddling random wild horses in Iceland. It’s eating all the gluten free foods imaginable in Italy, and rock climbing a cliff face in Lake Como, it’s the sunsets over a volcano in Greece, it’s the partying at festivals with hundreds of other foreigners in Hungary and it’s the coughing your guts up from a chest infection in Slovenia and of course every other incredible moment along the way.

You’re in for a world of ups and downs.

And they are the best ups and downs you have had so far.

So if you are ever wondering if your on the right track, you are. Trust me.

Love, your future self, Jaide.



And of course this quote, because it was relevant then, and it always will be.