/Václav Stratil/
'Just the whole of our lives, stretching ahead of us,' she said sleepily [...] feeling a ripple of anxiety pass across her shoulders at the thought of it: independent adult life. She didn't feel like an adult. She was in no way prepared. It was as if a fire alarm had gone off in the middle of the night and she was standing on the street with her clothes bundled up in her arms. If she wasn't learning, what was she doing? How should she fill the days? She had no idea.
The trick of it, she told herself, is to be courageous and bold and make a difference. Not change the world exactly, just the bit around you. [...] Write beautifully. Cherish your friends, stay true to your principles, live passionately and fully of well. Experience new things. Love and be loved if at all possible. Eat sensibly. Stuff like that.
[...] you feel a little bit lost right now about what to do with your life, a bit ruderless and oarless and aimless but that's okay that's alright because we're all meant to be like that at twenty-four. In fact our whole generation is like that.
/David Nicholls/
