GUEST POST FRIDAY | Summer 2016 Recap - Sarah

After a stressful start to the year with finishing off my Dissertation and basically the end of my Uni course, summer 2016 has been one of my best. Shannan suggest that I write a recap of my summer this year for her blog (you're reading it now, good isn't it?) and i thought it was a great idea to document what I've been up to and the most memorable parts!

My summer started off with the end of my course. I finished in May after handing in my last deadline and completing a presentation at Uni. This lead on to me spending a lot of time with my Uni friends (probably more than ever before) which was lovely. We finally had time to chill out and not be stressed about work. So it resulted in some park trips, some early morning comic book shop trips and a whole load of pizza. What a lovely way to spend the start of summer!

This summer was also when I started dating again. I'd been seeing/talking to a few people at the beginning of the year, and it wasn't overly working for me. However I started dating one person particular in May and it's been lovely. It's allowed me to have some lovely coffee shop dates, cinema trip and one very lovely day walking around a park with a picnic. I'm still in the mindset that relationships are not everything, and I don't have to count on seeing someone, but it's always lovely to wake up to a good morning text.

In 2016, I knew I'd be finishing Uni, so my goal was to take a few trips and see friends as much as possible. This has lead me so a lovely few day trips in to Liverpool, London and a very nice trip to Newcastle to see none other than Shannan! It was wonderful to have a few days break to see friends and I had such a wonderful time visiting Shannan's home town! It's strange that I've only known her a few years (probably not even that properly) but we had some lovely chats and adventures, I cannot wait to come stay again (packing my bags, get my bed ready!).

I haven't been on a family holiday for a long while. My parents and I stopped family holidays a few years back while we were getting a lot of work done to the house. But 2016 was the year we packed our bags and stayed in the lakes for a few days. Not only did I see a sheep up close (yes I know), climb a hill and eat cake every day, I got to stay in a very very fancy bed all to myself. The holiday was lovely and it was nice to spend time with my family away from home for a little bit. I cannot express how thankful I am for the little break.

Earlier on in the year I thought it would be a good idea to start journaling. This was probably the best decision I've made in a very long time. Writing down all my thoughts and feelings alongside detailed accounts of what I've done with my days has been wonderful. I'm excited to look back in a few years and remember what I've been up to and how I thought about it all. I'd recommend starting a journal to anyone!

So summer 2016 has been a blast intertwined with a blur of Uni results, job searching and graduating! I've started work as a trainee supervisor while still looking for a job, and keeping up with my own blog. It's been a manic summer and one of my favourites. I cannot get over how lovely this year has been so far, I really hope the rest of the year continues the same!

GUEST POST FRIDAY | A Open Letter to 16 Year Old Me - Sarah

I think there are many things that I'd like to tell myself five years down the line. Here's my open letter to younger me:

Dear 16 year old me, 
Everything ends up okay. I know at sixteen the world feels like its falling apart, nothing's going right, college seems terrifying and you're not even considering university. But I can tell you now that everything turns out okay. Trust yourself and it will all come into place. 

I know you're having problems, problems not anyone else can dream about, but once you start to trust your life and your body and your mind, everything works out. That's the one thing that I've learned, you have to trust yourself and believe in yourself. 

You're terrified of college, starting somewhere completely new even though you can't be yourself in your old life. In college, be completely yourself and be confident about it, because it will be the best two years of your life. Go in to everything with no regrets and stay focused on what you want. Don't hide your true self from anyone. Don't apologize for who you are and what you are becoming, be proud. 

You'll fall in and out of love, constantly, but remember that It's not the be-all and end-all. You'll meet people you'll be infatuated by, and you'll have to let them go. It hurts, but it's okay. Also try to learn that you're okay on your own sometimes. This one might be a little harder to learn, and trust me, at 21 you still might be learning the ways of dealing of loneliness. Remember that relationships don't define you, your family and friends are important too. 

Speaking of family and friends, don't push them away because you'll need them the most in the next few years. Keep the best ones you've made and stay as far from the others as possible. The amount of friends you have doesn't matter, how they treat you does. After 16, you'll meet the most incredible people that will stick with you for the rest of your life. Don't cock that up and push them away. 
At 16 years old you think you know everything. And at 21 you'll look at 16 year olds and shake your head, thinking they have so much to learn about life. The difference is, at 21 I'm prepared to look back at myself at 30 and think 'wow, I really knew nothing.' But things get a lot better after 16 and that I can promise. 

You'll still have doubts, worries, panics that you can't find a job or you'll fail an assignment (trust me, that still feels like your world is over). But you'll also have adventures on beaches with new life-long friends. You'll road trip to Liverpool with people you've not met before, you'll go on dates in the park, you'll have picnics with your best friend, you'll make friends through work, you'll read books you fall in love with, you'll eat a full jar of chocolate spread in one sitting, you'll make the perfect pancakes on Sunday morning, you'll lounge about the house for a day and feel on top of the world and you'll wake up in the middle of the night and roll over and have sex with the person next to you and it'll feel amazing. You'll kiss people you never thought you would and you'll hold hands with friends walking in town centers and sneak cookies in to the cinema on a weekly best friend date. 

Life will get so much damn better, and you need to believe that can happen for it to come true. 
I hope it gets better soon, 
Sarah x

GUEST POST FRIDAYS | The Get To Know Me Tag - Sarah

From today, every second Friday of each month shall be known as 'Guest Post Friday'. Pretty exciting huh? The idea behind it is to bring something a little different to Twenty Something and Day Dreaming, but also allow myself and Sarah to share the whole blogging experience together. So that's enough from me, and now its over to Sarah.

1. What is your middle name? Louise
2. How tall are you? 5"3
3. What was favourite subject at school? English (and I really liked History!)
4. What is your favourite drink? Mocha coffee
5. What is your favourite song at the moment? All Night by R5. It's an older song now but I've recently started listening to R5 again and All Night makes me so happy.
6. What would you choose as your last meal? Pasta. Pasta pasta pasta. 
7. What is the last thing you bought? The BFG book!
8. Favourite book of all time? SO DIFFICULT! Either The Fault In Our Stars by John Green or The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger
9. Favourite Colour? Blue
10. Do you have any pets? Two kitty cats
11. Favourite Perfume? It's probably not socially acceptable for a 21 year old but I've been wearing Our Moment by One Direction every day for about 3 years. 
12. Favourite Celebration? CHRISTMAS!
13. What is your favourite country? The UK
14. Do you speak any other language? I can say rubber in French
15. How many siblings do you have? None
16. What is your favourite shop? Waterstones
17. Favourite restaurant? Jamies Italian
18. When was the last time you cried? At Coronation Street about a month ago
19. Favourite Film? Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire
20. Favourite TV shows? Bates Motel
21. PC or Mac? Mac
22. Can you cook? Yes (much to everyone's surprise)
23. Favourite Blog? www.dark-readers.com
24. What is the name of your blog? The Little Contemporary Corner
25. How long have you been blogging? Just over a year!
26. How did you get into blogging? I read a lot of book blogs because I wanted to find out about other peoples thoughts on books. I then decided I had no-where to talk about my own thoughts, so I started blogging.