I recently turned 24. When I was in my early teens, I did the maths on when I should have children, how long I'd want to be married for, and how much fun I planned on having first and decided that the optimum age to get married was 24. So, I'd always imagined myself walking down the aisle in a big pouffy white dress at the end of 2010.
As that deadline got closer, I told myself, I'd be happy if I had at least met the person I was going to marry. After all, 24 is quite young to be married these days.
Here we are, December 2010 and I find that I'm not even close. I don't have a boyfriend. I don't even know where I'm supposed to start to find one.
Yet, apparently, I've hit my prime. I'm in my mid 20s, I have a good job, great friends, a nice flat in a leafy part of London and am constantly busy. I have the exact life I aspired to to when I watched Bridget Jones for the first time. If I was to believe the rom-com legend, as an overachieving, successful, attractive-if-I-make-a-big-enough-effort woman, I should definitely meet a dashingly handsome, yet flawed enough to be realistic, impossibly wealthy man, completely by chance and swan off into the sunset any moment now. I feel cheated.
So, why this blog? To start with (and I know I really need to stop believing my life should be like a film) I watched Julie & Julia last week and, despite the fact that is was truly atrocious, I like the idea of using a blog as a real driver for taking action to change something I don't like about my life rather than just sitting around and complaining. I should go on more dates, I know I should, and if I need to go out to keep this blog up to date (excuse the pun), maybe that will push me a little bit further out of my comfort zone and into the arms of a Colin Firth lookalike.
I also need help, and that's where you come in. Can the combined wisdom of the world's women (or at least the three that might read this...) work out what the answer is? Is it just a case of meeting the right person? But where's the right place to meet them? Is it about how I behave and act? Or will the right person like me 'just the way I am'? Is it about compromising on my image of the perfect guy? Or should I hold out for 'Mr Right'?
My mission for 2011. Find a boyfriend. Work out all the answers. Easy peasy.
