I was born in Stafford. I work in Stafford. I live in Stafford. And I'll probably die in Stafford - that is unless I have a heart attack whilst on a Leon's Coach trip to Bournemouth, 30 + years from now.
Now, I've lived elsewhere in this country. Most notably, Scotland and Manchester, but I've always gravitated back to here. Why? Because it's a simple way of life and it runs at its own pace that I like. It may not be for the jet-setting go getters, but I'm an ambling sort of person. But do I really want to be?
I've just been looking at Friends Reunited and some of my 'old' classmates lives and where they're at, and quite frankly, it's got me down. Their lives seem to be about Monaco, Toronto, idyllic Cornwall landscapes, or the bright lights of London and San Francisco. Well paid and respected jobs, their own 'successful' businesses, contented partners/ wives/ husbands, and '2.43456 recurring children' who all go to private school.
Me? I'm 35, single, live in a rented maisonette (8 years and counting), have a very small social circle, and a job that pays me less than I was earning over twelve years ago with absolutely no future prospects. Nor have I in the foreseeable future, of ever being able to afford to buy my own property.
I know much of what I have mentioned is materialistic and so it doesn't necessarily equate to happiness, and the very nature of the Internet and Friends Reunited allows some degree of 'artistic licence' when it comes to describing yourself - so I should take a lot of what has been said at face value. But it has certainly hit home how little I've 'achieved' in life since I left school.
Perhaps that's a good thing, and it will spur me on, but I can't help thinking that my life is so entrenched in the way that it is, that I will just fall back into the same routine, until the net time I log on to Friends Reunited.
I don't want to sound all maudling (is that a Stafford saying?), and it certainly wasn't my intention of it ending up like this when I first started typing this post out, but it's something I've wanted to get off my chest for a while.
Now, I've lived elsewhere in this country. Most notably, Scotland and Manchester, but I've always gravitated back to here. Why? Because it's a simple way of life and it runs at its own pace that I like. It may not be for the jet-setting go getters, but I'm an ambling sort of person. But do I really want to be?
I've just been looking at Friends Reunited and some of my 'old' classmates lives and where they're at, and quite frankly, it's got me down. Their lives seem to be about Monaco, Toronto, idyllic Cornwall landscapes, or the bright lights of London and San Francisco. Well paid and respected jobs, their own 'successful' businesses, contented partners/ wives/ husbands, and '2.43456 recurring children' who all go to private school.
Me? I'm 35, single, live in a rented maisonette (8 years and counting), have a very small social circle, and a job that pays me less than I was earning over twelve years ago with absolutely no future prospects. Nor have I in the foreseeable future, of ever being able to afford to buy my own property.
I know much of what I have mentioned is materialistic and so it doesn't necessarily equate to happiness, and the very nature of the Internet and Friends Reunited allows some degree of 'artistic licence' when it comes to describing yourself - so I should take a lot of what has been said at face value. But it has certainly hit home how little I've 'achieved' in life since I left school.
Perhaps that's a good thing, and it will spur me on, but I can't help thinking that my life is so entrenched in the way that it is, that I will just fall back into the same routine, until the net time I log on to Friends Reunited.
I don't want to sound all maudling (is that a Stafford saying?), and it certainly wasn't my intention of it ending up like this when I first started typing this post out, but it's something I've wanted to get off my chest for a while.
