Growing up with my girlfriends (in photographs)

I stopped writing in my blog for a while. I started to feel very self conscious of my own voice and what I had to say, what I had to offer the world. But I think am ready to speak again and writing to you now feels like an act of courage and bravery. I have much to share with you, stories to tell, photos to share, lessons I have learned, if you would like…

So, I want to ease back into blogging by sharing with you a small, precious joy in my life; my friendship with Emma and Becky.

This is Emma. My favourite things about Emma is her feisty spirit, her loyalty, her sense of humour, her inner fire, her affectionate lovingness and her fearlessness. She is one of the funniest people I know! She makes me laugh from my belly. She is expressive and lovely. She always makes sure the ones she loves are taken care of. There is a lot of power behind everything Emma does in her life. She knows how to make things happen.

This is Becky. My favourite things about Becky is her caring heart. She is thoughtful, considerate and peaceful. She loves the word “nonchalant” and uses it as often as she can. She often worries about things, but faces life with a slow calmness that is refreshing. She is slow and wobbly. I say she’s slow because sometimes it’s like she lives life in slow motion; she takes a long time to react to things. When I told her this, she laughed and said it’s because she is “thinking”. And I say she’s wobbly because she often bumps into things and she very seriously asked me the other day “Have you learned anything in medical school about being really clumsy? I’m worried. Last week I hit my head on the same cupboard door three times.”

She has a light spirit, with bright eyes and sunshine hair.

Just the other week I returned to Leeds (a place I haven’t been to in 7 years) to see the girls again after 4 years apart. The last time I saw them was when they came to Ireland for my 21st birthday. We were so excited to be together again.

We decided to recreate some old photos we had taken when we were 15. I want to share them with you here.

This is Emma and I when we were 15. There was a big open field near our house that we would go in the summertime. We called it “The field of dreams” and this is where we would come to chase the summertime sunshine.

We went back to our field, the trees were bare, but we wore flowers in our hair.

Emma and Becky. I’m not sure what Emma was trying to tell me with that hand gesture, but we had to recreate it anyway. 

This one was taken when we were 20/21 in my room in Galway.

And here they are now!

kisses at 20/21 years old

Kisses at 23/24 years old.

Becky, Matthew and Emma – 15 years old – hanging out in Emma’s home.

Here they are now!

15 years old and all dressed up for a christmas dinner with friends. 

“Grown ups”

Cupface in 2011

Cupface in 2014

Sillyness in 2011

The sillyness still continues to this day….

Cuddles from Becky in 2010.

And now in 2014….

Emma and I when we were 15

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Here are some other photographs we took of our time together. Some from the past, some from last week.

This is us under a painting that Becky painted! She is so creative. She works in fashion and even made her own dress! She is a “Garment technologist.” I laughed when she first said this but she glared at me with eyes of death and said “It’s a real thing.”

We all got matching pjs for our sleepover. We had gone out for dinner and cocktails (/mocktails for some 😉 ) but found ourselves home even before Emma’s parents got home. WE ARE GETTING OLD.

So we got home, changed in to PJs, ate chocolate, talked, watched Emma clean up dog vomit (her puppy threw up on the carpet 🙁 ) and then Becky started getting really grumpy so we had to put her to bed. 

Of course we took a few photographs first! 

When we were teenagers, Emma’s father used to always DELIGHT us with his Donald Duck impression, and he did it again! He said all our names and funny sentences in his donald duck voice, and we stood around him giggling like little girls again.

We all love when one of us has a story to tell. This evening Emma had a story to tell, so Becky and I got so excited and cuddled around her for storytime. 

The next morning we went to a darling old tea house for brunch.

Aww!

I wanted to recreate this photo of us at 15, but Becky gave me a lecture on how it is “disrespectful to the car to sit on it” and how she regrets her teenage car-sitting ways.

This is a really special photograph for me because it is the first “artistic” photo I ever took!. Emma was my first model.

And Choyi was my second model. I guess it was some kind of green fairy themed photo shoot. She wore my prom dress. CRINGE!

And this is Choyi now.

Taken in her home.

I also got to meet my high school teacher which was so good! She made such a positive impact on my life during my rowdy teenage years.

The three of us at 16, after going for dinner, back at Emma’s house, looking at photographs.

Us at 20, at a train station in London. Reunited after 2 years of not seeing each other.

All of us in 2010

I feel so blessed to have such cherished girlfriends!

thank you thank you thank you

xo