2010 - 2020 | A Decade in Review

We can gloss over the fact it’s the middle of January and I’m only just writing up my 2010’s decade in review right? Think we can pretty much assume there’ll be no ‘hopes for 2020’ or ‘review for 2019’ or anything like that on the blog. Not till December anyway.

But a new decade is a pretty big deal no? I have only seen two new decades in my life (and a new millennium which will be a once in a generation thing soon), so it felt fitting when I have a platform full of my life and memories, to write about 10 years of them.

I started the decade as a skinny 17 year old and I ended it as a 4 stone heavier 27 year old. I started it anxious, a bit unsure of myself with very little idea of self respect and I ended it stronger than I ever thought I’d be and a lot more aware of who I am. I ended it with less family and more family at the same time. They say with age comes wisdom and inner peace and if the last 10 years are anything to go by, I’d have to agree.

So let’s crack on with a simplified version of ten whole years, moulded in to a few highlights, with the obvious omission of lots of struggle too. Keep it light innit.

I went on a school history trip with a coach load of peers and one of my very best friends and, a beardless, young Jos. We flew out to Prague for a few days and then spent 4 or so days travelling back to Wales via bus, through Nuremberg, Heidelberg, Leige, Calais and Dover.
In May 2010, after a month or two of text messages and a couple of kisses on nights out, Jos asked me to be his girlfriend on top of the cliffs at a local beach and we have been a duo ever since.
I sat my AS Levels and got a couple of B’s and a C in Art (my chosen vocation) and had a bit of a cry because I was told ‘it didn’t come naturally’ to me by a particularly wankerish teacher.
I started my last year of secondary school and turned 18 in the October. My parents arranged for me and a whole load of my friends to get a mini bus to Alton Towers for the day and then we had a big family party on my actual birthday and my Mum made me a book of my life full of photos and diary entries from when I was a baby.

In the summer I finished my traditional education and left comprehensive school and all my friends dispersed all over the UK to university. I passed my A Levels with an A* (in art, fuck that teacher), an A and a B.
I went to Reading Festival with my friends and my brother who was 17 and had the absolute best time listening to My Chemical Romance and Madness and Elbow and some of my very favourite bands but I also fainted a few times and got more drenched and muddy than I have ever been before or since.
The day I came back from Reading I found out my Auntie had passed away after a short illness.
Jos went away to university in Bristol and had the wildest time and I used to go and stay with him in his halls of residence on his single camp bed and we went to the zoo and the aquarium and made lots of homemade chocolate fondue by melting a bar of dairy milk on the radiators.
I started my diploma in Foundation art and design for a year in the University of Glamorgan (which now no longer exists) without any of my friends. Made some friends for life in the short 9 months I was there and went to London and Venice with them for some of the funniest weeks of my life.

I passed my foundation course with a Distinction (one of only a handful in my year thank you and goodnight) and contributed to the year show.
Jos dropped out of university in the March after a few hard months of partying and no work and worked for his parents at home on the farm for the summer, returning to Bristol to re start his first year all over again in the September.
My brother and I moved out of our home within a week of eachother, me to Wrexham in North Wales and him to Reading to our respective universities and left my parents on their todd and out of pocket.
Started my degree in illustration, children’s publishing and graphic novels and lived in halls of residence and started 3 years of long distance with Jos.

My brother, parents, grandparents and Jos came to see me in April to celebrate my parents anniversary and stayed in a local hotel and we went to the zoo.
I finished my first year of university and navigated sorting out our move to a new house ready for the second year.
I moved back home for nearly 4 months over the summer and lived a life of luxury with that amazing summer student loan we used to have. My best flatmate and pal Jenny and I took her Mum’s car and went to Cornwall for a week and had the best time in a caravan in sunny September and played lots of tennis.
I went back to university and moved in with Jenny and a rotation of European male students who didn’t much bother us and we basically lived on our own and loved it. We navigated the steepest steps and loved living in big bedrooms next to each other and had a mega sleepover by moving my double bed into her room next to hers at Christmas.
I turned 21 and my parents, grandparents and Jos came up to Wrexham for a few days to celebrate and we had a brilliant few days exploring the local countryside.

I finished my second year of university and had a mini show of our work. I also won joint first prize for children’s book illustration awarded by the Randolph Caldecott society and had a little prize giving ceremony, won a certificate, a subscription and some cash and had my photo in the newspaper.
In my Easter holidays I was a bridesmaid for my cousin and her husband and had a fab weekend meeting all of her new extended family and celebrating with my family.
I moved back into my same student house with Jenny and this time, a second year girl who stayed with us all year and we started the onslaught of our third and final year.
My brother left university and announced he was going to be a Dad and I spent a lot of time back and forth north and south wales and my two respective homes.
My parents came up for a weekend and we all went to my cousins in Manchester and went to the Christmas markets.

2015 was a BIG year, spent mostly trying to simultaneously enjoy and pass my third year of my degree. We had parties, nights out. went to the cinema a lot and bought a lot of shit whilst we still had money and Jos and I spent 6 weeks apart when we had our final exams.
My parents spent a week in North Wales with me and whilst I went to university in the day, they explored and then we went to waterfalls and castles and all the surrounding area we hadn’t had the chance to see.
I had my graduate show and my grandparents and parents and Jos came to see it and my cousins came down for a celebratory meal.
Jenny and I had a ‘holiday’ in our own house, spending our final week in university doing all the things we wanted to do one last time. We went to Alton Towers, the zoo, the beach, shopping and the cinema and had nights with our friends before we all went our separate ways back home all over the UK.
My first niece was born on May 29th and I met her when she was two hours old and we have been inseparable ever since. I became her childcare 2 days a week in the October when my sister in law went back to uni and we spent many a day walking round and round Bute Park in Cardiff.
I spent a week in London living with two of my very best friends, exhibiting in New Designers in the middle of a heatwave. We laughed until we cried, barely slept, ate like shit and made enough memories to fill a book and it was one of the best weeks I’ve ever had.
On October 30th I graduated from university with a 2:1 with my friends and spent a few days staying in a hotel in town with my bestie, followed by a day with my family and Jos celebrating before leaving Wrexham and the uni for the last time - spare a coupla visits to see pals.
I did an intensive driving course at the end of November and passed first time in a huge storm. I bought my first (and only, to date) car in the December after saving a grand at uni and crashed it within a week. And cried.
At Christmas that year I moved into Jos’ family house with him, his mum, dad and sister and Jos and I lived in a bedroom, bathroom and they converted a tiny office into a living room for us and a porch into a kitchen.

I spent the year living with Jos and his family on and off, spending several nights a week at my mum and dad’s whilst Jos was a carer for the elderly and worked long shifts from 5am wake ups to midnight bedtimes.
I went full throttle into self employment and started this blog!
My niece turned one and we had a lovely little birthday party at my brother’s inlaws to celebrate her and I continued another year of being her childcare.
I met my blog squad through Twitter and, brought together by Sarah, we organised our first bloggers event - a picnic in Hyde park. We had a whole load of brands involved and had the best time and then promptly never organised another one, in favour of meeting up just the five of us instead.

In the January we got the go ahead to renovate half of Jos’ parents house and we started the building work which lasted until the April. We moved in on our own and I moved in full time, leaving only my office at my Mum’s where I went every day to work freelance and care for my niece.
We went on the most Instagrammable bloggers weekend away (still to be beaten) in September and threw Mel a surprise birthday where I made a cake with all of our faces on.
My cousins got married in the summer in the pissing rain and we had a fab weekend of soggy shoes and flooded fields.
Jos gave up being a carer and decided to stop pursuing a masters degree in social work and instead joined the family cider company which he is now a partner in.

We went for another bloggers weekend away, this time to Sussex for Effi’s wedding. We had a hell of a weekend, helping her set up for the big day, getting our 1920s gothic vibes on at the wedding, meeting Sam and doggo and having a lovely walk along the beach and a carvery before adopting her house plants ahead of her big move to Copenhagen a few months later.
I gave up my freelance career and started job hunting in the April after Jos had officially gone self employed and it was my turn at the ‘real job’. It took me nearly 100 job applications and 4 months and a mere 1 interview and I landed my job in the July.
I started my job as an administrator for a local training company and simultaneously had to hand over the reins of childcare for my niece to my Mum, probably the hardest part of it all and something I still don’t relish.
Jenny asked me to be a bridesmaid in the January and in the August she came to Cardiff and found her dream wedding dress and I had to look after it for a few weeks until I could deliver it to her.
We got engaged on October 7th after a good six months of discussing the idea and in the end I basically forced him into doing it, sat on our stairs in the middle of hoovering, just to get the stress over and done with.
I found out I was having another niece in the latter half of the year.

I passed my 6 month probation at work in the January and was allowed to keep my job officially.
I beat the January blues by only going back to work for 8 days before jet setting off to Copenhagen with my blogging loves. We had 4 fabulous days in the cold and the snow, sight seeing, exploring Effi’s local haunts and eating snacks, belly laughing and bullet journaling.
We booked our wedding in March for the following February after narrowing down venues online and choosing the one I’d always wanted anyway. Spent the majority of the year planning and not planning simultaneously.
I helped my Mum' plan her 60th birthday in February, throwing a party for 70 odd people whilst hosting people staying in my house and have honestly never been more tired.
My new niece was born on March 26th but this time it was 2 days before I could meet her not 2 hours due to a stinking cold and I shed a fair few tears over it.
Jenny and I spent a lovely few months enjoying ourselves for her upcoming wedding with her hen do, helping set up at the venue, the rehearsal and the big day itself. It was a fab sunny day with loads of laughs and good photos and a stay in the most luxury guest house ever.
A mere week later Jos’ brother and sister in law got married in the most lavish way possible in Cardiff castle. We had a mad week with loads of her family arriving, our family coming to stay, the hen and the stag, rehearsal dinner and the wedding itself. And I was in work all week.
We spent the summer doing up our garden and me and my Mum spent many a weekend in garden centres, whilst Jos spent many an afternoon laying new paths and patios and making borders out of sleepers. We managed to finish it for August bank holiday and host one BBQ before the weather turned and we had to put all the garden furniture away again.
I went away with my Mum a fair few times - in the summer to Warwickshire in the blazing sunshine, in September for my surprise present to her (a weekend in West Wales) and in December to stay with my cousins and do Christmas wreath making and we also made it a habit to have lunch out once a month and catch up.

And so we wonder what 2020 will bring? What will the two thousand and twenties have in store for us all? All I know is that less than 2 months into the year I’ll be married and after that…..well.

The decade is a mystery.

You can find me here!

— www.gwennanrees.com —

Blogger and Illustrator

2010 - 2020 | A Decade in Review

You can find me here!