21 - Great, no excuses now!

Woohoo it's my birthday! And I must say, it's the strangest birthday of my life so far. I am not at home in Wales with the comfort of my family, but in a foreign country where I have to put a French accent on a Big Mac.

I took my birthday cards with me from family and friends to check out today, and there were some lovely messages of support. Not to mention the centaine messages on my Facebook wall - it's nice to know I'm loved :)

But yeah , I'm 21. That means there's no excuses. As a kid, I always thought of a 20 year old and below as an older child. But 21? No, they're adults! They have careers, they have children! My parents got married at 21, and at the moment I'm lucky to get a hug! But yeah, this day and age is different. I'm still at 'school' learning how to become rich, and I am yet to get a proper job - but that's normal these days! My parents told me a month ago 'Oliver, you're nearly 21. You need to grow up - we got married at your age'.

Okay mum and dad. Yes at 21 you did old people things. You got married, you already knew how to iron and how to play golf, and you were drinking wine not for the purpose of getting drunk. You were the embodiment of precocious adulthood, but I am not!

I am going to learn to do those things at some point in my life I'm sure, but for now I'm going to be a typical student who drinks, has flings with Miss Overdraft, has fun whilst learning the business models and theories that will have no relevance in my future career, but will somehow help me get a job. There are many years ahead of me to find love and become 'mature'. In the wise words of Blink 182 'no one should take themselves too seriously with many years ahead to fall in line'.

And now, I can have fun with the world being my bitch. There's nothing I can't do! I can adopt a child in the UK (God help little Pablo), supervise a learner driver (I'm sure my brother, Sam would love that!) and of course, drink and gamble in the US. I'm thinking Vegas this summer - you only live once! :D

Quick update on Rennes - the classes are really good so far (better than at Warwick, methinks). The International Human Resource Management teacher's English is very poor - I may offer to proof-read his materials (for a fee of course!) but the course is good. I've always liked the organisational psychology courses - they're the least soul-destroying. We're also doing Project Management and Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management, both taught by an English dude who is also an experienced consultant. I asked him for tips yesterday on getting consulting internships - should come in handy! There's group work in all of the classes so far, and I'm always first-pick to form a group with, which is great! After all those years of being last picked for the football teams (I mean come on - they even preffered the fat guys to me! I'm actually pretty good at defending thank you very much!) I am finally el capitán! I may not be the greatest at kicking a ball, but I can participate in a kick-ass business team - and I think we all know what is more important! (Notice I said important, not lucrative....)


But then I realised it's not really for my natural leadership and charisma, charm, my knowledge of useless HR models, or my charms. It's because I'm the only native English speaker on the course. Ah well, I'm still counting it! 


Okay gotta dash - going for a meal with some new friends (as well as Cam, Chris and Freddie) and then we're going to the Twins party tonight, where you dress identically with someone else. I'm trying to do quadruplets with Cam, Chris and Matt, the English guy who lives with me in our block of apartments. But hey, see how it goes! I might miss tomorrow's class at 8:15 - it's going to be messy tonight! 


Speak soon!
Ollie