So far, being 17 has been the most amazing age of them all haha. On Thursday, I had some of my closest over. Now later on that I count, altogether I had 27 friends and family members in the house, coming and going and celebrating, just like I had wished for.  I got a lot of nice gifts too, Melissa and Juliana had put together the funniest bag of random things, called it a survival kit and the content of the bag really showed me just how well they know me and how much they really care. I mean, I was out of tampons and they got the right brand, my lips were sore and they got me lip balm, I had almost no condoms and my small packages of tissues were all gone, they had bought tissues for washing glasses and camera lenses and you know, everything else I could possibly need to survive. I also got some money, lots of chocolate and other eatable things, which was perfect cuz I was supposed to only make the pizza, and an adult painting book that I’ve been wishing for for quite a while. And Grandma got me silver again. Oh well, she told me it was the last time. My parents had left me 17 roses (they’re so sweet, but a bit stupid since they’re going to be totally rotten when I get back home). Oh, and the guys got me a bottle of champagne, so we all got to celebrate a bit! But overall the love from my loved ones really was the absolutely best birthday gift possible.

I did of course miss my parents, sisters, nephews, my aunt Lotta, two of my cousins and a few friends that couldn’t be there. But still, it might just have been one of the birthdays of all time. It was so much fun watching all these people, most of which didn’t know each other from before, trying to find common languages and having fun getting to know each other haha. There were people from work, from school, from traveling, from hobbies over the years, family and just an amazing bunch. I felt so blessed and loved when I fell asleep that night together with two of the most amazing people you could ever wish to have in your life (meaning they stayed and cleaned haha). I couldn’t stop thinking about how much these people mean to me. They’re the ones that makes it all worth it. And yes, that to me is a really important mile pole.

Friday was also really special, I had the day off from school and I haven’t had that much happiness and relaxation in one day since like forever. Sometimes it does take someone to show you what you really need and what’s really missing. Also this is a mile pole in itself.

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Elina came back over late of Friday night and I packed my big backpack, ran around the house and cleaned up the last things, tried to figure out which pieces of food to freeze and which to throw away and what to just bring along. Because today and 5.30 a.m. a bus for the airport left with me and Elina on, excited for our first ever trip to a foreign country. By other words, yet another milepole since I’ve turned 17.

We headed for London Heathrow, where we rushed out and caught the underground for Piccadilly Circus. We shopped like crazies in Topshop, Bershka, Urban Outfitters and Primark and had a refreshing juice at Starbucks and rested our backs (I mean we carried around our backpacks this whole time) and used the Wifi. We seriously overspent a whole lot but as Elina said, I’ve never gotten so many pieces of clothing for that amount of money, after leaving Primark.

In writing moment, we are halfway on our trip to Las Palmas, I’d say over the Atlantic Ocean just outside Portugal. Elina has been sleeping and now she’s drawing in the painting book, and I’m gonna join her doing that. Can’t wait to get to the rest of my family and the pool, after all I haven’t seen them since I was 16 haha. Just so happy. So, so happy.