Ask The Marshmallow: Keep the tags on

I've thoroughly enjoyed answering your questions, and I hope that I've done your questions justice.

But now, I've saved the questions I liked the most till last. So without further delay, I bring you, the final instalment of Ask The Marshmallow Anything.

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Kada:

What's something you'd love to say to your younger selves of 2, 5, 10, and 15 years ago? (Doesn't necessarily have to be the same thing each time.)

2 years ago; I was 21 years old - It's all right to fail. There's no need to be terrified of failure. Some of your strongest moments are when you pull yourself up from failure. Failure helps shape you; it is an opportunity to exercise your strength and put your resilience to the test. It may not feel like it at the time, but failure makes you stronger. Don't be afraid. There are worse things that could happen to you.

5 years ago; I was 18 years old - There's more to life. You might be lead to believe that University is all that matters, but there's more. And you deserve it. You deserve to experience what's out there. Don't think you have an obligation to anyone to hide yourself away. You have great friends. They care about you, and will continue to care about you, regardless of what path you take. Forgive yourself for wanting to have some good times with them. You deserve it.

10 years ago; I was 13 years old - Take the opportunities that are in front of you. Don't think that you're doing your parents a service by turning them down. They want to pick you up from netball practice. They enjoy travelling great distances to view your musical performances. Any opportunity you want to take, take it. They want you to take it. Don't think that their whinging about the 'dropping and picking' means that they expect you to sacrifice what you want to do. They're prepared to go the distance for you. Have a little faith in them. They might surprise you.

15 years ago; I was 8 years old - Don't be angry at your brother. He doesn't know what's going on. He's young, and not as grown up as you are. You're a big girl. He's a tiny boy. Mum and Dad still love you, but your brother doesn't know how to take care of himself. That's why he needs their help a lot. Don't think you need to cause yourself pain to get attention. They love you regardless of whether you're hurting or not.

Now, I loved this so much, that I'm turning it into a meme. I'm going to tag 5 people to do this.

1. Fat Lazy Guy
2. Tully
3. Andrew
4. Chris H
5. cmae
   

Kada:

What are five things you've said or done in the past twelve months that you're most proud of?

1. Let's start with the most obvious first. The triathlon in February. I didn't think I ever would've had the fitness, the endurance, and most of all, the bollocks to enter in that sort of event. I remember the moments before the triathlon, if you had asked me where I would rather be, I really would have said, 'Anywhere but here'. My comfort zone was well and truly blown out of the water.
   
   
2. Then, there's the 5km Race in June. My first 5km race, one that I'll never forget due to the challenge, and the weather. Yet again, I put myself outside my comfort zone and worked bloody hard.
   
   
3. This may not be something that may seem obvious, what I said below is one of the things that I'm most proud of.
   

   You know what, stuff it. I am NOT waiting around for you a second time. Quite frankly, I have better things to do with my time than sit around and wait for people who don't value my time enough to set their alarm in the morning.

   Some of you may recognise this. It's what I said to the boy who messed me around; the only guy I've ever let myself become close to in any way, and having the strength to turn around and say that to him was my way of declaring to myself, "I'm not settling for second best."
   
   
4. I've yet to blog about this, but one of the best things I've done was have few conversations with my Mum about her impact on me growing up and how she has influenced the way I think, and the way I feel. They were awful, painful conversations with a lot of shouting and yelling and loads of tears. I would blame her for the way I turned out, and she would accuse me of being ungrateful and unappreciative of the hardships that she faced as a kid herself. She accused me of not tackling my problems head on, since she could find the strength to be positive despite all of the crap she took. I begged her to listen to me, that by having it out with her, I *was* tackling my problems head on. I needed to understand why she behaved the way she did with me when I was younger, and I needed to be able to forgive her. This was awkward, uncomfortable, and a big mess of emotion, but I managed to get a few things across. Not all of them, but I have more faith in her now than I did for the majority of my childhood.
   
   And the last thing, and quite possibly what I'm the most proud of.
   
   
5. About a month ago I was at the gym, all set to go for an RPM class. All hardcore, wearing my cycling shoes, and cycling shorts. A woman saddled up on the bike next to me and started chatting to me about how this was the first class that she'd done in a while, ever since getting pregnant. I asked her whether she was a regular attendee of RPM before she got pregnant, and she said that she'd done a couple of classes. She asked me whether I'd been attending for long, and I told her, "I've been doing RPM for about one and a half years." She went, "Wow! Are you doing it to lose weight?" I replied, "No. I'm doing it because I love it."
   

I also loved this question so much, I'm turning it into a meme also! 5 people I'm tagging to do this:

1. Ros (skinnyminny8)
2. WundaLucy
3. Cara (thatwasmyveil)
4. boobsihazthem
5. Mary (A Merry Life)

I don't care if y'all hate me. ^_^

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Like I said before, I've really enjoyed this series. I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have.