I do not think anyone should get to decide, quietly and on my behalf, whether I am allowed to grieve. That is what this has come down to for me. My grandad died on Tuesday, and I was not told. I found out without the basic courtesy that most people would expect from family. Now I am left asking the next painful question: will I be told about my grandad’s funeral? Part of me already thinks I know the answer. If I was not told he had died, why would I suddenly be told when the

Sometimes the smallest online detail can hit harder than a direct argument. A friend request that never comes. A name appearing in a mutual friend list. A profile quietly becoming visible again. Someone deleting you without saying a word. On its own, it might seem petty or easy to brush off. But when it sits on top of years of awkwardness, rejection, silence, and things said behind closed doors, it stops feeling small. Before I get into it, I know it has been a while since my

Dropping out of college at 16 can look like failure from the outside. In my case, it was not rebellion, laziness, or a lack of ambition. It was what happens when a young person runs out of options before they have even had a proper chance to start. That is the part people often miss. When someone leaves education early, the easy story is that they did not try hard enough. They made bad choices. They threw away an opportunity. But in 2007, my life did not feel like a list of c

When I think back to my teenage years, one person stands out more than anyone else: Ben. I don’t remember exactly how we met, but I do remember the feeling of wanting to be around him all the time. Ben was unlike anyone else I knew. He was rough around the edges, a bit of a troublemaker, but to me, he was the gentlest person I ever met. Who Was Ben? Ben was what some might call a chav or a yob. He had that rebellious streak that got him kicked out of school, and he wasn’t afr

Starting a new school is always a challenge, especially when you’ve moved around a lot. For me, moving from a London school to Fareham School in the middle of Year 9 was supposed to be just another step in my military family’s journey. But that first day at Fareham turned out to be far more than just a new start. It became a moment that changed how I saw friendship, trust, and myself. A New Beginning That Felt Like Any Other I was 14 years old, used to shifting schools becaus