Originally published as part of Scottish Book Trust‘s Journeys project. Read it on their website here.

2. Pushing a chair on the blue lino floor of the kitchen, learning how to walk.

6. Walking to the school gate in the cold tiled hallway looking for milk with my name on it.

7. Pushing a metal gate, my sister sitting on top, pushing too fast, colliding with my face, a black eye.

9. Cycling through a forest with a backwards baseball cap on my head that has my name on it it puffy writing, and inhaling 25 flies.

10. Entering a room with a dress that is long and tights that are warm.

14. Driving my parents’ car off a ledge and not dying.

17. Walking to a bar where the staff don’t know my name but they will learn it eventually and keep track of how many vodka and melon cocktails I drink.

18. Cycling to my first flat in the night and my lights are broken.

21. Learning how to drive a car (not off a ledge) and not dying.

22. The ambulance ride to the hospital / driving home without you.

23. Walking across Edinburgh and realising there’s another level there.

25. Cycling home along the beach, talking about hairless cats.