Youth

[A/N] - the who, what, where, when and why!

    Hey!

    It's me, Evie.

    It's been a while, so I think I owe you all an update.

    Before I start... thank you all from the bottom of my heart for sticking with me, and sticking with Youth, for so long. When I first drafted up this book, I was a 14 year old girl on a plane to Italy, excited for my holiday, without much thought of the future or what it would entail. I had exams to think about in the next couple of years, and that was basically it. Just a teenage girl wanting to express some thoughts onto the deep dark platform that is Wattpad.

    Now I'm 19. Since then I've finished GCSE exams, started A-Levels, nearly died, dropped A-Levels, become registered as a disabled person, and slowly but surely started to do the things I love again. I'm even soon going to hop on a plane to meet my best friend on the other side of the planet, who I met through this very book. I've managed to apply to university despite the adversity I've faced, and whilst it's not a given that I'll get in, the fact that I've done it is something I'm immensely proud of. I've even learned to ride horses again, something I never thought I would be able to do.

    So... the who. I'm Evie Ashton, but I'm not a writer. I'm a musician. This is the path I've chosen for myself. I'll always love writing, but it is not something that - at my current stage in life - I can focus on.

    The what. This is an update to tell you what I'm doing. And soon, to tell you about the state of Youth.

    The where. England, I guess!

    The when. Right fucking now, bros. Hi.

    And the why. Because I'm sentimental. And because this little silly book had a scarily large influence on my life, and in many ways shaped the person I am right now.

    So... enough autobiography bullshit. You guys wanna hear about Youth, that's why you're here.

    I'm afraid this is the end of Youth.

    I do not have the memory, energy, or health to do what I want to do with this book. To take the pieces of 15 year old me's passion project and turn them into something that I now would feel able to present to someone and say 'here, I wrote this' without cringing at the way I used to write. I am a musician, not a writer... well, a writer of music, but not a writer of novels. At least not right now.

    If I was well, I would go right back to the beginning and edit every chapter, relearn all the foreshadowing I put in place, and finish spinning the web of endings I had worked so hard on for two years. But I am not, and I will not ever be well, and that's okay. And whilst I have a very bad habit of apologising, right now I won't, because this isn't something to apologise for. This book has been a journey for me, and a wonderful one at that, but all journeys have to come to an end. I'm very glad that mine did not, and that I'm still here to continue it, but it must be continued in a new direction.

    Thank you all for joining me on this journey. And thank you all for bringing me so much happiness! It really has been a blast.

    This is probably the end of 'ieatsocks' - I do not, for the record, consume socks - but most certainly not the end of Evie! She's still vibing with her many cats and her lil funky tunes. If you're ever curious, although often quiet, the discord server is still active and you all are entirely welcome there!

    bros I'm being so dramatic. Ahem.  I'm gonna keep being dramatic.  Sucks to be you.

    With that said, I'd like to display some of my accomplishments before this is all over! Sadly the 'me going to America' accomplishment starts in 15 days as of writing this, so you're going to have to just imagine that one or wait for the photo bombardment on the discord server, but here is everything else.