The key to adulthood is fulfilling our true desires.
I surprised myself by saying this during an Instagram Live about why people often see me as very grown-up. Then I realised that my own path into adulthood has always moved through joy and pleasure.
For me, responsibility means building a life that contains as much as possible of what makes me feel fully alive. It means making space for my genuine desires. I have devoted my life to this, and I make the choice again each morning.
On the day before my birthday, I wrote down my wishes and dreams. Dreaming belongs to adulthood, but it needs a practical companion. We can breathe, look at the list and take one small action that brings a dream even one per cent closer.
That is how it begins. We show the universe that we are ready to receive what we say we want.
At fourteen, I dreamed about Italy. I looked at photographs of Venice and imagined working and saving for years before I could finally see it.
I would love to show that girl what happened next.
At twenty-five, she celebrated her birthday in Naples while staying with an Italian family. At twenty-six, she woke in her own little Italian apartment, walked beside the sea to her job in Sicily, spoke Italian all day and spent the evenings with her Italian boyfriend.
At thirty-two, she was preparing to return and explore the country more deeply: its places of power and the presence of Roman civilisation.
The fourteen-year-old me would have been astonished. Her dream of seeing Italy shaped every step that eventually took her there.
What dream belongs completely to you?
Write it on paper. Then take the first step towards it. My support is with you, and I believe you can do it.