And what was she, the fairy Melusine?

 I'm really enjoying being 24. Alright, my month or so of being 24 has involved a lot of horrible stuff (favourite auntie dying, interpersonal badness, getting physically ill several times, wanting to set fire to the news media, horrible things happening to friends, recurrence of some bad mental health stuff, my mental health theatre group closing, other stuff)

But... I just really like this age. For the following reasons:

• I feel like enough has happened to me, as a person, to be a decent writer. I don't feel that every time I mine my own experiences for something this means that character is me, or a better/worse/nicer me. I don't WANT to be my characters so much now, but I also don't feel as obliged to be a performative version of me at all times, which is lovely
• I have noticed a distinct drop in how often I'm ID-d, regardless of presentation. I think this may be for various reasons, one of which is that my friends and I now will be doing something like "going for a quiet drink after Sunday mass" and also have perfected the art of walking into a 'spoons and collapsing at a table/going to the bar in the traditional "oh my god I need a drink" fashion
• My time offline and out of being social appears to have done wonders for my ability to be social and make friends. Like, I can start chatting to someone at a demo/gig without my usual freakouts
• again, while I really wouldn't recommend 6+ years of being on enhanced CPA with mental health teams, and spending a lot of time and energy on managing a mental illness, it's now got to the point where I know myself, I know my intersecting mental health conditions, I've spent quite a lot of time in therapy and its... less effort. I would actually even be able to say that I think my six years of mental health treatment have been a good thing (funny isn't it, that it took me quite a while to actually be able to think of Being Medically Treated For Mental Health Issues as a Good Thing, in a way that Being Medically Treated For A Physical thing is something I'd probably regard as a net gain/not a bad thing.
• I have reached critical mass of Anecdotes, which is brilliant. I have a decent and wide ranging supply, which I am still nourishing regularly
• Just in general, I have a level of confidence I never thought I'd have. It feels mostly AMAZING