Hi! I’m Rhianna

Bom dia! (Kinda sounds like, “bem gee-ah.”)

There’s already a little bit about me on the home page, and more will be revealed as, and when, I tell you about my experiences on this silly hot rock we call home.

My definition of “home” is complex. I consider home to be where I’m happiest. However, my birth home is the uplands of slightly-more-South-than-Mid Wales. I grew up on a beautiful, very rural, off-grid, mountain farm that my parents built from the ground up – literally. It’s a little piece of (chaotic) isolation in a Western World that is usually so well connected. For context, we only got full time electric when I was sixteen years old; ah the marvel of solar (and no… my family aren’t Amish…)!

This upbringing sent me on the path of my adult passions: books, horses, animals generally, crafts, foraging (plants and mushrooms), good-quality food, environmentalism (albeit in a roundabout way), adventure, imagination, and being alone. Time alone is my favourite time. I like to ponder things over, reach (oftentimes probably obvious) conclusions, and get lost in the labyrinth of my mind. There’s both so much going on in there, and also really not a lot, all at the same time. I’m a high-functioning daydreamer, what can I say?

The adult path of an unwavering, addict-like passion for travel has, I think, stemmed from a childhood filled with wonderful holidays. Most of which were with my globe-trotting Nan, and my Greece-loving Mumma. As a child I went on many lovely foreign holidays around -mostly- the sunny Mediterranean; and it was on those holidays I became enamoured with the sea. There is precisely no sea in rural Wales…

The Little Mermaid, though morally questionable, was (and still is) my greatest film comfort. My Dad looks like King Trident (my Dad doesn’t have a tail), and Ariel was the precious baby of the family, like me. And, she has mega hair, is a hopeless romantic, doesn’t think too much about the consequences of her actions, talks to animals, talks to plants, is a collector of whimsical trinkets, sings to herself, likes men with light eyes, and has a heap of sisters. All like me. So by connecting the dots of me convincing myself that I am in fact Ariel, and foreign forays to crystalline seas, it is not really surprising that I still have a desire to be near (whenever possible) to the rolling waves.

That leads us on to home 2.0… If I haven’t yet lost you. Nestled in a seductive little crevice on the south coast of Cornwall is the quaint, romantic, fun, addictive, little seaside-town of Falmouth. I started university there in 2017, and have since coined it my base. I simply love it. The people the town attracts are probably the best part of it. ‘Sea-loving hippies,’ we could probably be dubbed, and rightly so. Crafts people, artists, activists, poets, writers, surfers, skaters, sailors, sustainable food makers, musicians (looking at you, Ben Howard), dancers, eco warriors… the list goes on. And most of those people who are drawn to falmouth add something to the magic of this town; even if it’s just being an audience member at a Chintz gig. I can’t describe it, it’s just the mindset. Wonderful.

Anyway, I completed my, ‘BA English with Employment Experience Abroad and Proficiency in French,’ degree in 2021 in Falmouth, with The University of Exeter, and I’m not yet done with calling it home. I think I’ll always return to this not-so-secret spot of Cornwall, and will always think of it with such nostalgia. After all it is the place where I grew the most, and I think, became the woman I am today. Oh boy some mistakes were made (looking at you: yes let’s buy a yacht at 23 with a man I’ve known for seven months in the middle of a global pandemic, when you have hardcore SAD, and you’re in your final year of uni (pic above)), but none of them were regrettable (okay, some were regrettable). But truly, I’m chuffed to have fuc*ed up so much, because truth be told I bloody love who I am now. I have my zest, my tenacity, and my joie de vivre, baby. Let’s go! Really, the world is waiting, and it’s splendid.

You think that’s cringe? You’ve seen nothing yet. Prepare to figuratively meet my visceral. 

I hope you have a happy day! Sending a hug.

Love, Rhianna x

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