A letter to the 21 year old me

Hey there Mili,

You’ve just turned 21 in the middle of your University exams. So, the celebrations will have to wait till the exams are done. You’re on the brink of graduating university. Just one more semester to go, and then it’s off to the ‘real world’ for you. In the last year or so, as everyone planned on their careers and where they want to work once uni was done, you’ve had this realisation that you want to work in events and deliver concerts. That has become your goal. Some may even say an obsession. You’ll meet people who will support you, and you’ll meet people who give you the cold shoulder. That is life. But the important thing is that you don’t give up.

Over the next few years, you’ll go through a lot of ups and downs. Keeping to the theme of your focus of study at university, you will work in marketing. Until you have a breakthrough in 2015. You will get an offer from an events company in Sydney. All of a sudden, everything is changing quickly. You’ll have to relocate within days. You’ll start from scratch. It will all feel scary and overwhelming. Trust yourself, and take that leap. Your mind will tell you to back out over and over again, don’t listen to it. You might not realise it at first, or even for a while, but it will be the best decision you ever make.

You will hit a low in 2017, because you’ve had to make the difficult decision of moving back to New Zealand. Again, you will feel heart broken, but don’t worry it’s all part of a bigger plan. You’ll go on your first solo vacation to Chicago and Toronto, and you’ll meet some amazing people. You’ll be in situations that you wouldn’t have even thought about before, but Sydney will help you adapt to those situations.

Once you come back from your trip, you'll start working again. Making a mark for yourself back in New Zealand. Everything will go smoothly until 2020 comes along. That year will just be an all around crap year. That’s the year you will hit rock bottom. By this point in time, it’s been 9 years since you’ve finished uni, and you set out on achieving your goal. With each passing day, it feels like it’s slipping away. There will be so many days, over the years, when you just want to give up. You will even try and convince yourself to settle. You’ll think to yourself “at least I made it into the events industry, maybe that’s as far as I was supposed to go”. You will tell yourself that you’re okay with that even though you’re not.

But let me tell you, life is about challenges. There will be good days and bad days. Your task is to keep going despite all of that. Once you get through 2020, and into 2021, 10 years since you started your journey, you will get to work on an amazing project. This will give you the opportunity to book your first artist. On 24th May 2021, what you had planned all those years ago will unfold in front of your eyes. At that moment, everything will make sense. Your journey over the last decade, all of it.

It might not be as you had envisaged, but it will still be the best performance you see when Kings takes the stage. Let me tell you, if you’ve come this far, the stage at Spark Arena with your next artist gearing up to go live isn’t too far away. You’ve just achieved what you set out for yourself. I promise you, that all of your hard work over the next decade will pay off. Remember it’s hard to beat the person who refuses to give up. Trust the journey, because it will lead to amazing things. And if anyone says you can’t do it, just tell them don’t worry about it.

Until next time,

The 31 year old Mili