In most cases, no one asks what I think, and so for me to be ready to volunteer it unprompted, I have to feel very ready to accept whatever is coming next.

I'm a big Aqua fan. 'Barbie Girl' was a big deal growing up.

I was only allowed only to watch public television until I was 12 years old. I would come home from friends's houses with a list of demands. 'OK, We have all the wrong cereals. You guys are asleep on the job.'

I told my parents I wanted to be an actress years before I wrapped my head around what my dad did for a living. It's not easy to explain the job of the television journalist, especially when a lot of my friends' dads had jobs that were a lot easier to explain, like a lawyer, a banker or a doctor.

The truth is that transitioning to clean energy like wind and solar will create millions of new, good jobs that can't be outsourced, and spur economic growth - all while avoiding the inevitable, significant damages our economy will suffer should we keep building more pipelines.

The only other time I've been away from home was when I went to college. And that was just an hour away, so I could always go home if I needed to.

What were once only hopes for the future have now come to pass; it is almost exactly 13 years since the overwhelming majority of people in Ireland and Northern Ireland voted in favour of the agreement signed on Good Friday 1998, paving the way for Northern Ireland to become the exciting and inspirational place that it is today.

I have to say that my mother is my real hero. I don't know how she managed two kids in one year - my brother and I are ten months apart. But she did a pretty amazing job.