With another thirty something birthday just around the corner and me feeling a little unsettled with my job/love life/home, I have been thinking a lot about my 16 year old self and all the possibilities that lay before her. Although I would never change my life and all the wonderful and not so wonderful things I have done and achieved, I would go back to her and give her a little bit of advice.
1. Boys that are mean to you are just mean! They are not playing hard to get, when a boy likes you, he will be sweet and kind to you, wait for that boy.
2. You are more than your dress size! You are but please take better care of yourself; your health is the most important thing you have. Stop eating so much crap and move a little more.
3. You can be whatever you want to be when you grow up! Please don’t listen to the teachers, you can be whatever you want to be, just work really hard and never give up, I believe in you!
4. Don’t be in a hurry to grow up! I know it’s cool to go out drinking with your friends and to constantly have your boobs on show but remember you are still young, hold onto that as much as you can, being an adult isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
5. Don’t listen to people’s negative comments about you! Through your whole life there will be some people who are just negative towards you. It says more about them than you, don’t listen.
6. Tell people you love them! You will lose friends and family members long before you should, make sure they know you love them or you will regret not telling them.
7. Listen to your gut! You will know when something isn’t right, believe that feeling, and stop ignoring it.
8. Don’t go along with people if you don’t agree with them! It doesn’t matter how you feel about them, if you don’t agree with what they are doing, speak up and walk away. You will learn that real friends will respect that and the fake ones will eventually disappear anyway.
9. Forgive more! Don’t hold onto so many grudges, forgive yourself too, you are doing the best you can.
10. Stop smoking now! It will take you the rest of your life to quit, so please don’t start it’s not cool.
11. Never stop travelling! You are going to see some amazing places during your twenties don’t lose that passion in your thirties, get your butt to India.
12. Take more pictures!
13. Go home when you want, not when others say! You will never look cool throwing up at the side of the road or on the dancefloor, go home, put your pjs on and have a brew. You won’t miss anything by going home early.
14. Speak up! Your opinion matters as much as anyone else’s, speak up but be kind.
15. You don’t love him! You won’t find the man of your dreams in your teens, twenties and maybe not in your thirties ( I promise, I am trying ) and that’s ok but please tell all the arseholes that turn up in your life during these years to fuck off! Because deep down you know you don’t love any of them.
16. Everything will be OK in the end! You will feel like the world is falling down around you many, many times in your life, know that you are stronger than you could ever imagine and you can survive it all.