10 things I would tell my 16 year old self
1. Don't beat yourself up over leadership positions in school and grades. Of course they do matter but what matters most is the effort you've put into your responsibilities, and the fact that you can look back later and tell yourself "I've got no regrets". :D
2. But please, study harder for your A levels la. If you keep up with what you're doing now, you're gonna screw them up, uh, at least by RJC's impossible standards.
3. What others think of you is and will always be important. But don't make that become the only thing that defines you, or the only thing you live for.
4. I know you're weird, trust me 7 years from now, you'll still occasionally wish you were more normal. You would wish your blog was full of lovey-sweety dates and photos of your 500 friends rather than angsty social commentary. You would wish you cared less about the shit going on the world. What is important is that you live a life that is fulfilling and happy, and that you have touched someone's life or stood up for something at some point in your life. :)
5. I know you hate clubbing. Scratch that, you're 16, you have no idea what a life is outside of your 4 CCAs (yes, I had 4 CCAs) and homework.
Along the way in your next 7 years you're gonna meet basics who will tell you, "You don't enjoy it because you haven't reached that stage yet! (Newsflash: I still haven't) You must go all the way (read, pissed out drunk) then it's fun!". Usually these people would have no other interests and no other hobbies. Let me tell you that they are lying. I've (yourself, aged 23) found so much more meaning in deep conversations over coffee with good friends, travelling the world, reading and actually doing something for the world- now THAT is living.
6. It is great that you've always kept out of the way of drama, and refrained from taking sides in clique wars. This will serve you well in your future endeavours.
7. It's okay to not know what the hell is going on till one month before your exams, everything will somehow fall into place.
8. Sometime down the line you will find yourself on a completely different career path than you've planned/expected to do all your life. It will be fulfilling and worth it, every single second of it :)
9. When you write on your friends' graduation books and say "Keep in touch" PLEASE make sure you actually do. One of my biggest regrets was having let many of my very good friends disappear into oblivion. Everyone who's been close to you will have touched your life positively in some way. You'll never know how much you wish you had stayed in their lives many years from now.
10. In a year's time you will enter Junior College and meet a whole new species of human beings called "boys". Remember this:
- They are really NOT that different from girls. They are also human, have feelings, have flaws, create drama (yes I'm not shitting you. I've been in enough male-dominated environments to know this) and are all unique in their own ways.
- Be friends with guys, they can offer fresh perspectives on things. Not because they are innately different but because they will have experienced different things.
- It's alright to not have a boyfriend. It is only a huge problem if you're with the wrong guy. You will spend the next 7 years of your life getting "friendzoned" and rejected, let me tell you it's not the end of the world. If they are good enough as boyfriend-material they are good enough as friend material. Don't blame anyone for rejecting you; instead, be thankful you're still friends.
-Do NOT ever be influenced by people who tell you there's a giant conspiracy by guys to friendzone to nice girls because they only want bitches (or the most commonly heard version: girls friendzone nice guys because they only want assholes). It will consume you and destroy you. Remember Elliot Rodger? That's an extreme version of what you might up doing if you listened to these idiots.
2. But please, study harder for your A levels la. If you keep up with what you're doing now, you're gonna screw them up, uh, at least by RJC's impossible standards.
3. What others think of you is and will always be important. But don't make that become the only thing that defines you, or the only thing you live for.
4. I know you're weird, trust me 7 years from now, you'll still occasionally wish you were more normal. You would wish your blog was full of lovey-sweety dates and photos of your 500 friends rather than angsty social commentary. You would wish you cared less about the shit going on the world. What is important is that you live a life that is fulfilling and happy, and that you have touched someone's life or stood up for something at some point in your life. :)
5. I know you hate clubbing. Scratch that, you're 16, you have no idea what a life is outside of your 4 CCAs (yes, I had 4 CCAs) and homework.
Along the way in your next 7 years you're gonna meet basics who will tell you, "You don't enjoy it because you haven't reached that stage yet! (Newsflash: I still haven't) You must go all the way (read, pissed out drunk) then it's fun!". Usually these people would have no other interests and no other hobbies. Let me tell you that they are lying. I've (yourself, aged 23) found so much more meaning in deep conversations over coffee with good friends, travelling the world, reading and actually doing something for the world- now THAT is living.
6. It is great that you've always kept out of the way of drama, and refrained from taking sides in clique wars. This will serve you well in your future endeavours.
7. It's okay to not know what the hell is going on till one month before your exams, everything will somehow fall into place.
8. Sometime down the line you will find yourself on a completely different career path than you've planned/expected to do all your life. It will be fulfilling and worth it, every single second of it :)
9. When you write on your friends' graduation books and say "Keep in touch" PLEASE make sure you actually do. One of my biggest regrets was having let many of my very good friends disappear into oblivion. Everyone who's been close to you will have touched your life positively in some way. You'll never know how much you wish you had stayed in their lives many years from now.
10. In a year's time you will enter Junior College and meet a whole new species of human beings called "boys". Remember this:
- They are really NOT that different from girls. They are also human, have feelings, have flaws, create drama (yes I'm not shitting you. I've been in enough male-dominated environments to know this) and are all unique in their own ways.
- Be friends with guys, they can offer fresh perspectives on things. Not because they are innately different but because they will have experienced different things.
- It's alright to not have a boyfriend. It is only a huge problem if you're with the wrong guy. You will spend the next 7 years of your life getting "friendzoned" and rejected, let me tell you it's not the end of the world. If they are good enough as boyfriend-material they are good enough as friend material. Don't blame anyone for rejecting you; instead, be thankful you're still friends.
-Do NOT ever be influenced by people who tell you there's a giant conspiracy by guys to friendzone to nice girls because they only want bitches (or the most commonly heard version: girls friendzone nice guys because they only want assholes). It will consume you and destroy you. Remember Elliot Rodger? That's an extreme version of what you might up doing if you listened to these idiots.
Comments
Post a Comment