Dear Me: A letter to my sixteen-year-old self

Dear Me at 16,

Stop being scared. You are allowed to be nervous, but don’t be scared.

Nerves give you that excited adrenalin-filled feeling that fuels your determination and makes you excited.

Being scared just makes you shy away from taking chances – and that’s rubbish!

Leaving the friends you’ve known for nearly a decade is sad, but it will only make you realise who the true friends are – trust me, they will stick around. Here I am, over 8 years later and I can tell you that one friend in particular, who held your hand on that first day in year three when you were both nervous 7 year olds, has firmly stuck around.

Sure, you don’t see each other every day and dawdle on the way to swimming class or chatter non-stop in the queue for lunch, but she is there. She’s a doctor too, which makes you very proud and also makes you realise quite how exciting it is that you are both doing exactly what you said you wanted to do when you met age 7! Talk about following your dreams!

We aren’t that different really! Me, age 16, performing in a production of the play “Noises Off” & Me now – still a big fan of red!

You are going to a new school – and it’s ok to be nervous – but enjoy it! You are going to have so much fun.

You are going to meet so many wonderful people and have your eyes opened in so many ways.

You will, obviously, go out at the weekends – and there will, of course, be nights where you drink so much that your dad has to be called to pick you up and you throw up out of the window of his new car – but that’s part of being a teenager!

You will meet some amazing girls – who will call you after school for a gossip because you didn’t have enough time to gossip in the 3 hours of study time (plus lunch break!) you had during the day!

There will be boys – and yes, they will kiss you, and they will make you feel a million dollars so enjoy it!

There will be exams, which, though you don’t enjoy doing the work towards them, trust me, you do ok!

You will become a new you. No. Not a “new” you; Just you, reinvented. You, but better than you ever imagined. This is the girl that will get into drama school. This is the girl who will go travelling to so many wonderful places. Enjoy becoming her – she’s pretty cool!

You will look back and wonder why you were ever scared, when all you should have been was nervous. Nervous leads to excited. Excited is how you deserve to feel.

So don’t be scared; be nervous, and enjoy it!

Love,

Rosie (age 24)