Ten things I’d tell my younger self

24th September 2016
Yep, that’s me. Not twelve, but you get the idea.

Growing up is hard. Like, really hard. I remember occasionally wishing that I could be young and care free again but when I think about it, there was definitely a lot about childhood I wouldn’t want to relieve again. Like that unsure, almost awkward stage. I found myself caught in a daze recently, wondering, if I had the power to, what I would reassure myself when I was child. How nice it would be to calm my panicky self with a few words about how everything is going to work out.

And naturally, I decided to share that with you lovely lot! So here are ten things I wish I could tell my younger self at twelve years old…

1) Be grateful. You are so bloody lucky. You are surrounded by people that love you, even if you don’t realise it. If you fell, you’d be caught. But other than this, you are alive. You are breathing. You have all your limbs and food and water. Experiences and opportunities are offered frequently to you. Take the time to appreciate all of this as there are so many others without.

2) Stand up for what you believe in, there will be times where you bite your tongue for fear of confrontation but you will regret keeping your mouth closed when you believe so strongly in something. Remember that everyone has the right to an opinion but you have the right to stand up for yours.

3) You are not interested in ‘love’ or having a boyfriend and that is ok. You will wonder if you should be more bothered as you hear tales on the playground of ‘dates’ to the park. You are right not to care because one day, when you are eighteen, you will meet the love of your life and ask yourself how you got so lucky. You will go on to buy a lovely little house together and even have your own sweet, sausage dog!

4) Your will loathe your first year in secondary school. You will hate going and even be a little bullied, feeling more alone than you have ever before. But then in Year 8, you will move to another school where you will make a group of friends that will be with your for life, in some form or other. You will make so many memories together and although sometimes distance will get in the way, you always make it work.

5) Naturally, your parents divorce will be difficult. You will despair a little bit and worry quite a lot but as bad as everything seems, everything will work out in the end. Things won’t be too awkward and you’ll get two of pretty much everything, so that’s pretty cool! You’ll also gain extra family members who while you are unsure of at first, you won’t be able to imagine life without.

6) You do so many hobbies and classes. Ballet, horse-riding, swimming…don’t give these up. When you grow up, you will wish you kept on at these hobbies and they will be hard to return to. Even learn a musical instrument. Future you always wishes she could play the piano and make beautiful, moving music.

7) You will grow up with stories and books aplenty which makes you fall in love with words and writing. You will write multiple ‘novels’ on your computer, determined to one day be an author. While you won’t quite do this (yet), you will study Journalism at University and end up landing a job you never could have dreamed of.

8) Your a fairly decent person but that doesn’t mean you can’t always be better. Strive to be the best version of yourself as much as you can. You will have thoughts that surprise you and feelings that make you feel guilty at times but you are not perfect and you never will be but be kind and honest to yourself and others as much as you can. Treat yourself well, both inside and out. And perhaps don’t eat as much of the bad stuff eh? It won’t make you happy.

9) Be curious about everything. Try new things, be afraid but fight it and challenge yourself. You can’t do everything but you can try.

10) Everything will be ok. You will go through moments where you despair and wonder how things will ever get better but they do, as is the complexity of life. This too shall pass.

So there we have it! When writing this post, I do appreciate that if we knew everything that would happen to us, in a way it would be too much to bear and frankly, rather boring. That said, I found this really fascinating to put together and I’d be interested to do more of this, providing you all enjoy it!

I’d really love it if you could take a moment and tell me just one thing you’d tell your younger self, down in the comments! I look forward to reading them!