Yes, this letter is from your future self but before you get excited and examine it to the point of tearing it to shreds in search of clues to prove this scientifically— read it.
As for advice, if anyone should be doling it out, it should be from you to me. You’ve got your head screwed firm on your shoulders. Up until you hit 21 that is, because then it gradually unhinges. So much so you’d easily pass off as one of those bobblehead dolls.
Although perhaps if there’s anything at all that I should point out, it’s that you have an inclination to look at the bigger picture. This is not necessarily a good thing considering you tend to miss the details and they almost always are of great consequence. Work on that, it’ll make you a lot more perceptive and sensitive.
Hmm…16… Well, by now you’ve probably discovered your sister’s law notes, her copy of the constitution and that life-determining document on child soldiers in Sri Lanka. You’re all fired up about child soldiers and will spend days doing extensive research so that you can write about it as your contribution for the school magazine. You hope that at least in some small way you can make a difference with your article.
Hate to break it to you little dreamer, but your article couldn’t so much as tickle the monster. And anyway teenagers just aren’t interested in that sort of thing. They’d much rather read those nauseating stories of lost love that your classmates submit than child soldiers, your World War II write up or your next piece on your own conspiracy theory about Shakespeare and Christopher Marlow.
But don’t toss it all out the window, now! It’s with this article on child soldiers that the seed of journalism is planted in your head. And journalism is the closets you’ll ever get to that illusive adventure you’ve always wanted.
School aside, don’t get mad at dad for not allowing you to go for any of the heavy metal gigs. I can’t imagine you, a naive little 16 year old, at a gig. You go for plenty later. So many in fact, you probably turn into the bobblehead that I am because of all the headbanging!
Speaking of dad, he’s going to teach you to play snooker this year, just like how he taught you to swim when you were 10. You’re going to be able to play pretty decently. He will however, leave for Europe again and once he returns the whole thing will be forgotten and you’ll lose touch with the game. Don’t let this happen. He’s a billiards and snooker champion and played for clubs, for Heaven’s sake! He can teach you so much… You could carry on his legacy! Okay, that’s the dreamer in us stretching it.
Also, try harder in convincing him to quit smoking. He’s 64 now and suffered a mild stroke just two days back and his got a train of other medical conditions, the causa causans of which being his chain smoking.
Yeah, 2009 isn’t very good. Mum was diagnosed with a tumour and underwent major surgery a few months back. You start to realise that your amazing superparents aren’t invincible and they aren’t immortal.
Apart from that your life is pretty good. You’d be amazed that something good will emerge from ALL the horrible decisions you make. Everything just falls into place. We are yet to face the trial of our life.
But you already know that. Since you haven’t got any problems of your own you’ve already started to help your friends through theirs.
Except this is when things start to take a turn for the worse. Almost all your friends’ problems are to do with their topsy turvy love life. After a while you’ll begin to wonder why you’ve never fallen in love and subsequently question if there’s something wrong with you. Of course that moiety of your life is going to get unnerving with a stalker, guys drinking themselves unconscious because you didn’t feel the same way about them and acting rashly. Regarding which, let me tell you this, boys are over dramatic impetuous gits. They’ll be fine and they’ll get over it. Well, except for two… but they leave the country anyway.
But don’t blame yourself and let the guilt of not being able to reciprocate their feelings eat at you. Because with that in mind, you will try to force yourself to fall in love, being the bobble head that you will become. Though I shouldn’t advise you against it, because you learn from it. You learn that this is just who you are, you’re emotionally detached beyond average. Which is brilliant considering you don’t have to suffer heart ache. I maintain that Lord Tennyson was horribly senile when he was struck with the ‘mal-epiphany’ that “’tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all”. What Tosh!
Right, so I think there are a few raisins of advice sprinkled in there… Hope you’ve spotted it.
Cheers!
Thanks for the tag Purple Socks Is Mine. I tag EyeOfTheCyclone and MiddleChild.








