Letter to George

Dear George,

I'm not sure I'd want you to read this, I'd want you to go through life's trials and tribulations, learning from the hardship, and I'd want you to be caught breathless by all the unexpected joy life will bring. But if there's one person who's easy for me to talk to, it's myself.

The next four years of your life will see huge changes in who you are, you'll make new friends, lose some friends, you'll make yourself proud, you'll disappoint yourself, you'll have the happiest and saddest moments of your life, but I promise you you'll look back and smile.

I'd like to impart on you some of the lessons I've learnt since I was your age, not in the hopes that you learn from me, but you go out, live your life, and make the same mistakes I made so you can be proud that you learnt these lessons yourself.

Know that it's them, not you. With the dawn of a new school, comes new friends. There'll be times that you struggle with them, not sure why they ignore you or make fun of you, you won't know who respects you and who you should respect, you won't know who to hang out with at lunchtime, but never forget that you're not to blame. Different people are different people, if they don't like you, then that's just them being different, not you being dislikeable.

Say I Love You. This shouldn't need too much explanation, the people closest to you, your family and friends, no matter how hard it is to say sometimes, deserve to know that you love them.

People don't care about what you look like. You will go through times where you don't like what you look like, you won't be proud of your body, and your face will be covered with acne. But you must never believe that this changes what people think of you. Never lose your confidence because of the way you look.

People's happiness matters more than what you want from them. There will come opportunities where people are vulnerable to you, and using them for what you want will be temptingly easy. Know that only regret would come, there is nothing worth taking from a person if it damages their self-esteem or confidence.

Grow tough skin, but be sure to let those who matter past it. There will be people who will be nothing but negative influences on your life, and to those people you need to pay no heed. A tough skin to protect from otherwise cutting remarks will enable you to live in the happiness you deserve, but be sure to not close yourself off to everyone. There will be people in your life who will value you, and who will be ready to look after you, you need to honour them by being brave enough to be vulnerable to them, to talk to them about things you don't want to talk about, to let them into your hearts.

In conclusion I'd like to tell you how proud I am of how you will live your life for the next four years, staying strong in your values, especially when it got rough, and I can't wait to see how we handle the years to come. But most importantly, I hope you're proud of me.

With Love,

George.