A letter in the past

Dear 16 year old me,

I wish I knew at your age what I know now. But you know what? It is okay! Let me tell you ... You are doing pretty okay with your life. Yes you are not the most successful lady yet, but there will be instances where you will be presented to a younger person as a good example.That's right! You don't know these people now. You have not met them. But trust me ..they are good people and you will like them.

I have good news and bad news. I will start with the bad. You will not remain as you are. You will change -- not always for good. You will find yourself disliking people for trivial matters and unfortunately you will be unable to let it go. You will do and say things which you will regret, but you will get over it. You will get into fights ( not many though, you will not grow up to a very confrontational person) and you will meet strange people but somewhere down the line, you will face it all! That's the good news. You will survive and you will learn! You will learn to live and take life with pinches of sugar and salt. You are going to change a lot of cities, by the way! I know it sounds unbelievable to you right now but you will and you will like it! You will have innumerable stories and experiences and you will find yourself extremely lucky at times.Also,Your notion about love is wrong. It is okay as of now for you to believe that love stories are not for you. Falling in love may not be very important, but if you do, fall for the best guy. Don't worry! You will meet him.

I wish I could stop you from crushing on wrong guys. But you will anyway! So maybe I will give you a piece of advice. Stay strong! Actually, you will be surprised by how strong you are, going by the fact that you right now cry at the drop of a hat. Talking about advices, I have tons of advices to give you. I hope you take them seriously.

First and foremost, Exercise! One of these days, somebody is going to advise you to join a gym and you are going to take it offensively. Don't! It will do you good ..very good!

I know you read but trust me, you are not reading enough. When you grow up to be my age, you will look back at all the books that you have still not read and all the books that are still being written. This will overwhelm you. Start with the classics right away! As another note, even after all these years, Jane Eyre will still remain your favourite! So good going at that!

Don't waste your time watching cartoon network! Really, your parents are right! You are sixteen! It is okay if you don't want to study either. Please go and learn tennis and skating at the senior club. You have no idea what a wonderful facility you have at your disposal and how royally you are wasting it. Trust me, when you reach my age, not being active outside your little television set is going to be the most regretful memory ever.

Don't be afraid of Venu agarwal! She is just your chemistry teacher and surprise of surprises, you WILL learn to cheat your way through titration and seriously you are going to laugh at it when you come to my age. It is useless! So are log tables, surface tension derivations, probability and binomial theorem. Don't bother! I mean study them now but you will eventually forget them. While at that , you might want to know a bonus future fact. Those toppers? After 10 years, there won't be a lot of difference in you and them. In fact, a lot of things that look like matters of life and death today and many more years to come will almost be forgotten by the time you reach my age. So you might as well relax a bit!

Also, although you will learn cooking eventually, it is going to be the hard way. So unless you don't want to create scenes the way I did, enter the kitchen once in a blue moon. You will definitely thank me for this piece of advice.

Take those essay competitions seriously. You will know why! Also, can you please be a little more insistent with your father about letting you joining journalism? I know its a shot in the dark, but for your future self sake,can you? I will tell you one secret about your father that you might not have understood yet. He does give in to your pressures! You have to be really really persistent. He agrees! I know you are smirking with disbelief right now, but in a few years you will know what I mean.

Also, please learn a little styling. In 10 years, you will look at your older pictures and cringe! You will learn, but please, take a lead and learn a bit more.

In the next 10-12 years of your life, you will fall and rise. You will cry alone and laugh with friends. You will win and lose, but you will be fine. Because you will discover behind that easily scared, naive self , you are much better. You will be afraid but you will be successful in not showing it and moving on! It is going to be a good life. You will like the ride!