Dear my younger self...
I do feel so sorry for you – you’ve just had your sixteenth birthday and your (our) father has suddenly died, leaving you an orphan. But you will find that you are surprisingly resilient after all and I promise you that you will get through the grief and bewilderment. In fact, in the end I think that the adversity in your early life makes you a stronger person – though at the moment you feel very weak. You are young for your age and you have got a lot of quick growing up to do. You have led a quiet, rather sheltered, life – just you and Dad together. You wonder if you are ever going to ‘get going’ in life and gain some confidence. Well, you do of course, and I think your sixteen-year-old self will even be pleased how you turn out! You don’t set the world afire, but you make a lot of good friends, you have a fairly interesting career, you travel the world … you even live in several European countries – so you do get to use those A-level languages. Above all, you are HAPPY. You will get through the miserable teenage years left, and in your early twenties, you will get happy and stay happy. Stop worrying about the future and finding a boyfriend – you will have plenty. Actually, it will take a long time to find the right (wonderful) man and get married – I dare not even tell you how long, but I can tell you that it was fun getting here!
Written to their 16 year old self by Anonymous, Alton u3a.
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