Dear 14-year-old Monstress,
1. Life is not a novel. You don’t get to redraft or edit. And you could do without the cliffhangers.
2. Concentrate on quadratic equations, not Mr Thorpe’s bum. Maths will be handy and you can actually do it.
3. Keep your really cool clothes – you’ll want them one day.
4. Learn and practice healthy stress management now.
5. Bad things don’t just happen to other people. You're not invincible.
6. Your parents don’t know everything but they know more than you think they do – and more than you do.
7. Money means choices. Learn to save money. And start doing it. Now.
8. I know it’s hard to believe but you are not the centre of the universe. Really.
9. Write down your goals.
10. You won’t die at 28, so slow down – you have plenty of time.
11. You won’t die at 28, so think through the consequences of your actions – you have to live with them for a long time.
12. There is nothing cool about Agadoo, permed hair or smoking.
13. Don’t go for the guys who like you, go for the guys you like.
14. You don’t have to do everything ‘properly’ – do things just for fun, do things haphazardly, start things and don’t finish them.
15. Go to the gym.
16. Orange hair, bubble skirts and fluorescent pink anything will never look good on you.
17. Don’t be sucked in by people who dazzle and seduce. You know who your real friends are.
18. Just because you’re good at something, doesn’t mean you have to do it.
19. Don’t chuck out your paintings, stories or diaries.
20. Cosmopolitan does not have all the answers. (It’s tripe. Fun tripe. But tripe.)
21. Neither do you.
22. You don’t have to fill up every second of the day. Relax. Rest.
23. You are not fat. Honest. Get your mum to take bikini pictures of you. You’ll love them when you’re 40.
24. Guys will say almost anything if they think it means you will sleep with them. The nice guys will just say it more elegantly.
25. Do constructive ‘out there’ stuff – travel, sing in a band, abseil…
26. There are enough dramas in life without creating unnecessary ones.
27. Spend time outside. Get dirty. Go bush.
28. Stand up for what you believe in – even if others don’t agree.
29. Stop seeking approval from others – it’s yourself you have to look at in the mirror.
30. You are fabulous. Give yourself a break. You turn out pretty okay. Trust me on this one.
Love,
The 40-year-old Monstress
Image: Simon Howden
Some of those notes ring true to a 40 year old self
ReplyDeleteAnd words cannot express how relieved I am to find that Mr Thorpe's bum is not a filter category!
ReplyDeleteYou're right about things still applying, Molly. Note to self: save sequin dress for high probability repeat wear - not (see Size matters).
ReplyDeleteMoving.
ReplyDeleteI'm shit off at the fact I didn't have me to show me the ropes... I could have done more with my teenage years, put me in a better position now.
I'm 25 and already feel like I should go back and smack myself around a bit. I don't know what I'll be like in 20 years but hopefully I'll return to a state of less cynicism. That might be nice.
Ah, HB, you know you're getting old when you start noticing how youth is wasted on the young - especially when it's your young self you're critiquing (and you know you're really getting old when you starting quoting George Brnard Shaw LOL).
ReplyDeleteWell for all the mistakes I've made so far, I'm a different person I'm sure. I can't change them anyway. Which sucks to a certain extent. I can only really look forward and try not to repeat them hahaha, got to look forward to making a whole mess of new ones too. "A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing" anyway.
ReplyDeleteI love being happy but you got to mess up sometime, mixes it up, makes the good things... umm.. good. "A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it; it would be hell on earth." Having said that, I'm more than willing have a fair crack at a lifetime of happiness... See if it was a mistake or not. Win-Win by the sounds of it.
I find a certain level of solace in the fact that "Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough." So there's always a bunch of people there to help you out.. and then remind you later of how dumb that was. Years, years later.
Who's this George Bernard Shaw bloke you spoke of?
To do list for HB: apply for Senior's card, subscribe to Your life choices newsletter, buy Zimmer frame.
ReplyDelete