Wow teenage me seems so long ago! In all honestly teenage me was 32years ago. I wish I knew half of what I know now then! If I could travel back in time these are some of the things I would say.
- Be yourself – this is so incredibly important. Don’t try to fit in with the crowd. Just find who you are and own it. Honestly, the chances are that everyone else at school is just as insecure about who they are and secretly cheer on anyone who is willing to be themselves. Even though this cheering on will most likely take the form of teasing. By being yourself you will find your tribe. Going along with the crowd just to fit in will only mean it takes you much longer to find your tribe.
- Don’t do ANYTHING you don’t feel right doing – this is a big one. When you go along with the crowd to fit in you can often find yourself swept up in behaviours that really don’t fit well with you but you are scared to not do them, in case you get kicked out of the crowd. Guess what YOU are way more important than the crowd so be true to you.
- Honestly when you are 45 (even 25 or 35) the things that you did in high school really won’t matter! I know that the world is a very different place today and everything we do has a digital footprint but if you make sure that for the most part you don’t do things that aren’t true to you then you have no reason to worry about that footprint.
- I know it is so important to belong and be part of a tribe in high school, but trust me when I say that it is highly unlikely that you will see or be friends with that high school tribe when you leave school. At 45 I have approximately 5 actual friends from high school and in truth anyone else is really just an acquaintance.
- Don’t second guess yourself so much. Just because you are young doesn’t mean you don’t know what is true to you.
- Try to fill your belly with more than alcohol and cigarettes! I know that this helped keep you really slim. But honestly when you do start eating you will feel so much better for it.
- Try not to do all the dumb things because they seem cool at the time.
- Save more. This doesn’t mean that you can’t have the nice things that you want but save for them and they will honestly be so much more special when you do that.
- Follow your heart. Again, just because you are young doesn’t mean that you can’t know love. When you find it, hold onto it and stop self destructing!
- The only thing that needs to be destroyed is your self destruct button. Not you, not your relationships, not your body.
- You are loved and you are so precious never, ever forget that. Don’t let anyone tell you or treat you otherwise. If they do then they are the ones that need to be cut from your life don’t change to make them happy because if they don’t love you for who you really are, the hard truth is they won’t love you if you change beause the change will never be enough!
- Do not ever let anyone abuse you physically, verbally, sexually or in any other way. You are worth more than that. Don’t ever forget it. You will not be more liked or loved if you let this happen
- We all have fashion disasters, you are growing up in the 80s the entire decade is a big hair, bright fluro disaster just go with it!
- Remember it is just hair it grows back! Look at my hair for crying out loud a bloody perm! What the hell was I thinking!!!!
- YOU ARE NOT FAT!!! Regardless of the silly messages you tell yourself and how much you starve yourself you are tiny and I promise you, you are not fat!
- Dream big!! You can do anything you set your mind to. Just remember to believe in yourself, when you believe you can then others will too.
- Travel now, while you have the chance! See the world by yourself you don’t need anyone to hold your hand I promise you are enough!
- Tell people how much they mean to you because you just don’t know how much time you have with them.
- Most importantly remember you are loved and you will get through your teenage years. If you stay true to yourself then your tribe will find you.
What would you say to your teenage self? Looking forward to everyone linking up over the next few days.
The basics for the link up:
- Open from Thursdays 9am
- Close Sunday Midnight
- Link one or two posts – you can use the prompt or not up to you
- Please use #SL for the link up
- Please have a read and comment when you can on others and as some of the posts might be deeply personal please keep this in mind when commenting
- Have fun
Much love
Cat xoxo
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