Dear 16 year-old Reese,
This is a letter from yourself twelve years into the future.
First off… you are a stubborn, unreasonable BRAT! You don’t know everything about the world. You can wait to grow up. You are so full of anger and frustration, it’s a comeplete mystery how you even managed to have any friends.
You eventually learn the hard way that the world does not revolve around you and thankfully, you grow up to be a better woman.
Let me start off by saying that being sixteen wasn’t as difficult as you thought it was. In fact, you will think back in retrospect and realize that it was the easiest twelve months of your life and later wished you could stay sixteen forever. Even now, at almost thirty, you still wish that everyday.
I don’t know what the hurry was to grow up and have a life and the freedom because once you got it you were pretty clueless as to what to do with it all. It became overwhelming and you didn’t really apply it towards anything useful to begin with. Lesson, learned.
You will learn what it’s like to be a victim of domestic abuse and learn a very good lesson about self worth. Although it’s going to be the worst couple of years of your young adult life, you will rise above it. You will develop a thick skin and only when you leave him will you learn to really love yourself. Also, with this harsh lesson you will also see how strong you really are. What an inspiration you will become to other women who are going through the same thing and also give them the courage to move on. Be very proud of that.
You will earn friends and lose them. Although losing friends are always difficult you do realize later on that those who do stick around will enrich your life that you’ve always dreamed of and when you’re much older, you will realize that the quality of your friendships will always outweigh the quantity.
You will want tattoos and piercings. You will obsess over them and sacrifice necessities to have them but you will get over them very quickly and you’ll get to a point where you just wish you left your body alone.
Thankfully, you have sense not to get surface piercings so it won’t be like you’ve got a hole in face forever.
Although you won’t have the itch to travel overseas in your early-20s, you will want to live away from Sydney. At the age of twenty-four will be a perfect time too. You’ll be over the party scene but not too old to “settle down”. It’ll be the making of you and you will enjoy it immensely!
My last bit of “advice” – if you want to call it that – is just this…
. Listen more to your father and less of your mother. In your early-20s you actually realize that your dad isn’t a lame guy after all, in fact he’s actually the coolest guy you know. Listening less of your mother will do wonders for your self-esteem; because although you’re not perfect you are beautiful and you are smart and nothing like the negative things your mother has said to you since you hit puberty.
. Forget boys. All the dating and the crushes are a complete an utter waste of time. You won’t meet ‘The One’ til you’re twenty anyway. He will be perfect in every single way and you will just love him no matter how infuriating he can be and will love you back the exact same way. Having him in your life will change how you view the world, make you less selfish, he will make you want to be better woman – not just for him but for society as well, break down the (ridiculous) standards you’ve set for yourself and you he will make you love so much that you honestly don’t know what to do with it all. He will make you smile all the time. He will smell sexy. He will have hands that will fit perfectly with yours. He will be your best friend. He will everything you ever wished for and he will do things you love without you having to hint at it.
. Starting a beauty blog will really get yourself out there and meet new people and think outside the box. It will open doors for you and you will love every single minute of it. The only thing you regret is not starting it sooner.
. You will really enjoy living away from Sydney. You will also meet the most beautiful individual on the third day you arrive. She will be your best friend and she will be perfect, supportive, a total babe and will always take your side. You will even adopt a cat and name her after another animal and be absolutely hilarious as you learn about her personality. She will be the best thing you will do there.
. Be happy always. Life isn’t easy but you have the capacity and strength to overcome anything. Always have faith in yourself. You’ll do amazingly things with your life and you will have amazing stories to tell when you’re an elderly woman.
Overall, you won’t be a failure. Even now, after all these years I am astounded with what you’ve accomplished and endured. Never lose that spark within you, even when it glows dim when you’re nineteen, twenty-four and again when you’re twenty-six.
You are wonderful woman. Keep your head up and just be yourself.
Lots of love and respect,
Your older self
