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Dear 16 Year Old Me.

So, this is getting written 9 years into the future and your having to decide what you want to do when you finish school and you pretty much have your heart set on joining the RAF. If I told you that at present I’m not employed by them, would you change your mind?

It’s not that I didn’t enjoy my experience when I was there, in my opinion your just not ready for it. Go to college – although may I recommend the one closer to home – get yourself some decent grades – I think I am regretting now is not taking a science, I think Chemistry or Biology would suit you. And get yourself off to University. Make a decision regarding a Career after that. Trust me, you’ve got far more options.

One big word advice before you sit your GCSEs. Revise your maths, I ended up resitting, and although the teacher was better the second time around, and I passed. Your more than capable of doing it first time out.

If your going to take anything from this, it’s that your a very capable person, and you’ll figure that out, anything your passionate about you do very well in but you need to put that effort into everything, you can’t just go in, do the minimum and walk out, you need to put 100% into absolutely everything that you do. You’ve got an amazing girlfriend, Emma, who’s teaching you that every day with everything she’s doing at university. She’s getting incredible results and that’s purely because she’s putting the effort in.

Your going to meet some incredible people over the next couple of years and your going to lose touch with some friends. It’s what happens it’s a way of life. Looking back part of me wishes I tried harder to stay in touch, at the same time I wonder why I bothered at all. But at the end of the day there are plenty of good times to be had.

Don’t worry too much about relationships, take them as they come, you will make mistakes as you go through them and its a learning cycle and it’s all part of growing up. There’s a line in a film that says ‘Everyone trips, that’s life, it’s what happens, but it’s how fast you get up that counts’ and it does help, if you make a mistake, move on from it and learn from it.

But there’s some incredible things coming out over the next few years that you’ll have to watch out, that’ll blow you away. Bob’s – Yes your still friends with Bob Owen – is going to introduce you to World Of Warcraft. I urge you to please play with moderation! I spent too long on there and missed a lot of important stuff at College because of it. Its an amazing game though.

But there are much bigger things on the horizon as far as games go. Forget your Playstation 2. When the Xbox 360 launches you want to save your pennies and be at the front of the queue, there are big things planned for it and you don’t want to be missing out.

And something that you should look forward too, if you don’t stray the path I went down, Brussels and New York. These cities are mind boggling. Brussels has a European chic that’ll make you want to go back for me and New York is everything you thought it would be.

There are some brilliant films out over the next few years and recently James Cameron (the guy who did Titanic), pulled out all the stops and released a movie master piece which you’ll fall in love with you. You’ll be introduced to films that you’ve probably never had an interest in and think they’re fantastic.

Your still watching F1 as well, that new kid who drives for Williams, Jenson Button. He’s going to go through some tough times, but put some money on him winning the world championship within the next decade. Good money there. Especially as the season he does it the team almost didn’t exist.

You’ll listen to bands that you’ve never heard of or bands that you’ve never given the time of day too. And you’ll see them live and you’ll be blown away. Bands like Muse and the Foo Fighters. You’ll witness them at their greatest hours and you’ll be talking about it for years. Bands that are going to soundtrack your life!

So much is going to happen in the world of Sport that I don’t think anyone would have predicted. Portsmouth FC are going to go bankrupt, Michael Schumacher is going to retire and then come back. GB are going to dominate in the cycling in the Olympics in Beijing. We’re still not much of a sports person, but you dabble. You could hold a conversation if you needed.

This is an incredibly hard thing to write I hope you realise. There’s so many experiences and feelings that have gone on over the last 9 years that it’s hard to describe. What you’ve got to look out for.

I’d like to think that if you were to see me now you’d be proud of who you’ve become. I think I’m a confident person who has a great knack for getting on with people. Who perhaps doesn’t have a clear direction in life. But I’m not so worried about that. I’m relaxed and rarely stressed and I try not to avoid being down.

I would say I wouldn’t change anything I’ve done, I’ve been pretty happy with my life, perhaps there’s a couple of relationships I would have got out of earlier. And there’s things I would have tried harder at. But I’m at a point now where I’m really happy with everything and how life is going and where it’s going. I’ve got some very good friends, some you know, some you don’t yet. And I’m finally back in contact with some old ones. I’ve had some amazing experiences with Film, Music and Games which blew my mind and I wish I was in your position where i could experience them, for the first time, all over again.

Shoot for the stars 16 year old me. Don’t be afraid to reach your potential, you are capable of doing it. Just keep being you. People will love you for it (I hope!)

Me. Yourself. 9years from now.

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