Check out this piece of writing by a student in a Year 10 English class.

Dear Future Self,

I want you to take a break from whatever you are doing, step outside and take a deep breath, gaze upon the leaves on the ground, on this dismal day and smile and appreciate everything you have. If my future went as planned, from the day that I wrote this letter, you walk out of this huge workshop, wearing the grease stained BMW shirt and your overalls. I want you to take a break from your life right now, and dive into your old self from ten years ago; close your eyes, and think about your thoughts, dreams, and goals you have had ten years ago. In case, you did not just leave this huge workshop with a tatty appearance and a stained top, don’t worry, there are way more important things I want you to remember and realise. With this letter, I want to remind you of some advice that I have given my friends and family, but never really followed myself:

I hope you are happy and truly fulfilled with the life you are living right now – I want you to be truly happy, grateful and proud of the life you live. I hope you have learned to stop worrying about what other people think of you and have explored your boundaries and that you have learned to love yourself fat, skinny, tall or short. 

Be proud – be proud of yourself, be proud of the person you have become, and be proud of whatever you have accomplished so far. And always remember, even though it might not feel like you are moving forward, or you did not accomplish something at all, there is always some movement and improvement in every single tiny thing you are doing. When I was fourteen all I dreamed about was being happy not driving a flash car or wearing flash clothes I just wanted happiness. 

I hope the morals formed when you were fourteen continued on the journey of my life until this point. I hope you still show manners, loyalty, courage and kindness to all even the people who don’t deserve it. I hope you are still forgiving and allowing everyone a second chance. I hope you have led by example to show others the difference between right and wrong. 

Always keep your head up. Throughout the last three years, there were many times where I was struggling, where I wanted to give up, where I wanted to throw everything away, where I was knocked down and just didn’t want to get up anymore, but this is not the person I am, and this is not the person my parents raised me to be. I really hope that you have had some tough and difficult times the last years, so you can be proud of the way you got here.

In conclusion, I hope you are happy. Never forget to be the person you are, never change for somebody or something, be yourself, believe in your dreams, and never let someone with a smaller mind-set tell you that your dreams are too big. Never forget where you came from, never forget people and family. As a fourteen year old family and friends were everything, I hope they still are the best and most important people in your life and I hope to this day that they still are. I hope that they are proud to call you there son, uncle, brother or their mate.