Dear Past Me

In school on Friday we discussed the way we are going to bring up our children, if we are lucky enough to have them. My teacher raised the question, asking whether we would raise our kids the same way our parents raised us. She proposed that most of us would probably say yes, but would there be things that we would change?

When I came home on Friday, I considered this question fully. In truth, will I raise my children differently? Yes. For me, this is almost no question at all. I knew that sitting in my classroom, I know it on the way home, and I still know it now.

But thinking about my future, and the lessons I would impart on any future children I might chose to have, made me think about all the things I wish I would've told myself at the beginning of high school, considering where I am now.

So instead of writing a note to my future children, I wrote a note to my past self, and I would like to share it on here, in the hope that it might give some advice.

"Laugh more. Cry more. Take in the beauty of this world. Don’t be afraid to think. Don’t be afraid to speak and don’t be afraid to feel. 

There are going to be times when you are lost, times when you’re angry, afraid and broken. You are going to be confused, you are going to ask why… ALOT. And sometimes, you aren’t going to get the answers that you require. And then you're gonna be frustrated. There will be days when you wish you weren’t born. But from those days it’ll be as if you were born anew, as you will rise up from the ashes, greater and stronger than you were before.

It is going to be really hard but it also going to be so worth it. So say thank you more. You are going to face challenges and sometimes you will fail but you will also succeed. You are going to want to give up, but you will keep going because you are made of stronger stuff.

You are going to say things you don’t mean, and sometimes you will upset people, but you will apologize because no one is ever too big or too great to say sorry when they are wrong.

You are going to stand up for what you believe in because there is nothing on this earth that is more important to you than fighting for the ones that you love.

Grab opportunities with both hands, and see every day as a different experience. Don’t take all that you have for granted, because G-d can give as quickly as He can take away. 

Learn more. Study hard. Take life seriously, but not too seriously. 

Be patient, be kind and most importantly be accepting. Don’t judge a person until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.

Some days, your biggest achievement will be getting out of bed in the morning, but some days you achievements will be as big as touching the sky.

Don’t forget to spend a few moments every day saying thank you for everything you do have.

You are going to learn that the greatest tool you have, is your mind. With your mind you can achieve anything. You will see that it doesn’t matter what you have or what you don’t have, it is about creating opportunities with your mind.

But most importantly, be brave, be strong and be kind." 

-LF, LR and MG xxx

A Time to be Grateful

I often fear that I become too swept up in the moment, and do not have enough strength of character to be aware of how grateful I should be. It is human nature to look beyond those closest to us. We disregard those who play vital roles in our lives, not because we don't love them or recognise them, but because when something is placed right in front of us, most of the time, we are blind to it.

When things go wrong, naturally, we look for someone else to blame. We don't like to believe that it is us ourselves that has done the wrong thing. However, when things go right, we turn inwards and celebrate our own success, forgetting about all the other people that helped us and guided us along the way.

I'm not saying for a second that we shouldn't celebrate our own successes, because of course we should. Instead, however I am suggesting that we should be reminding ourselves that we need to look to the outside to thank those around us for all their help, kindness and support.

Someone once told me that you can never say thank you too many times, and I think that is really true. Being grateful to those around us, is paramount to success. When we are able to recognise the input of our family, friends, teachers and any one else, then we are giving part of our success to them, and allowing them to share in the good things as well as the bad.

I am constantly reminded of the look in my teacher's face, when I made an effort to tell her good news. The sincerity of which she received my news, made me painfully aware of how much bad news I share, but more than that, the intimacy of good news, when it is such a rare occurrence. It made me see, for the first time, the many ways saying thank you can be said, and more importantly, the power of which being grateful can hold.

Frankly, we are in times of universal uncertainty, when most of us are paralysed by fear of the unknown - or more accurately, fear of knowing that we don't really know what is to come on a global scale.

But I do think, however insignificant it may be on a global scale, that the only thing you can do to fight back against those who have stripped away their humanity, is by working on humanity. Trying to make the world a better place, one thank you at a time.

-LF, LR and MG