Dear high school me,
Grade 9.
What a time we live in. You’re about to experience a global pandemic seven months into your first year of high school. It sounds like a great time at first: an extended March break, a few extra weeks at home, but then I’m sorry to say you won’t ever go back! Enjoy this time at home, keep working out and staying active, paint, redecorate, bake, do all the things you enjoy. Happy early summer! It’s all for the best. The friends you are friends with right now aren’t all going to be your best friends in two months or even a year later. Let it happen.
Enjoy folklore and buy the cardigan.
Grade 10.
I wish I could be there for you right now. You’re going to go back to school for a few short months and then it will all be taken away shortly after. You’ll become good friends with a few people though and this will stick for the next few years so don’t worry. Olivia Rodrigo is going to release a hit song in a few months and it will change everything. You’ll be stuck doing online school though, being put into the torture of breakout rooms, so I wish you the best of luck. Not everyone is going to be your best friend and not everyone has to be your best friend. This year will probably suck. Be like your grade nine self and keep going on walks to maintain your mental health. To uplift your mood, Taylor also has another surprise album for you, and it will change the rest of your life. At least savour that.
Grade 11.
A lot has changed, hasn’t it? Happy Red (Taylor’s Version) season! You will never forget this time of your life. Or at least every time I hear the All Too Well Ten-Minute Version intro, I get brought back to this time period immediately. You are about to become an intense concertgoer and finally live out your dreams of seeing Harry Styles for the first time. It will be incredible and you and your new friends will think about that day for the rest of your life. School will be crazy to handle but it’ll all be okay. You’re going to be getting a couple of new jobs soon that will also change your life–mainly for the better. Hold on to these friends you have.
Grade 12.
It may only be a year since you were in this position but so much has happened. This year is going to be really tough. Depression and anxiety will hit fast and hard, but it will be overcome. Go see a therapist! Taylor Swift will release her tenth album Midnights and that will also change your life but this way for the best. Applying to universities may not be hard, but choosing your future is hard and that’s normal, don’t worry. You are going to make the right choice. We also may not have Taylor Swift tickets right now, but we will have some in the summer so look forward to that! Again, the pain will go away, and you will get through it, so just wait it out. Also try and make friends at work, it’ll be so worth it.
All the best,
University Me