Dear Tiffany,

Right now, you’re having a lot of fun. While doing your best with academics and extracurricular activities, you also have a great group of friends who you see at school five days a week. Life is fine. Nonetheless, being you from the future and knowing what I know now, I’d like to provide some advice that I think would be useful:

First of all, enjoy spending time with friends as much as possible. As you’ve learned, friendships don’t always last so appreciate all the good moments you get to experience with them.

You are a very quiet, introverted girl who lacks confidence, and having these traits can make it difficult to put yourself out there. As a result, many opportunities have been missed. Not raising your hand in class when you know the answers to some questions remains an example. Also, you usually don’t speak up about things, even when you think you should. This especially refers to bullying.

Where bullies are concerned, I want to emphasize that you don’t want to look back and wonder: “What if?” What if I had said something? What if I had spoken up? Would things have turned out differently? When you think any situation is wrong or unfair, please tell someone. At times, people might not believe you or attempt to dismiss what you have to say, but don’t give up so easily. Even if nothing comes of your efforts in the end, at least you tried.

In order to improve this, the initial step is to work on actually feeling as though you deserve to voice your opinions and stand up for yourself. We both know you’re a tolerant person. Whether it’s continuing with certain extracurriculars you find tiresome or facing scary conflicts, you’ve developed a resilience to deal with challenging situations.

You should be proud of being resilient but try determining the difference between situations where tolerating is justified and what simply isn’t acceptable. You can also think of this ability to distinguish between the two as setting an example for other people. What would you want them to do if they were in your shoes? Asking yourself questions like this sometimes is key as you tackle difficulties both in and outside school walls. Care as much about your feelings/well-being as much as you do others.

To end this letter on a pleasant note and give you a glimpse into what’s in store: An amazing teacher you’ll have (and never forget) will inspire you to look at similar issues as well as many other areas of life from a refreshing perspective.

Though you’ll definitely continue to encounter challenges while you’re a student (and afterwards), there’s also plenty of things you can look forward to. Trust me when I say that your days of textbooks and backpacks will pass by really quickly. With these notes in mind, take more chances as you go through this process. Try being more confident because you have more to offer than you realize.

Sincerely,

Future Tiffany