advice for year sevens

I finished Year 12!
Seeing, on my last day before summer, some new kids looking around the school, made me a little introspective and thoughtful on how much I've changed since starting high school.

Although I've lost a lot since then (namely, a taken-for-granted freedom from exams and an ability to find joy in neon animal-shaped elastic bands) I've also gained wisdom over my years.

I think maybe my year 7 self would've done well from taking this advice from her older counterpart. Good luck to new year sevens, hope you find this useful!

My year 7 self, you left primary school feeling used to being good at class. When you meet challenges at your new school, then (PE lessons, or maths) you commiserate over how hard or how useless the work is.  Don't do this - learn to work. Maths (although you hate it) is a super useful skill, and later you'll realise that what's holding you back is not stupidity, but lack of confidence.

Sports have also never been our strong point. (Yes, that time you belly flop into the pool this year will become an in-joke for years to come.) But if there's any time to get into exercise, it's now, where judgement is little and your opportunities are plentiful. Join the netball team or something, we don't exercise as much as we should.

Throughout high school you'll spent a lot of time after school hanging out with groups you don't have much in common with, watching Jerry Springer or gossiping over who likes who, just to feel like you're not alone. Trust me, this time would be a lot better spent doing some reading or piano practice by yourself.  Now, being alone for a moment seems like the worst thing in the world, but in the long run, doing things for yourself will make you a more knowledgeable person.

Your crushes are going to feel super-intense, so all I can advise you on here is to remember to see these people as they really are - flawed, just like you. You'll see people around you enter little relationships, but it's not worth stressing when this doesn't happen to you - I hate to be boring, but you're too young for these to be anything other than short-lived and cringeworthy to look back on. Let your self worth hinge on the love of your friends and pride in your work, not on any ideas of romance. (And for god's sake, don't fake interests to try to talk to boys, it doesn't work.)

Also, year 7 self, please do me a favour and start researching early on uni courses. It's ridiculously far away to you, but it'll save us a lot of crying over our A level choices in the future.

In short: keep your envy minimal, compare yourself only to yourself. Keep your room tidy too, with less random junk. Document your life as it is now: you'll one day rue all of the gaps in your journals, all of the photos you refused to have taken. 

And enjoy it! I don't know anyone who doesn't cringe to remember their Year 7 self, so you may as well just have fun doing what you do at the moment.

Good luck!

-L✿