Buckle up it’s a bumpy ride!

You are coming up for 16. You already know that school is a place to be endured not enjoyed. Let me tell you one thing about human nature that you haven’t quite worked out. It’s basically bad and it’s pretty much set in stone. This is particularly true of those pieces of work who bully you. Bullies never change because they are wired that way. Don’t listen to those who tell you to try and understand them. They are bad and will always remain so. However, your experiences now will shape the teacher you become later. You will be better able to help your students because you know what bad teaching delivered by bullies looks like.

Don’t stop writing even though no one at will encourage you. Writing will become the most amazing outlet for you in years to come. If you carry on writing now, even if it’s not particularly good, it will be of enormous benefit in the future.

I know you have been put in a single sex school, a dreadful idea for boys, but you will eventually get to know girls and you will find them far more to your liking than boys. I mean that in terms of friendships and emotional connections. Don’t be too quick to try to make more of it because you will end up spoiling things with friends you can ill afford to lose. By the way, while we are on the subject of friends, you will find out that friends will disappear throughout your life. This doesn’t mean that they aren’t valuable in your life for a time, but you should accept that they will drift away and you shouldn’t waste energy trying to keep them.

Try to be more careful with money because it will cause you untold trouble until you marry and hand over the decisions to your wife!

Career wise you will be a work in progress for a good few years yet. Accept all the mistakes you make and the attempts you make to find something as a very important part of the journey. Skills you learn in insurance, RAF training and working for the civil service will teach you so much about yourself that you can bring to bear on your eventual career in teaching.

When you do settle on EAP and ESL it will take you all round the world. While we are on the subject then, keep up your enthusiasm languages, however badly the UK school system teaches them, because you are going to need them far more than you expect.

Finally, accept that life will never go smoothly. It’s going to be a very bumpy ride! That said, if you follow your path things will look a lot better than you can believe now.