Dear Amrit,
I know you’re probably really confused reading this (at this point, you’ve never received a letter in your life). I wanted to start off saying that, although you’ve perhaps never even considered it, this brand new year of 2008 and the ten years that will follow in the future (all the way up to 2018, which I’ve just started), will be the best years you ever experience.
You won’t know this if you are reading in January, but you and Simran will no longer be the only two kids in the house. Around May, Dad will ask both of you what you want most in the world (you’re going to have no clue and start asking for that magazine with the fairy figurines), and from then you’ll discover Jeevan. She’s grown up to be funny, gorgeous and one of the most ambitious almost-10-year-olds I know. You will absolutely love her (a lot more than the fairy figurines)!
Primary school will continue to be weird and will continue to have its upside-downs that you might not enjoy it, but I promise you this: you will come out of it with a whole lot more on the other side. You haven’t started revising yet, and you probably don’t even know what a GCSE is, but there’s an entrance test for secondary school that you’ll have to do. Spoiler alert: you worked hard and you went to the place you wanted to, but please don’t stop working… don’t get complacent! It took a whole lot of getting used to but your new school will test you and time after time you will be put through your paces.
Although not in 2008, there will be some goodbyes to people you love, but it’s all okay. They are with God now.
You’ll learn an incredible amount about life, death, what makes a person good or fair, about your own family and friends, and about self-worth; your faith will assist you in even the most pressing of times. Some of the best friends anyone could ever meet will become a part of your life and even though you may not master it totally, you will embrace being a chubbier, brown, baby-faced girl and you’ll love all the richness difference has to offer. Just remember that it’s okay for you to be cute, even if everyone else is trying to be pretty at the age of twelve. You are still young yet darling.
Enjoy making posters in school because we don’t do that anymore, and just because you’re Indian, don’t feel pressured to do medicine. You’ll fail quite a few chem experiments and not be too fond of maths, but it’s okay if none of that’s for you. French A-Level is great!
I’ll stop writing now, but please don’t paint Pavan’s toenails without permission, be good, leave your eyebrows alone and try and get that Punjabi accent a bit better (it could still do with some work today)! Sometimes it will be hard but shrug off the negativity, smile, and read a book. Everything will be okay in the end, I know it.
Lots of love,
Amrit (aged 16 and a half)
xxx
