#DEARTEENME

It’s been 10 years, and boy have we come far. I know right now you’re struggling; school is hard, you don’t fit in, and you keep wishing for it to be over. Life at home is hard too and you can’t wait to be older. Some pretty hard situations are being thrown at you right now, but you know what? You make it through every single one of them. I am so proud of you.

In saying that, I have something you don’t: hindsight. Looking back, I can see that what we went through and are about to grow through is so tough, sometimes it even feels like it’s too much, but it gives us the strength, the will, the tenacity, and the intelligence that we’ll need to become who we are at 25.

So, who are we? Well, we have our own home and we’re living with our boyfriend, our best friend, who we love and who loves us in return. We run our own company with him, having built it from the ground up. We’re our own boss and we’ve hired family to work alongside us. It’s tough, and the life lessons we’ll learn these next 10 years definitely come in handy, but because of them, we’re more successful than we ever could have imagined at 15. So dream, imagine your success. Create goals to achieve it and break those down into even smaller goals. Fulfil them and before you know it, your dreams will have become your life.

We wake up now and feel like the world really is our oyster. It’s ours to travel through, whenever and wherever we like. Ours to make our own decisions in, choices that fulfil us like nothing else. We spend every day working within our company, creativity pouring out of us and into the world, reaching and uplifting our friends, family, and even strangers across the seas.

Our social media accounts reach many people daily and we get to share in celebrating our culture with them. It can be tough work, but tough is worth it when you love what you do.

At 15 you’re struggling, down in the dumps and trying to live with feeling very little enthusiasm for anything. But you have a teacher, grade 10 at Lourdes College, who encourages you to keep taking art classes even though you want to stop. She believes in you, in your talent. And now I do, too. I still think of her sometimes, so grateful for her support and confidence in us, inspiring us to keep going.

All this love and inspiration doesn’t mean it’s smooth sailing, though. Yes, I am happy and successful. And yes, there are still days where I’m down and things don’t go as planned. I’ve learnt, though, that it’s actually quite a normal part of life. You learn to weather the storms like a pro and just move with the flow. That’s what experience teaches and every single one counts for something. We’re strong enough now to recognise that if we didn’t have messy, hectic days then we wouldn’t know just how beautiful the calm, joyful ones are.

So, hang in there, girl. Believe in yourself, even on those really bad days when nothing seems to be working out for you, be kind to yourself. Speak up for yourself, wobbly voice and all. Let them hear you. Keep reading books and creating. Dream of big things, visualising and envisioning an amazing future, and it will be yours. You have a knack for dreaming big, looking to the future even while chaos reigns around you. It’s inspiring.

Most importantly, love yourself and let yourself have some fun. Do the silly things you want to do, explore! There is no place for shame in your life’s journey.