A letter from 14 year old (and 283 days) you.

Hello there future me! You should be reading this on your 18th birthday. Today is the 11th of March, 2014 and it is currently 3:10am. I hope I can say that my sleeping habits have changed. Tanya, your life has been, well... something. I am 14 years old, this means I am a freshman in high school. I hope you didn't end up graduating in ABA. If you did, I hope that went well because right now, you're finding it extremely difficult to cope with the lack of options and opportunities you are presented with. You may remember, friendship never came easily to you. Currently, you are not a loner, but I will make it a point to mention your closest friends as they do change a lot. Leandra Illka, she's Swedish, Finnish, Italian and absolutely gorgeous. Not to mention good at everything she ever attempts to do. This frustrated you for a while, but you got over it. She's an excellent motivator and role model, and you adore her work ethic. She's also one of the funniest people you've ever been around. You and her are so different yet the same, and your friendship is possibly the best you've had 'til date. I hope to god you don't fuck this up. Hopefully, by the time you read this email, you will still be friends. You both love Disney, Movies, Music, Singing and are feminists. Yet your a lazy fuck and use a lot of fucking profanity if that wasn't fucking clear while Leandra is such a pussy. :) Anyway, next we have Heera Sen. She is the daughter of your math teacher, but you were friends before that. She is super sweet and adorable but god, what a drama queen. However, tolerance is key. You also ship her really hard with a creature known as Matthew Ridgway (#senway4life) and I hope they have dated by the time you read this email. Your friendship is based less on similarities and shared experiences and more on just enjoying each other's company. She is excellent and is refreshing as you never argue with Leandra, but with Heera... I also hope you don't fuck this up. These two are the best you've had in a while, hun. I hope your "2 year friend rule" (or observation as I'm sure you would have loved to keep them) is bullshit. In case you have forgotten, the "2 year rule" is something you have followed since your coming to Oman. You have never maintained a close relationship for more than 2 years. You have stopped friendship, or it has made a clear downgrade from best or close friend. Either that, or the moved away (TCK problems). You have other close friends: Erin, Shireen, Elisa, & Lianne. But you are in the process of realizing they are bitches and do not want that kind of negativity in your life. You are slowly distancing yourself from them. It will be interesting to see what point you are at by the time you graduate. Do you even talk to them anymore? Enough about social life, let's move on to academics. You have always been the smartest, but now you have competition. This is high school and shit got serious. Leandra happened. Anyway, you maintain the top spot in a few subjects: Drama, English, French & Math (Extended, mind you). But you won't stop until you have it all. Your grades have been-with the exceptions of the subjects previously listed-horrifyingly average. That is not acceptable in my books. However you have made a serious effort to improve. You currently maintain the top spot in your class and fluctuate between 2nd and 4th in the grade for Physics. This should reflect on your final report, and that 5 should be 7. As for PE, it's common knowledge I'll never exceed at that, but this year you have been indulging in the world of sports, and it's fantastic! You made the JV Basketball team and would have qualified for Softball this year if you weren't doing Forensics. This is very exciting as it is only your first year of competitive sports. Your fitness levels are not the best and neither is your weight, but there is a very very slow improvement. I hope by the time you read this email, you can be proud of your body. Speaking of bodies... Genes really fucked you over, eh? Acne, diabetes, overweight, short, dark, thin hair, small boobs... the list goes on. But none of that is your fault, and you hopefully will learn to accept that. However, you put up a good fight. Very recently, you visited a proper expensive and fancy dermatologist (100 rial consultation!) and you got yourself some pretty exclusive medication. It's basically illegal in Oman. It's been about a week and your skin looks amazing! There's still a ways to go but WHAT AN IMPROVEMENT! Oh, I wish you could see! I hope it continues this way and my skin can look as good as Mum's (ahahahahaha her words, not mine). You will lose weight, I assure you. You just need to stay focused. It will happen, give it time. You currently weigh 69 kg and you are 5"3. Not good. I hope there's an improvement in both factors over time. You are a 34B in the boob sector. You have gone up a cup size in 2 years! That's good, right? You hardly fill out a B at this point though, as your breast are awfully triangular. Let's keep our fingers crossed for C's in the long run! You dyed your hair a lot from Grade 7 to now. It has remained healthy and there has been an improvement in growth. I hope by the time you read this, you have gorgeous waist-length hair. Enough about body now. Self confidence... you have suffered through low self-esteem, loneliness, depression, self-harm... But things are looking up now! You've been put on mild, herbal anti-depressants after you had a full-scale mental breakdown in front of your mum. Your relationship with her has been getting better and you feel a lot more positive. It is easier to say no to negativity. I hope this continues throughout high-school and you were able to get off the medication. New experiences... well, you've started learning to drive with your mum. Guess what? You suck! But you will improve, you're only 14! I hope I move back to Canada for IB so I can get myself a license and drive around. Agh, so excited! Your current phone is a Samsung Galaxy S3 and the S5 was just announced a few weeks ago. The iPhone is currently at 5S. Google Glass is not currently available to the public, but it's looking close. I wonder what technological innovations will occur by the time I'm 18? Do you own the S8? iPhone 11? Speaking of 11, that is currently your lucky number. It's funny because that is also your favourite footballer, Ryan Giggs's jersey number. You support Manchester United for football Toronto Maple Leafs for Hockey, Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees for baseball. You follow hockey and watch football religiously, however, you enjoy playing basketball and softball. At the moment, you wish to study English (namely Journalism) and Law in university. You hope to work as a journalist for a few years before becoming a full time criminal lawyer. You also hope to attend the University of Cambridge or Yale or NYU. However, you will most likely end up at University of Toronto, which isn't bad either! This would probably go better near the academic section of this email, but I can't be bothered to fix it up. You attend SIG every summer. This will be your 3rd year. You went to Yale, Princeton and now University of Chicago. You have made some lifelong friends there and you learn more than school ever taught you. I hope you continue to attend SIG though your parents want to you to do CTY. I hope CTY is as good. Unless, you made it into UWC! United World College. You hope to do IB in UWC Vancouver, this is a full time school. It is currently your main goal and every decision you make is to achieve your goal. If that didn't happen, I hope your parents agreed to let you attend Ashbury College instead. Anyway, I can't think of much else to say, but life is good and I hope it stayed that way. I hope you find your senior year even better than your freshman one! Love, Freshman Tanya :)