Dear Sam,
You’re a full grown adult now, can you believe that? I remember at 13 I wanted the years to fly by now I just wish they would slow down. I know it’s hard to believe this but I am actually writing to you from the future.
First thing first, don’t ever be frightened of anything you are a marvellous kid. All the naughtiness that has vanished due to the circumstances in the past year, I say you should continue to be the same naughty kid. When I look back to the time I have travelled, I feel it is boring to be a decent kid. Being an adult is great, everything works out just the way you want it to, so don’t worry about a thing and just carry on with everything you are doing. There are some things I wish you had done differently with regards to friendships. If only you had known then what you know now. That’s why I’m writing to you!
You will be at a point in our life when we have a lot of friends. Between everyone you work with at Wakefields and everyone at Horsham F.C, you interact with a ton of people on a daily basis. You’re making new friends and acquaintances almost every day. That’s great! Keep doing that! You’ve already met a few lifelong friends whom I still keep in contact with and are a very important part of my life. Don’t be afraid to talk to people but don’t befriend them just because you’re desperate to stop being alone; they will betray you. Wait patiently and I assure you the right people will come. However, I know there are times in you’re life when you need to be alone and just enclose yourself off from the world, and that is totally fine. It makes you who you are, this time helps you reflect and decide on what is the best possible reaction.
With being on a football team you have a lot of friends in your hometown. The friendship built through a football team is a bond like no other friendship; you are there for each other through losses and wins, through thick and thin. You just forget all of your problems once you step on the field, you don’t think about anything other than the game. I would also say that the football helped me keep discipline from the schemes our coaches drew up, to early-morning workouts, to the focus required to keep my grades above a certain level, I needed discipline for every aspect of the sport. By the time I finished football training, I had no choice but to understand discipline and I enforced it throughout the rest of my life. By working out, running sprints and watching film, we became committed to our team. We took pride in what the kit stands for. We learned to care about the people we sweat with, and we listened to the coaches who lead us. By playing football, we learnt what it meant to make an unwavering commitment to something. I guess what I’m trying to say is that stick with football, it teaches you so many life lessons that you don’t even think about. Everything happens for a reason and you stick with football as it provides a stable routine with great outcomes.
I know, you have had the unfortunate times at such tender age but that is only going to make you strong. Remember, every lesson from life is unpleasant but these lessons will not destroy or kill you. Make more mistakes and learn the hard lessons by yourself. Trust me, you will not realise it at this time but you will learn a hell lot of things in the years to come. People say you think too much, and it will continue even when you sail through the adulthood. Love yourself, because that is who you are going to spend the rest of your life with. I feel that everything happens for a reason, even though I fail to realise it at that point in time. In the adulthood, you cannot make more mistakes, as that is how life is supposed to be. Evaluate things before acting on them, let alone people think you are old school.
It’s when you turn18 you face you’re hardest decision when you move to America to study, this is where you start to learn the hardest lesson about friendship and who are there for you when you need them the most. Of course the first couple of months go by and some people stay in touch but you still have you’re main friendship group. Its just seems like such a shame at the time but honestly it is a good lesson that you have to learn, It’s ok to lose touch with these people. That’s life, as C.S Lewis said in his reading “Friendship”, “Friendship, then, like the other natural loves, is unable to save itself.” he is implying that for a friendship to be saved both parties involved have to do something about it, it cant just be one person out of the two. Just learn as much as you can from them while you can. This is a wonderful time in our lives. We’re finding out who we are as a person. All of this means you make a lot more friends over in the States and build stronger bonds with you’re housemates, as Shakespeare once said in Hamlet “Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel.” Or in other words he is telling you to be slow to trust new friends; accept criticism but do not be judgmental. You are part of the soccer team, which is where you develop most of your friendship bonds.
Its funny as right now we are in quarantine (you will realise what I mean by this in the future), although you cant see any of your friends you still know that you are there for each other no matter what happens and you know that they will listen to your problems. I know you spend a lot of time playing video games and studying during quarantine but at the same time you do chat to a lot of your friends. You may not realise it at the given time but people are there for you and they always have been.
I don’t want to say too much more. Part of what makes this life so grand is that we never know what’s coming next and I don’t want to ruin the mystery for you. But, allow me just one last piece of advice: if you are so inclined, please re-think the decision to wear that horrible shirt to your first job interview… it really doesn’t go well for you.