Dear my sixth-grade self,

I’m proud of you. After entering high school, you ended up getting through the first two years and are hanging on in your third. You managed to survive the thermodynamics unit in Chemistry Honors, figured out what the heck was going on in Toni Morrison’s novel “Beloved” in English 11 Honors and, most importantly, moved past the extremely awkward and embarrassing moment when your crush found out you liked them as you stood in front of them (even if the emotional scarring from that moment remains).  

You finally started to discover your interests and aspirations — business, economics and sports — in the middle of your sophomore year. Navigating through high school, you gained amazing friends to rely on, even if it did take you a while to really find who mattered the most to you. 

I’m also happy that you were grateful for all of the teachers and coaches you encountered growing up. You weren’t aware of it at the time, but in high school, you finally recognized how influential your teachers were in shaping your life and you wouldn’t know where you would be without them.

Your fourth-grade teacher Mrs. Waite-Lopez pushed you past your limits to improve your work ethic while your eighth-grade core teacher Mr. Marks made you love history and English even when you thought you hated those subjects. And of course, you can’t forget your high school music teacher Mr. Shiuan, who always kept his door open when you wanted guidance or just needed to rant.

However, the one thing I wish you realized sooner is that school was never that deep — academics don’t define your worth. Failing your multiplication times tables in elementary school and getting a B on your eighth-grade social studies project was never the end of the world. I wish you didn’t care so much about school when you were younger, because there is so much to you that goes beyond numbers on a paper.  

Even in high school, it took you a while to understand that grades are only one aspect of your performance. When the scores didn’t reflect how much you knew and studied — and even when they did — the way you worked to understand the material was a lesson on its own; the second AP Chemistry test of this semester was a prime example (and very humbling experience) as your grade was further down the alphabet than you would’ve liked. 

Even though the score wasn’t ideal, you learned so much more past the letter grade and you started to realize that everything that you go through teaches you something about yourself and that the process is so much more vital than the outcome.  

Looking back, I also wish you didn’t limit yourself to just soccer. There were so many other sports to explore, and the countless hours you spent stressing over every bad touch and every bad pass wasn’t that serious, especially when you were younger. I missed when you didn’t care about those small mistakes and just appreciated the game and the close friends you gained. 

And last but not least, I am a little upset with you. Why did you not eat enough vegetables growing up? We have not grown since freshman year?! For the sake of our college and adult lives, I hope that we will grow because standing at 5’2 for the rest of our lives will be incredibly depressing. Don’t worry — I still love you, even if it’s from 62 inches off the ground.

Yours truly, 

Your 16-year-old self