Dear senior self,

It’s been a while. 3 years to be exact. I hope senior year is serving you well and you’re having a good time. I know freshman year was filled with a lot of new things and experiences, but I hope you’ve adjusted by now. There were times you felt like you were at the top of world, and times when you just wanted the day to end. But through it all you kept going, and I know you’ve been doing that for the last three years too.

I hope you’ve found your niche. I know it was hard going from a friend group of around fifteen people to a friend group of two, but I know you’ve made new friends too. When you first sat down with new people at the end of sixth grade it was a group of five, and look how much it grew in two years. But throughout it all I hope you stayed true to yourself. It can be tempting to change in order to fit in, to let a friend dictate how you should do something, but do it your way. Stay outspoken about politics, stay involved in your community and don’t let your hobbies diminished just because they’re not traditionally “cool.”

I know you read that letter from sixth grade that you wrote to your eighth grade self and scoffed at the fact that past you asked to stay friends with your elementary school group, but stay friends with at least a few of the JLS crowd. You have so much fun hanging out with them and making late night Trader Joe’s runs, so don’t give that up too easily.  

Keep up with your schoolwork, please. In sixth grade when that kid told you that you would never be as good as the others because you came from Ohlone, you took that as a challenge. The problem is that now, you’re sort of an overachiever. Don’t freak out over a B, but keep up with your work. Don’t let Gunn culture make you feel dumb, but don’t take 5 APs just because you want to get into Georgetown. Chill out, loosen up, but keep up your grades. And if that means taking one or two classes you can coast in, then so be it.

Last thing, I promise. I touched on this earlier, but stay involved in politics. Now, more than ever, you have a chance to speak out and be a good representation for the youth. I know you have a bunch of cool stuff coming up this summer, so keep going. Keep your head up and don’t let anything, be it a loss in the 2020 election, or a loss in the Youth & Gov. election drag you down.

I know I’m giving you all of these things that I hope for you to be, but it’s your life. If you do something, or don’t do something anymore, that’s your choice. At the end of the day, all this stuff has passed. You can’t change the past. So in the future, I hope you’re having a good time, and most of all, you’re happy.

See you in 3 years,

Annika