Hey Em, 

  You’re about to embark on the next step of your journey through life. It’s going to be big. It’s going to be scary. It’s going to be harder than you could ever imagine. BUT… It’s going to be exciting! It’s going to be full of fun! It’s going to encourage you to grow more than ever before!

You’re going to walk into this year expecting that you’ll find it super hard to make friends but you’ll have no problems in doing it. You’ll make friends in the most unlikely of places; so just relax! Your sheer lack of directional knowledge will mean you make a friend on the first day. The girls you get on the bus with will become the people that you have some of the best laughs with. The girl you spoke to when you read the timetable wrong and turned up an hour early will turn out to be your biggest encourager and the best person to revise with; other than when she gets your card blocked by Dominos! The flatmate that you went hunting for freebies with will become your best friend and you couldn’t imagine your life without her. You’ll make more friends than you could ever ask for and you’ll be ever so thankful for it. 

You’ll make mistakes this year. Give yourself grace for them. You’re still growing. You’re still learning how to navigate this crazy world on your own. Mistakes are to be expected. What’s important is that you learn from them and use them to grow. Don’t beat yourself up when you mess up- it won’t do you any good! Just learn and then move on. 

There’ll be many ups and downs, but hold on to who you are through them all. Don’t lose yourself in the midst of everything that’s going on around you. Your grades mean nothing compared to your character. Resolve right now that you are going to be the same kind, loving person no matter what. Speaking of grades, this years grades don’t actually matter so don’t push yourself too hard. It’s not worth burning yourself out now when you’ve still got so far to go. Take it slow and you’ll do brilliantly.

Em, you’ve come a long way to get this far and you’re going to do fantastically this year. Believe in yourself and you’ll do fine. 

Lots of love,
  Your older (and slightly wiser) self xx