A LETTER TO MY 17 YEAR OLD SELF

I've always been older than my years. Even as a small child, my primary school teacher would remark that she "wouldn't ever have to worry if I had to take a day off sick, because I know Dawn would run the school for me". As I grew older, that desperate desire to always be older never left. At 14 I was behaving the way most 18 year olds do. I got my tattoo a mere few days before my 15th birthday, lost my virginity to a man in his twenties and took off to Australia for a year on my own just after my 18th birthday.

At the tender age of only 5 my daughter is already showing signs of an exemplary intellect. Which comes as no surprise when you look at how clever and educated her father is. While he delights in these signs of advanced academia, I worry. I'm not academic and I never really have been. But I am clever. Combine a brain with someone who never had much of a taste for studious behaviour and what you get is street wise. Her dad strives for the scholar in her while I just want her to go to the university of life.

I believe each are equally advantageous.

There are so many, many things I wish I could have told my 17 year old self. So many, many things I wish I had been able to make me understand.

You are so young. Your heart is so tender. But so malleable. Don't ever let anyone take advantage of that.

You are not fat. Despite what you think you see when you look in the mirror, you will miss that perfect set of boobs, taught tummy & size 6 figure when it's gone. So enjoy it.

Older men will always be interested in you. Sometimes much older. They don't have good intentions. But try not to let this disillusion you. There are good ones out there.

You are not nearly as clever as you think you are. So try and keep those often too vocalised opinions to yourself.

Every single man you think might have broken your heart right now, will still be texting you at two in the morning in ten years time. So get over it.

You mature with the damage, not with the years. Don't take your youth for granted.

Try and stay classy. Silence is always the better option. Even if you don't always manage it. A sense of class is the one thing no one can take away from you and the one thing your child will see and  emulate.

Never do the bitter, jealous, insecure stuff. Be the girl who goes out and gets what she wants yet steps on no-one on the way. 

Find something you are passionate about and do it with all your might. The things you are passionate about are not random, they are your calling.

Be fearless.

Be free.

But most importantly, be nice.

Because your 33 year old self will see you on the flip side.

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