Natasha Lester writes…
A Letter to My 16 Year Old Self
You’re at high school, and you spend every day wishing to be somebody other than who you are. Stop doing that right now!
You don’t need to be more beautiful, have more friends, be taller, have bigger boobs, or—here’s the killer—be dumber than you are. If there’s one thing I can absolutely reassure you of it’s this: when you’re older, you’ll be so glad you have brains and you’ll look back at yourself right now and wonder why the hell you deliberately gave wrong answers in your maths test. You won’t fit in any better just because, for once, you don’t get perfect marks.
And who cares about fitting in anyway? Fitting in is just another word for being the same as everyone else. So, people think you’re a bookish nerd. Well guess what? Being a bookish nerd is secret code for author, and that dream job is in store for you if you just stay the course.
So revel in being yourself. Don’t think for one minute you’d prefer to be Miss So-And-So because she’s got a boyfriend, or to be Miss Somebody Else because she’s so popular. Popularity in high school is not an accurate predictor of anything in the future, and it doesn’t bring any especial rewards.
What does bring rewards is deciding to do what you love, and going after that until you get it. And you, my love, have the courage and the passion to do both, to have a life at the shockingly old age of 42 that you wouldn’t change for all the popularity in high school in the world.
Lots of love,
Your 42 year old self xx
About Natasha (and her Mr Fitzgerald!):
Natasha Lester’s third book, A Kiss from Mr Fitzgerald, will be published by Hachette Australia in April 2016, with her fourth book to follow in April 2017. She is also the author of the award-winning What is Left Over After (2010) and If I Should Lose You (2012). The Age newspaper has described her as “a remarkable Australian talent.” When she’s not writing or teaching writing, she can usually be found at yoga, drinking tea, or playing dress-ups with her three children.
Connect with Natasha:
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Wanting to honour the lost art of letter writing through this blog series, I also opened my fourth novel with a character writing a letter. And not just any letter. It’s a story –perhaps the most important he’ll ever tell.
The Other Side of the Season
Life is simple on top of the mountain for David, Matthew and Tilly until the winter of 1979 when tragedy strikes, starting a chain reaction that will ruin lives for years to come. Those who can, escape the Greenhill banana plantation on the outskirts of Coffs Harbour. One stays—trapped for the next thirty years on the mountain and haunted by memories and lost dreams. That is until the arrival of a curious young woman, named Sidney, whose love of family shows everyone the truth can heal, what’s wrong can be righted, the lost can be found, and . . . there’s another side to every story.
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