So Tess,
You’re eighteen – finally old enough to go out clubbing after five months of university purgatory where you were the youngest. Here’s some life pointers from your forty-three year old self:
- That guy you’re in love with? Babe, he’s just not that into you, he never will be and he’s actually a bit of a tool. Let it go! Now that guy who is your great friend but you don’t want to risk the friendship by taking it to the next level? Yeah, him. I’m here to tell you the friendship dies anyway, so go for it – when he tries to kiss you in a few months at The Metro, let him!
- Stop freaking out about your hair. They’re about to invent this thing called GHD – it’s a ceramic hair straightener. Sit tight, it’s coming and it will solve all your problems.
- Ignore your dad when he tells you that no man will want you because you’re too opinionated and strong willed. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The relationships you have will be with men who love you for your strength of character so don’t question that for a minute. Also God is sending you a daughter called Lara as karma for your strong willed nature, just you wait!
- Some serious stuff is going to go down between your mum and dad. Hang in there, I promise it will all be okay in the end and the fears and worries you’ve been carrying around like a lead weight in your gut for your whole life about the situation at home will all be resolved in the next few years. It’s going to get really ugly first, but you’ll all come out the other side just fine.
- Take your Ventolin inhaler everywhere, don’t be lazy with it.
- Don’t waste any time worrying that you won’t get married and have children, I know this is the main thing you want in life, so let me tell you, it happens okay? Now go and live it up, you’re young, go have fun with your friends and forget about finding Mr Right! Btw, the first two guys you think are Mr Right are actually your practice runs. The third one is the keeper!
- You’ll still be super close to your childhood bestie when you’re in your forties. I know you’re worried now because you’ve gone to different universities and she’s hanging out with actors while you hang out physios and doctors but through thick and thin, she’s going stick with you forever and she’ll be right beside you in your darkest moments.
- Eat less crap. You’re forming bad habits and I’m paying the price here!
- When you fail your first year of university and are completely devastated, don’t be, you’re about to have the most amazing year ever and you’ll be really glad you failed.
- Guess what, you still love Sting and Pat Cash at forty-three! And they are both still HOT!
- When your friend Jess tells you that she feels like her life is pointless and then goes to get in her car – DO NOT let her get in that car. Take her for a coffee or you’ll be heartbroken forever.
- Brad Pitt doesn’t marry Gwyneth Paltrow, I think you should be prepared for this.
- That passion you have for human rights will only get stronger with time. You do great stuff here, you should be proud! And they free Nelson Mandela, he becomes the leader of South Africa – no shit!
- Stop aiming for perfect, it’s never going to happen. You will continue to make monumental stuff ups, lots of them. It’s always okay in the end.
- Finally, don’t throw anything out. All your old crap will become retro this and retro that. Hang onto everything and wait for eBay to get invented.
Love from your much-older-ever-so-slightly-wiser-still-mostly-hasn’t-got-her-shit-together-yet-self!
About Tess Woods:
Tess Woods is a physiotherapist who lives in Perth, Australia with one husband, two children, one dog and one cat wo rules over all of them. Her debut novel, Love at First Flight, first released as an eBook in April 2015, received worldwide critical acclaim, hit the best-seller charts in Australia and was voted Book of the Year in the AusRom Today Reader’s Choice Awards 2015. Tess was also top ten nominated as Best New Author. Love at First Flight is the first HarperCollins Australia digital book acquisition to be given a print release in August 2016. Tess’s short story, Destiny in a Day was released in the anthology Hot Stuff: Surfing Love and she is currently putting the finishing touches her second full-length novel, Beautiful Messy Love. When she isn’t working or being a personal assistant to her kids, Tess enjoys reading and all kinds of grannyish pleasures like knitting, baking, drinking tea, watching Downton Abbey and tending to the veggie patch.
You can learn more about Tess on her website www.tesswoods.com.au or you can connect with her on Facebook or Twitter.
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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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