This November will be personally huge for me. I will be stepping onto my 25th year as a human being. With this quarter of life experience, I decided to write a letter to my daughter, which I’ll probably have in the future, about the wisdom I have gained so far. The purpose is to alert her about the mistakes I made and shower her with the good I did.

Dear daughter, life is not always rainbows and butterflies.

There are many ups and downs, and a few smooth roads for sure. To get the true value of life, you have to have some people to share your inner feelings, weaknesses and secrets and not be judged. For most people, it is their best friend. In my case, they’re my siblings.

I have seen many people who could not maintain this relationship with their siblings. But I suggest you to stick with yours.

Parents sometimes may not understand because of the generation differences, siblings will.

They will be there to hold your heaviness and share your cloud nine moments.

Sweetheart, wish you do not have toxic friends as these people will only drain your energy and be bad for your wellbeing.

Identifying them is easy. They don’t respect your time and effort, get jealous easily, are selfish and opportunistic. If you ignore their selfishness and think they will change, that will be the biggest mistake you could make. Have dignity and leave them. The union you have with yourself is more important than the union you have with others.

They will certainly change you into what they are.

You will also have aunties in your life as I have now. I do not mean the aunt you have through family relations. Aunties here are the mid-aged housewives or those working in the offices who have enough time to keep an interest in you.

Could be a relative, a neighbour or any other lady. They will point out the bad in you and bully you time and again for your bad household skills and inability to manage a social life.

These skills are important, I agree. But if you can’t be good at them, just don’t bother, it will not make you a lesser person. I am in my mid-twenties and still lack many of these skills, especially the socialising part. But trust me I am doing perfectly fine with my life. Ignoring these aunties is the best idea.

Bad grades. Weeping all night for the bad grades is just not worth it. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you will be one step behind. Hard work is the key, but there are many other factors behind one’s achievements.

This letter is completely based on my personal opinion of life, honey! You might have a different opinion. We all are shaped by our experiences. This is how I have been shaped.

Truly yours.