Dear Jonathan at 16

My cold continues - getting slightly worse each day. My throat is really sore, I have a thick chesty cough, I am really tired, yet not sleeping very well. Very little work is getting done. I am mainly reading things I have clipped out of the newspapers over the past couple of months.

This last weekend there was an article about a book in which "celebrities" have written a letter to themselves at 16. Emma Thompson urges herself to not be so concerned with dieting; the letter from Alan Carr, who I have only the vaguest knowledge of, is actually quite moving.

As I am pretty depressed at the moment about a lot of things, I suspected my letter to myself would be quite bleak. I actually wrote this in my main diary a few days ago and wasn't planning to put it here at all. But hell, why not

Dear Jonathan at 16

I know you are not finding being 16 very easy. The world seems a very confusing and bewildering place. You have read lots of books from the library on teenagers and think that what you are facing is just normal. But sadly you are mistaken in this. Your "social problems" will continue at University, at your first job, your second job, your third job, and so on. At 29 you will discover what the reason is - you have _______ ________

Discovering this will bring some comfort, but you won't have found a solution. But as time goes by, some things will provide you with comfort. You will discover that your responses to the things that interest you are far deeper than those that others feel about the things that interest them. Their experience of music will never be a deep as yours, for instance. So allow yourself to fully submerge in this. Read lots, look at the sky at night, go fishing, walk in the mountains. These activities will always rejuvenate you and help you face the future

At 16 you got the job at the restaurant. That will be vitally important to you in ways you will not know for years. So enjoy the experience as much as you can.

If you get the chance, try to spend more time with your father. You will not realise till it is too late that you should have done this, both for you and for him.

And here's the big secret. You will meet someone special and you will have a beautiful daughter. You will put everything you have into helping her grow up and you will do a good job. And whenever things do seem really bad, you will reflect on this and it will all seem worthwhile

Best wishes

Jonathan, aged 46