Matt,
I hope this letter finds you well. Today is your first day of high school and I just wanted to write to you and share a few of my own experiences that will hopefully make the next few years a little easier, productive, and pleasant.
First of all I have attached all of the lottery numbers for the next eight years on the backside of this letter, please give them to mom. Also, use the money to invest in things like Netflix, Hulu, and Spotify, just trust me.
Now, on to the imports things.
You are in for a very interesting ride. Over the next few years you will experience love, hate, sadness, loss, joy, depression, and contentment. You will find happiness and you will find pain. You will do things that cause immense joy in others lives and you will do things that tear people apart.
Later this year you will have the opportunity to lose your virginity, wait, it’s not worth the pain it causes. Keep it in your damn pants.
Be honest with your parents, don’t lie to them as often. I promise, they are more understanding then you think.
Pay more attention to your friendships. These relationships you have with girls will fade and leave you more lonely then before. Do not neglect the amazing people around you who are wanting to be your friends.
If you ever have a close friend whose actions make you have to choose between them and your entire friend group, choose your friends. Turning your back on them can be a hard road to come back from.
Learn your boundaries soon. Do not allow people to walk all over you but always stay kind and loving, it’s your greatest gift.
You will never stop hanging out at the Daily Grind, make yourself at home.
Practice your music everyday. You only fall more in love with it as the years go on.
One day your two closest friends will also be named Matt. Yes it does get as confusing as you think.
Did I say already to keep it in your pants? Cool, just checking.
Be more diligent with your money, save whenever you can and don’t buy useless crap.
Don’t you dare ever bully a single person, you know how it feels, don’t put that on someone else.
Don’t gauge your ears, they don’t grow back like everyone says.
Finally, love people radically. Love everyone you meet. Love your teacher in math class. Love that weird kid in band. Love the kid that calls you fat. Love the homeless man on the street. Love your parents. Love all.
I want to leave you with this quote from a book you haven’t read yet, because you think you hate reading.
“I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.” -Henry David Thoreau
So Matt, as I leave you, listen to Henry and suck out all the marrow of life.
Elegir La Vida,
Matthew