Advice to my younger self

I've seen quite a few bloggers do posts like this, and it really appeals to me. I always found at school, I was a bit of a recluse. I was one of the kids that was basically invisible or people knew about me for the wrong reasons, and so I always felt very alone and lost. This sounds like a sob story when in actual fact that's not what this is at all, I was your typical average kid in school- I got by. I just put my head down and got on with it, but I think that if I could go back to when I was 13/14 and have a conversation with myself I definitely would and this is some of the stuff I'd tell myself.

Spread your wings more- Throughout school I basically stuck with the same group of friends from year 5 until I finished school and this in itself caused quite a few falling's out and issues for everyone, but especially me because I always want to please people and I am very easily upset by what people say. So I'd tell myself to branch out and make new friends and not be scared, when I got to high school I did this on a very miniature scale and there are a lot of people I'm so happy I'm friends with now and some I wish I would have been friends with at the time. The true friends I have, I wouldn't swap for anything.

Don't let them see you're hurting and don't care what others think- This leads back to the fact that I'm very easily upset and so it always meant people knew that they were hurting me and so it made me an easy target. If I would have been stronger and not cared what others thought about me, I would have probably had a much easier time through school.

Be honest with your parents- As a person, I struggle greatly in being honest with how I feel and I am extremely stubborn in that no matter how much I am suffering, I won't tell anyone how I'm feeling. I only have one person I have in life that knows everything about me and this is because we went through a lot of dark stuff together so she knows everything because she lived it with me. I wish when I was hurting in school and suffering that I would have been honest with my mum because it makes life so much easier and I know she'll help me with anything that she can.

Needing help DOES NOT mean you're weak- This is pretty self explanatory, I always felt the need to suffer in silence throughout school because I felt other peoples problems were more important than mine and I hate when people fuss or worry over me and so I just dealt with it. If I ever really needed help I always felt so ashamed of myself, but after personal growth I realise needing help probably makes you a stronger person.

It gets better and results and school isn't everything- I constantly need to remind myself that whenever I'm feeling really low, it will eventually get better. It may take months or years, but it will get better. Until I finished my a-levels this year, I believed that my results were everything and when I didn't do as well on my a-levels as I had hoped I was so angry and disappointed in myself. I felt like the biggest failure and I didn't see anything ever progressing for me (I am a HUGE drama queen in some ways if you haven't already guessed) but it is only recently that I have realized that doing my a-levels hasn't really helped me in anyway. Yet I have managed to bag myself a job that I absolutely love, all because of my personality as I had no proper experience for the job. So never give up!

I kind of rambled on a bit too much with this and I didn't actually expect to think of as many pointers as I did, so go me! I hope for any of you still in school this helps you in some way or another, because I know how tough school can be and if any of you need to ramble, chat or moan about your school life or life in general. Then my email is in an info box at the side and I also have a twitter (AshleighRhiane) and I'm honestly happy to chat!
Have any of you got anything you'd tell your younger self?

Have the only photo from my prom that I can tolerate!