Dear Me,
You’re 18 years old and you are embarking on your dream to play in a band and become a rock star because you picked up a guitar one day and thought ‘f***ing hell, I’m having this’…
Unfortunately, ol’ buddy ol’ pal, it doesn’t quite happen. Not yet any way. All is not lost because you made it to 30 (just about).
In Arctic Monkey’s fashion you want to title a song called ‘You Don’t Know You're In It Until You’re Out Of It’, and you’re even contemplating being trendy and removing all the vowels so it would be called “Y DNT KNW YR N T NTL YR T F T”. However, I’m pretty sure 'Y' is a semivowel so removing that would just make it incomprehensible, right? I guess, that’s the life lesson here. Not vowels and consonants but the realisation you’ve done some amazing things and met some amazing people so don’t take for granted everything you have accomplished.
You’ve played to thousands of people, have your music played through the halls of Abbey Road, Fearne Cotton retweeted you, NME wrote you up, played on TV, you’re on Spotify, BBC6, had your face on a T-shirt, and a freakin’ Sex Pistol has opened up for you. Some of these have been over-exaggerated for effect...
But you go on a European tour in 2012 across the UK, France and Spain, organised by you and your friends, Kike, Flo and Adam and you look back fondly on it. I close my eyes and I’m on a beach in Bezier knocking a ball around and getting sand up everywhere. I’m in a Spanish desert surrounded by cacti eating camembert for lunch. It’s 2am, stranded in Dover, it’s the Queen’s f***ing Jubilee with 500 other passengers trying to get to Calais. It’s your third gig in Madrid and I’m about to throw up Calamari on stage. Singing “we could be lovers” on a dark side street to the small gathering crowd while waiting for Anne the Sharan to park up.
You..
Have…
Life…
Experience.
So, here you are.
You’re more excited about music more than ever. Your writing is the best it’s ever been. You’re embarking on the next stage of your life. You are starting your Masters in Computer Games Technology because deep down you’re really a big fat nerd and you’ve met the woman who you’ll spend the rest of your life with.
The older you get the more you realise to surround yourself with like-minded people that love you and support you. Drop the ones who don’t. Don’t worry too much how you are perceived and be kind and try to inspire people along the way.
Your more handsome self,
Sherwin