Dear Alex,

Keep your eyes open.

Dive at every chance you're given. Don't be a fool and think you're better than everything; or that everything is out of your grasp. Don't work to your potential, let your potential work for you. Remember what you will be told Age 16 - "The World is your Oyster". Remember that. Cherish it, because it's the only advice that will matter in your life.

Don't give up on books. Don't lose your love for them. Don't tire of their effortless, boundless wisdom. They are the be-all and end-all of humankind, and without them, you'd be left with nothing. Pick them up, caress them, feel their pages, read them. Grow.

Don't be a hopeless romantic. When love comes your way, and it will, work on it. Don't just think because it's in your hands that it's there forever. It's like oil; precious, but slippery. You'll find love, and it'll drive you mad if you lose it. Just don't go hunting everywhere for it, because in the end it'll find you - just enjoy yourself up to that point.

Remember that music is the voice of people who need to be heard. Don't just shut out one genre because you think it's not cool to listen to it. Expand your horizons, open your mind; be worldly. Listen to the sonatas, the swing musicians, the slam poets; some with a message, some without. Just listen more.

And finally, don't expect to get everything. Unless you put the work in, everything will slip away from you. So, it's your choice - work until you're driven insane; or lose out on certain things. Find the happy medium, because that's the only way to live life to the full.

Just open your eyes to everything around you.

Yours,

Alex