To: The Future Successful Me #6

Hey future me. Your year 10 formal is probably a distant fuzzy memory that you think back on occasionally, and I hope it makes you smile, because the formal was the best night of my life (so far). It opened my eyes in so many ways, and I now view the world, my fellow classmates, and even myself differently.

I am somewhat a control freak. My piano and violin teachers tell me so. They say that I should allow myself to make more mistakes instead of aiming for perfection. My parents think that I often make plans and stick to them too strictly.

Now, as I view back at these comments as post-formal me, I can see how right they are. I simply plan too much. Before the formal, Juicebox and I were coming up with conversation starters to make the atmosphere at our table less awkward, we were planning on how we would eat as to not wreck our lipstick, and we planned on arriving looking fresh as daisies, and departing equally poised.

But of course, our arriving one hour late wrecked the grand master plan, and at first, I thought this kind of sucked. But then I realised that the people on my table are interesting as they are, and don't need my prompting to start a conversation. I realised that once I licked off my lipstick and simply stopped caring about how my face would be wrecked, I had so much more fun. I realised that if I simply let go and stopped caring about what other people thought of me, I could dance for the fun of it, be carefree, less self-conscious and seriously have fun.

Who knew that breaking plans could be so refreshing?!

When I look back now, I'm proud of the wild and carefree me that is somewhere deep within me. I am also so glad that the rest of the people in our grade broke free of my expectations, and deep inside them too, were wild carefree party animals. The fact that everyone stopped caring and let loose made the formal so much better than what I expected.

That's why the formal was so perfect for me. It was completely unexpected; the way I was, the way everyone was, the way it turned out. I hope that sometime in the future, there can be some other event that can bring out that wild and carefree side of me again.