Hi Rachel, while this may come as a shock to you, I'm you... from the future. I don't really have time to get into the mechanics of it (sometimes time gets all wibbly-wobbly and timey-wimey and there's really no more eloquent way to put it) but there are a few things I'd like to fill you in on.
So I know that you've had a rough time; being homeschooled for most of your life and then dumped into the lion's den of a small junior high when you're already naturally introverted makes for a pretty rough transition. I know that you're excited to leave it behind and start fresh in high school, and that's why I chose this moment to talk to you (if it was before this point it would've pretty much been "keep your head up, good luck" and that is just not an effective use of time travelling letters).
You're still really really young and trying to find out who you are, and that's fantastic, but I want to remind you of something: just because you don't know who you are, that doesn't mean you can't still tell who you're not. It's ok to dabble in being an uber girly girl, a stereotypical Christian girl, a punk girl, a geek, an artist, etc, but when you realize that it doesn't feel right and you're having to fake it to fit in, it's time to move on.
(Spoiler!) You....I...(we?) come out mostly on the geek end of things. There's still some of those domestic good Christian wife traits, some artsy, and on occasion some distinctly feminine traits come out, and that's cool - you're a rounded human being rather than a label, so it's okay to have different interests.
Now that you're not feeling great about the prospect of looking forward to being bullied for the rest of your life for being a geek, I'd like to present you with this [13 year old Rachel would be shocked by the a- and b-words, but I'd venture you girls can take it]
That's not a joke, or making fun of geeks - those are people who are geeks and act in a popular webseries about geeks, talking about how now they're cool. Yep, being a certain kind of geek definitely becomes cool in a few years. It's worth your while to make sure you get into honors/advanced placement classes in high school, since that's where you'll really start to dig into geek culture.
That about wraps it up, but a few quick notes: don't date that boy you get a crush on in freshman English; he's gay, and it doesn't work out well. In fact, don't date his best friend later either, because you'll only be able to see his douchebaggery and misogyny after the fact. It's ok to make friends with the bubbly extroverted girl in most of your classes, but don't let being her friend become your identity, both because that's not healthy and because she "dumps" your friendship several times, and the more tied into her your identity is, the more that's going to hurt.
Whelp, I need to get to work (no spoilers on that path though), so good luck.
Oh! And when Doctor Who comes out on BBC in about a year, watch it. Trust me.
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