A Letter to Fourteen Year Old Daniel - A Remix Inspired Post

So as today is the release of the lovely Non Pratt’s Remix, I thought I would do a blog post inspired/ in thought of it. Non has openly admitted in interviews that when she writes she often thinks of her fourteen year old self and envisions what she would like to read. This is a really interesting concept to me so I thought today on this wonderful book's release I would write a letter to myself for when I was fourteen, explaining how amazing Remix is as a book and explaining how some of the themes/messages it highlights are important in our life. So without further ado….

Dear Fourteen Year Old Daniel,

On this date eight years in your future, a book called Remix gets released into the world. It’s written by this fantastic author, Non Pratt, who really captures what its like to be a teenager, so as you can imagine I’m sure you’d love it. You were lucky enough to receive an ARC and I can tell you now that you thought it was brilliant. I can’t wait till you rediscover this for yourself. You’re probably still wondering what an ARC is but don’t worry, you’ll learn about them in due time. Basically it’s a review copy of a book that bloggers can receive from publishing houses. That’s right, you’re a book blogger! You’re also a qualified teacher so you have that to look forward to as well! Congratulations, you have a degree! Now you have to go and be an adult, or so they tell us.

So about Remix. Well, where do I even begin. It tells the tale of two friends, both who recently are recovering from bad break up’s. If I remember rightly you’re about to go through this yourself. Shit sorry, that’s probably a really bad spoiler. Trust me don’t fret about it, you find so much better anyway and it just happens to be her birthday today! The novel also tells of the pair’s journey at a music festival called REMIX. As you can probably imagine, music festivals are notorious for memories and this book is full of them and the impact they can have on us. At the end of the day though, it’s all about the importance of friendship. In a few years you’ll go to your first festival, memories will be made, friendships will be tested and you’ll come home never realising how much you worship a clean toilet. Portable toilets are the worst. Please remember to pack the loo roll –you forgot the first time. Thank goodness for your friends.

Speaking of friends, you’re in your first year of high school and your old friends will have abandoned you because they wanted a fresh start. You never needed those assholes anyway. Luckily you will have come across a new group of friends, two of which turn out to be your best friends today. They’re amazing and you will have so many great memories with them. Treasure this year while it lasts because you’ll soon be looking back longing for the clock to reverse so you could go back and relive them – they’re literally that good. The one thing you’ll learn in Remix is the importance of good friendship and how much you rely on them when you’re in need. You’d be surprised how much this is relevant as you read this.

Anyway, I don’t want to bug you too much, I know you'll be busy. I also don't want to give too much away about your future because you have so much to look forward to that I want you to savour it as it comes. Just know that we're in a really good place right now and this book has had such a positive impact on us in ways you probably cant even fathom. Basically what I'm trying to get at is enjoy life as it is, try not to regret, focus on the future and whatever you do, don't forget to buy this book!

Thinking of you,
Twenty-Two Year Old Daniel

So there you go, that was a letter to my fourteen year old self. Probably extremely cheesy and incredibly cringeworthy and I'm bound to look back at this in eight years time and question why I wrote it, but at the minute I am happy with it, and that is all that matters. If you haven't read Remix yet, then it's an intense read for those who just want to explore and experience a little bit of freedom. If you want to read a little more into it then you can always go and check out my review here, however I highly suggest that this is a book you pick up because you definitely won't regret it!