Student Blog: A Letter to My Sixth Grade Self

October 7th, 2026

Dear Sixth Grade Me, 

I’m 20 now, and I’m in college in New York (I know, CRAZY!). I’m totally different from you, but also exactly the same, it’s funny really. Time is so strange, and I still struggle to comprehend it. You’re just finishing your very first elementary school journey and starting middle school. I know everything is sad and different from the way it used to be, and you feel so old. That makes me laugh thinking about it now. 

You’re about to audition for your very first show, The Little Mermaid, ha. Wow, now I feel old. You’re going to care a little bit too much, take everything a little bit too personally, and fall a little bit too hard for theatre and performing, and that’s okay. There will always be other shows and other opportunities, and theatre will bring you some of your favorite people, even though sometimes you’ll want to quit. If it makes you feel any better, I’m studying theatre now. I’m not acting, but I know you’d still be so pleasantly surprised. I bet you never expected THAT. You’d be really happy with where I am now, I know that to be certain because I still pinch myself every single day. 

I’m not gonna lie to you and say that some days you aren’t going to dread going to school, or work, or rehearsal, and that it isn’t hard because I remember that it was, and still is sometimes. Some things tend to feel like the end of the world when you’re 16, and they aren’t. I promise they aren’t. It doesn’t matter that you used your right foot for the dance step rather than your left. It doesn’t matter that your voice cracked in that audition or that you didn’t get that callback. It doesn’t matter if people think you’re weird for caring this much.  

I know you’ll never read this because that’s impossible, but there is so much I wish I knew in sixth grade, looking back on it now. I wish I knew where I am now and worried less. I wish I beat myself up less for not being the most talented performer or greatest vocalist. I wish I knew that my true passion wouldn’t be found on stage but on the other side of it. I know you probably would cringe at me and say I’m turning into Mom. Maybe that’s true, too, but she was right about most of it. It doesn’t matter that your middle school friends won’t like you all the time or that you’ll feel lonely, because your people are out there. It doesn’t matter that you didn’t get the lead, because the lead ended up studying Finance at a school you wouldn’t be happy at anyway. It doesn’t matter that you didn’t end up at the University of Michigan, although I know you’re going to get to high school and think that it’s the only place in the world for you (and you got waitlisted, and that’s achievement enough)

You’re going to grow up and be scared of change. I still am, but sometimes it’s good. Sometimes you just have to cry through it, then go be who you’re meant to be. Nothing good ever came from being stuck in the past, but it won’t be easy, I can’t lie. The people who matter will stay, even if that means some hard goodbyes. I wish I had put less energy into people who didn't care when I was your age, although you can’t change the past. 

I know it’s kind of pointless to write a letter to a time I can’t get back, but there is too much that I wish I could say, although there’s no point in mellowing in regret. Wow, I've come so far. WE have. I’ve never been more certain that I’m meant to be somewhere than I am at 20, and it’s the weirdest feeling. I don’t think you’d even be able to comprehend that auditioning for one show would lead to all this. Believe it or not, you’re the only one who stuck with it from that sixth-grade group, even though you’ll spend years thinking that you’re the least successful at it. You are not behind. You are on the right track, and sometimes you have to stay on the highway longer than others, and that’s okay. 

I guess you should probably go do your Science 6A homework…don’t wanna get behind on that. Sing your heart out, and enjoy every moment (One day you'll wanna go back)! 

Love from the future,

Immy