Paisley Is a High School Student Who Wants to Be a Writer

Looking back on his teenage years, country music star Brad Paisley realizes he should have done many things differently.

In "Letter to Me," Paisley tells his 17-year-old self: Always assume your father is right, spend time with an ailing aunt and remember how that date where he runs out of gas "turns out kinda cool."

As part of the coverage of Paisley's Thursday concert in Jacksonville, we asked readers to write their own "Letter to Me." We got about 30 responses from everyone from retirees to students to inmates. Here are several of them. (Click on the name to read the entire letter.)

• Traci Sinor:"Love Aunt Hazel with all your heart and make sure that you learn that recipe for cornbread. No one can ever reproduce it and that could be a living legacy to her."

• Hollie Sessoms: "I know you think you've got all the answers and you're grown and wise, but you are a complete idiot. You don't know anything."

• Alexis Acosta: "I will always be my daddy's little girl, no matter how old I get. I will show up at my sister's soccer games to cheer her on."

• Angela Janse van Rensburg : "Don't think twice about wearing your seat belt on the joy ride with your friend, Laurie. The paramedics said it was the only thing that saved your life."

• Joseph McLaughlin: "Protect your little sister when guys give her a bad time."

• Claudia Scott: "Continue to be independent in your thinking and eagerly learn one new thing every day."

• Natalie Williams: "Hide your diaries better girl! Your mom is about to find them."

• Karen Damm: "If someone says him or the dog, choose the dog."

• Kira Hiroshi: "Laugh a little bit louder and smile a little bit wider. Try not brood over things that aren't in your power."

• Debra Techentien: "Work hard at the things that matter to you. All the rest, just let it go."

• Janet Duvall: "Stay on the path, stay strong, know you are in charge of your life."

• Diann Catlin: "Smile big, care deeply and always buy lemonade from every lemonade stand."

• D.G. Crawford: "Watch out for those bell-bottom pants and the dirt bike's kick starter. This one takes place under the red light in downtown Macclenny."

• Pat Rigdon: "Thank you for all my teachers, mentors who invested their time and talents to show me the way."

• Michael Ohayon (Ridgeview High School student): "I wish I told that girl my true feelings that year."

• Haley Trossevin (Ridgeview High School student): "I will always remember that there is no need for name-calling, or what not to other who are different."

• Dillon May (Southside Middle School student writing to himself two years earlier): "Eighth-grade is amazing. You will meet your best friends, girlfriends and have lots of fun."

• Sydney McShan (Southside Middle School student writing to himself two years earlier): "Be wise picking friends because some people are really fake. Always avoid them."

• Alontra (Southside Middle School student writing to herself two years earlier): "To begin with, you shouldn't be scared to take chances. As you, me, we, go on, all you have to know is that your friends and family are supporting you, us."

• Jordan Viergutz (Southside Middle School student writing to herself two years earlier): "Each and every time you have a fight. Just assume you're wrong and mom is right."

• Adissa Mehmedovic (Southside Middle School student writing to herself two years earlier): "Keep your head up, sunshine, you'll get through it."

• Herbert B. Fox: "Decide who you want to be, and not who others think you should be."

• Shelly Johns: "Make sure you spend as much time with grandma as you can, she's the glue that hold's the family together and she's teaching you the lessons to be the woman she's sure you can be."

•Jimmy Fraser: "Always hope, always seek and never give up in finding a way to make something turn out good. "

• Aimee Pechacek: "I wish I would have become a Christian earlier in life. It would have caused a lot less heartache and confusion in my life to know that God cares so much for me."

• Debbie Roark: "But that piece of land you want, plant all the seeds and then smile with the ones you love at the daylight's end."

• Petty Ott Hackler : "Life is so daily. So, enjoy the moments, Rest, center down, be receptive and give the world the sunshine of God's love."

• Kaluna Graycochea: "Don't ever take the little things in life for granted because that is the one sure way to get your heart stepped on."

Paisley Is a High School Student Who Wants to Be a Writer

Source: https://www.jacksonville.com/story/entertainment/local/2009/10/09/like-brad-paisley-if-i-could-write-a-letter-to-me/15970901007/

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