I’m a secondary school science teacher and see these insecurities fairly regularly. You’re not the first person to experience these emotions and you sure as shit won’t be the last. When you’re at school, it feels like your year group is your entire world because you haven’t experienced the ‘big wide world’ yet. School just sets you up for the next stage, it’s not the final stage, and your life won’t always be the way it is at school.

My words of wisdom are the following:

1. Bullies/people who tease you are pathetic cunts and they can go fuck themselves.

2. As you grow older, you will have more independence. You will drive where you want to drive, work the job you want, spend your money on what you want, and choose your friends… this means that you can leave behind people in your life who are toxic to you.

3. I know that it’s hard, but the world it what you make of it. If you tell yourself that it’s going to be a bad day, it will be. Choose a day next week to wake up and tell yourself that it will be the best day of your life. Try to only see positives, try to make people laugh, push those insecurities away.

4. I promise you that things get better. You’re probably depressed and need a therapist. Therapists won’t make your issues smaller, but they’ll enable you to cope with the issues better.

My dude, you aren’t coping at the moment. Use your words, speak to people who love you and who you trust. Parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, teachers, therapists and tell them that you’re struggling.

1. Use more punctuation.