Upper Intermediate

Keynote
Reading text Unit 12: A letter to my younger self

There are people who say you should never look back, while others point out that it can be a

positive thing to assess how much you may have changed over the years. We asked some

well-known people what they would like to have known when they were 16. This is what they

said.

Jane Goodall

primatologist, the world’s leading expert on chimpanzees

If I had been told back then I would be living the kind of life I’m living now, I would have

given up. The idea of speaking to audiences would have utterly terrified me. That wasn’t the

life I wanted to live. When I began my work studying primates, I knew I was different from

everyone else in the field. I was female and I didn’t have a degree and I had my own ideas

about animals. […] But my mother was amazing. She just said, if you really want something

worthwhile, never give up.

Roger Bannister

first athlete to run a mile in under four minutes, neurologist

At 16, I was focused on getting to Oxford. No member of my family had studied there. I was

impatient to leave school for reasons I’m not sure of now, but I was keen to get on with my

medical career. I’d tell my younger self he could and should learn more from his parents. I

was rather independent then, though my parents did encourage me. I was always very active

and involved in things. I threw myself into everything when I was at school, then when I was
at university – president of the sporting club and the students’ union. I always felt I must

exploit the opportunities my parents hadn’t enjoyed to the full.

Shami Chakrabarti

director of the human rights organization Liberty

If I met my younger self now, I think I’d find her quite precocious, quite argumentative. My

motto these days is: everyone’s equal, no one’s superior. […] And I’d tell that to my younger

self – come on, you can be confident without being arrogant. If I didn’t work for Liberty now,

I’d be sitting in the pub every night complaining about threats to our rights.

Peter Capaldi

Scottish actor

At his best, I would like the 16-year-old Peter. […] He could be a bit braver. He could be a

little bit wilder and not do any harm. He could try seeing more of the world. I’d tell my

younger self: worrying that you can’t do it is a waste of time. […] Just get on with it. I’d tell

him to celebrate being different. […] When I was 16, geeks hadn’t been invented, so being

tall and skinny, into horror movies and sci-fi, and unable to play football simply made me the

go-to guy for the sociopaths.

Meera Syal

British author and actor

I’d tell my younger self that social networking is more important than she thinks. I should

have been savvier when I was younger. I made friends with the make-up girl and not the

director. But the world really does work along tribal lines. People tend to employ their own

tribe. […] That occasionally disappoints me, after the body of work I’ve done.
geek (n) someone who is especially knowledgeable about a subject or doesn’t fit in socially

go-to guy (n) someone who people always look for in a certain situation

precocious (adj) very able or clever for one’s age

primatologist (n) a scientist who studies primates (apes, monkeys, etc.)

savvier (adj) wiser, smarter

sociopath (n) someone who is completely unwilling or unable to behave in a way that is

acceptable to society