Dear 15 year old self, from your early autumn stage of life self.
First and foremost, though, I'd tell you to stop worrying about what people think.
Do you, and be proud of her! What do your peers know? They are 15 (mostly young and stupid) too.
Quit obsessing about your physical faults. When you are 40, 50, or even older, you'll wish for those imperfections back.
Put much, much more effort into developing yourself as a human being, developing your God-given gifts and abilities, than worrying about what the boy across the room in math class, or the girl, or even the teacher, thinks of you. They could be wrong.
You could be wrong in your imaginings of what those people think of you. You probably are.
Believe in yourself. You can be more than you ever dreamed, but it starts with just that...dreaming.
Take more risks. Try more things. Go more places. Don't stay home because you are having a bad hair day or a pimple uprising, or your jeans feel too tight. Don't let the little things hold you back!
Time flies, and it's just wrong to waste it worrying about petty stuff.
You want to be a writer some day. Don't discredit your deepest dreams. God gave those to you for a reason, to guide you into becoming who you really are. One of these days, you might even get paid to do it.
I commend you for being kind most of the time and not dismissing the marginalized as sub-human.
It's not really surprising, because if you heard it once you heard it a dozen times from your parents. "How would you feel if...?"
Sure, you think they are old fashioned, but some of the wisest words you'll ever hear are, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
This crazy world needs to relearn that concept.
My advice to you, 15 year old self, is to just hang in there. High school is tough, but it ends and you'll move on. One of these days, you won't even remember the names of some of the people you wanted to impress.
Finally, I would advise you to remind yourself frequently to "Suck it up, Buttercup," through all the difficult stages of your life. I'm not saying that your struggles aren't important, but you need to realize that your struggles are not at all unique.
Everyone has them. And sometimes helping someone else is the best way to help yourself.
One last thing...don't be long-winded. Future generations have short attention spans because of something you can barely imagine...smartphones, social media and scrolling the internet.
Be thankful you aren't a teen now!
Toot-a-loo!
Love,
The Ever-evolving Version of You
This was awesome. <3
ReplyDeleteThank you!
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