I'm Sorry: a Letter to my High School Self
Dear Younger Mish,
I wish you would actually get to read this with your young and innocent mind. I wish I could tell you how high school, this exciting and kind of scary time in your life, would break you. I wish I could warn you of the woes of the second half of your junior year. I wish I could tell you to call grandma one last time. I wish I could tell you that even though your entire world is crumbling around you, it will all turn out okay. While you won’t get into your first-choice college, you will have fun; while you won’t major in Chemical engineering like you thought you would, Audiology is an even better fit. I wish I could tell you of everything to come, the good the bad and the ugly, but I can’t, and that is why I’m thinking about you know. Had you actually known any of this information you wouldn’t have turned out the same. You would’ve coasted through life running on the knowledge that you were going to eventually get there, and you wouldn’t have bothered to work through the hard stuff. All the late-night breakdowns and hard-earned lessons you are suffering through in what is my “back-then” made me the strong person I am today. The procrastinating that you’re doing is what taught me how to get a 4.0 now. The determination to get things done and independence you’re developing is what just got us our first job. While these lessons aren’t fun, you must learn them so that we can grow into the woman we both hope to someday become. Although I may understand the necessity of what you’re going through then to get me where I am now doesn’t mean that I can’t be grateful for it. I thank you, my high school self, for every second of what you went through, for without you doing all the messing up then, I would have to be doing it now but with bigger and badder consequences.
Lots of love and yours truly,
I love this letter and thank you for sharing your letter to your younger self with us! I am a very reflective person and always try to think back to how experiences over the years have formulated me. I spend a lot of time in HS just costing by because I was smart but sad and had no energy because I wasn't surrounded by people who motivated me. But, my past self would have no way of knowing that college would be better (even if tumultuous) and everything would be a little better at least. I am pretty sure if I wrote a letter even to my 2016 self, just to warn her how bad 2017 would be, that would have resulted in a different me.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for commenting! I to find myself reflecting on the past quite often, and thought it might make an interesting letter. I hope to do more of these in the future, and if you write one too i would love to see it!
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