A Letter to my Younger Self

A Letter to my Younger Self

Quite some time has gone by since the last time I wrote to my younger self.  A
few years actually. And I think we're due because older me continues to learn to both enjoy and be humbled by life. To experience hellos and endure goodbyes. To win and to lose. To acquire and to cut away. The world is a maze of complexity. To navigate and maybe we should start right there. Because look id there are some fundamental ideas about life that you just have wrong. There is no door that you walk through where you suddenly go from not understanding to finally having all the answers. Part of growing up is realizing how little human beings know about anything. And that's okay. What you'll understand is it's not a reason to run. It's a source of courage to draw from. Oh, but adults are wise you might think. No adults are just children with mortgages. You'll learn that and as we all become renters even that's changing. Right oh but him over there or her wait them they have it all figured out. No, they just walk with conviction into their individual unknowns that's all. Oh, but there has to be some certainty. We have to know some things for sure. You might think well certainly we do or at least we think we do but you have to understand 150 years ago science said bleeding someone out would cure them of their illness. Right our pursuit of truth is crucial but it's a work in progress. Life is a work in progress. You are a work in progress so what am I talking about? Why does this matter?? Because I don't want you to think that you are ill prepared to venture further into your potential. I don't want to think that other people have what you don't. That you're not enough. The world around you is chaos. It's a mess. It's clay. Some people use it to build and create and shape their reality and others well others don't. The kicker here is that nothing is built if you don't first give yourself permission. To take the unknowns and make something with them. Once you understand that there is no secret code that must be figured out you free yourself to explore and capture the essence of being alive. Again, life is messy. So go flail around. Wander. Go get lost. Who cares. You see what I'm saying. You can watch from afar succumbing to the illusion that the world is some meticulously constructed orchestra where everything's playing in unison, or you can dive in and make your own music. Dance to your own melodies because there is no perfect. There are people who stand still and people who pick up the pieces as they go. Next and very closely related younger me give yourself a chance. Try things. No more things. Bigger things. Terrifying things. Do you see those posters the people you have hung up on your wall? They're not of a different world. They're people like you. Right but they decided along the way that they would try. That they would step out of line break some rules. Push life and see how hard life pushed back. Younger me on my College Essay I referenced one of my favorite quotes I attributed it to Mark Twain. Turns out it wasn't even by him, but life goes on right. It said 20 years from now you'll be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than the ones you did do. So, throw off the bow lines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore dream, discover. It's a beautiful quote. And here's what I gather from it. The biggest mistakes I've made over the course of my lifetime ended up being my greatest teachers. Leading me to something new. To where I most needed to be. I mean a lot of mistakes are even funny stories right that I joke about with buddies over beer. The vast majority of things you're worried about they either won't happen or they're reversible. But what gets you younger me, what truly hurts is wishing you had the courage to apply to that thing. That you instead let the deadline slip away or talk to that person you walked right by or audition or train or travel or follow your intuition your heart to someplace new. Those are the things we tend to carry around. The second you learn that not going is far scarier than stepping out into the unknown you'll possess a perspective that's incredibly valuable. It will change your life and lastly this one's kind of hard to articulate. But let me tell you it continues to resurface. it is if your intuition is telling you something listen. Trust it. If something feels wrong let it go. If it feels like it's where you need to be you're being pulled in that direction. Explore, move towards it. When you know in 30 seconds that someone isn't a good person don't give them your time. When something doesn't align with your goals or objectives don't feel bad walking away. When something excites you trust that feeling. This is all intuition and I've come to find that initial response to be more and more valuable. What that feeling is telling you matters. Don't turn your back on that. Now of course there's a line we have to walk or an element of pragmatism we have to hold on to. Sometimes when we're particularly upset it makes sense to let the emotion subside and allow rationality to enter. But this is more about being aware of who you are and what you want right. Don't talk yourself out of what you know you want and into what you know you don't.