I read this recently and it’s been sitting in my brain rolling around. What would my younger self have needed to hear? There was a time as a kid when I was made to feel “less than”. If it’s happened to you then you know what I mean by that. It’s not uncommon and probably every one of us goes through something like it at some point. For me it was by people who had a very strong influence over my life which made it even harder to work through as I grew up. So when I think about what I would say to a younger me, it’s to that girl I would talk too. I think if I could go back and give her any advice it would be this…
The goal is not perfection. Though they will make you feel like it is.
The goal is not to keep from making mistakes either. Though they will try to make you believe mistakes are a bad thing. They aren’t, they are mistakes and you will learn the most from them.
The goal isn’t to show no weakness or emotion. I know it doesn’t feel safe to do so but the only way to really connect with people is to be real and emotions are real. But, you will also learn who deserves to see you and all you emotional glory and who doesn’t. Sometimes it will be hard to tell but you will figure it out.
The goal is to learn who you are and be her with every ounce of your being. Don’t let them shrink you down or tell you its impossible.
The goal is to be you and love her more than anything because the real goal is loving yourself. You can’t love yourself through anyone else and you can’t be anyone else version of you.
You are you and you are worthy of being loved for who you are. And if they don’t like who you are, its not your problem. It’s theirs.
You can’t control how they feel about you and I know it’s hard. I know it hurts. I know you will spend years working on moving past that fact. But I also know that you will succeed and you will fill your life with so many people that SEE you and love you for that person. In fact, I know that even now, in the dark places, you are loved more than you can understand.
So my darling, keep going because this journey is worth it. And the lessons you learn about yourself and how to treat other people in the process are going to be the corner stone of so many parts of your life. You are strong, worthy & loved. Don’t forget that.
What would you say to the younger version of you? In fact, what do you need to say to yourself right now?