If You Failed at Writing a Letter to Your Younger Self
Do This Instead
Have you written a letter to your younger self? My hats off to you.
I’ve started and stopped such letters more than I care to admit. For reasons, I wish were not true of me.
I gave up writing to my 15-year-old self because that girl knew it all. She would not have listened.
I gave up writing to my 20-year-old self, too. That young woman recognized that she didn’t know everything. But between college, two jobs, volunteer work, and complicated relationships, she would have been too exhausted to catch those pearls of wisdom.
I gave up writing to my 25-year-old self because by then it all seemed like an act of vanity. I could have told her that things pick up from here. I could have told her that she is way younger than she realizes. I could have told her to take more selfies in her twenties because she only has a few photos of herself from this time period.
Why even write a letter to your former self?
To be clear, I’m not anti-letters to self. There are valid reasons to write your former self. You can take the opportunity to be kind to the old you. Forgive yourself for past mistakes. Heal old wounds.
