A Letter To My Younger Self

Summary

In a reflective letter to her younger self, the author refrains from giving advice, emphasizing the importance of personal experience and growth through one's own choices and mistakes.

Abstract

The author of "A Letter To My Younger Self" contemplates the temptation to impart wisdom and guidance to her 16-year-old self but chooses not to. Recognizing the futility of preventing mistakes and the value of personal discovery, she decides against dictating a path or preaching about life's do's and don'ts. She acknowledges that her younger self would have resisted such advice and that personal growth is not about avoiding pain but about how one uses their experiences. The author emphasizes that each individual must define their own purpose and mission through their unique journey, including making their own decisions, learning from their errors, and shaping their identity independently.

Opinions

The author believes that trying to control one's future or steer someone else's path is a narrow perception and an illusory belief.
She opposes the idea of adults imposing their wisdom on the youth, viewing it as an attempt to enslave them under the guise of acting "for their own good."
The author values the right of individuals to carve their own destiny, including the freedom to make mistakes and the autonomy to learn from them.
She suggests that life's experiences are predetermined, but the way they are used to foster personal growth and transformation is what truly matters.
The author respects the younger self's journey, recognizing that despite the pain and challenges, the choices made were necessary and formative.

Talking to the 16-year-old “me”

Well, this is a great temptation. The automated behavioral system of my personality could have given you by now the drink of experience, and forced you to swallow it. I could have started the teaching and the preaching, the do’s and the don’ts, pretending to be wise; a posteriori.

I would have become all those adult figures you mock; those who try to make you avoid mistakes. What a futile battle!

Yes, I would have done this… If I still was an ordinary adult, with a narrow perception and the illusory belief that I can control the future… If I wouldn’t know that nobody — but yourself — can really form, transform, and widen your personality to merge it with your Self… If I wanted to enslave you on the pretext that I do this “for your own good”… If I — unconsciously — wanted to steal your right to draw your own path, to fall into your own traps, to make your own didactic mistakes, to find out who you really are, to test, to taste multiple ways of living, to discover your limits, to exceed them, to define your Purpose, to uncover your Mission.

NO. I won’t do this. I won’t tell you how to be in your life.

Of course, I know that — when you are in a lot of pain — you wish that somebody had predisposed you. But even if somebody had done so, you still would have chosen what you finally chose. You would have done the same things if these were to be done. Cause the point isn’t what you do or where you‘ll finally go. This is predetermined. The whole point is how you choose to use all these. It’s your metamorphosis through the effort.

So, dear younger self and wayfarer of this spherical arena we call earth, I‘ll just keep quiet, to let you unveil your freedom and your autonomy, in YOUR way.

^^^

Anthi Psomiadou — CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International : Credit must be given to the creator/ Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted/ No derivatives