If I Could Go Back and Talk to My Younger Self and What I Can Teach A Young Person
Hard-earned life lessons
I lie awake in the middle of the night, or I wake up before my wife. I lie in bed and look back on my life, and I take stock. I have had successes, but there have been failures as well.
I talk to the teenaged Lawson
I give my younger self a pep-talk. I don’t know if doing this serves a purpose, but it does help me come to terms with the past ten years of my life.
The pep-talk also builds me up by showing me how far I have come in my sixty-one years on this earth. I start imagining I’m talking to the teenaged Lawson.
Word to the wise, parents aren’t stupid
I, like a lot of teenagers, thought my parents were stupid. The hubris of a teenager who knows nothing is amazing. I would tell my younger self and anyone who will listen, listen to your parents.
I would have had a better life as a kid and as an adult if I had left the cigarettes alone and concentrated on school, among other things. I rebelled against everything my parents stood for, and all I did was break their hearts.
Find your purpose and work for it
I watch people. I see them floating along, with no purpose or belief in anything bigger than themselves. I was the same way at one point in my life.
I spent my adult life either unemployed or working a menial job that I hated. My parents blamed the Learning Disabilities, but I have my doubts.
I wonder what would have happened if I would have found my passion as a teenager. If I would have discovered writing and worked as hard as I do now, where would I be?
I hated that line of work
I was trapped in my forties and fifties working as a security guard. I could have been writing while I was at work. Honing my craft, but I didn’t discover writing until I was well into my fifties.
Find your passion and work your butt off, that’s what I encourage you to do.
Define yourself, be the person you want to be
Don’t let Learning Disability or any other disability define you. Other people will try to put you in a box. I allowed that to happen to me.
Fight it, and believe in yourself and in your dreams. Other people will tell you you can’t do it, you can, and you will. Please don’t listen to the critics and naysayers.
Final Thought:
Life is hard. It’s harder if you have a Learning Disability. Find your passion early and work hard. Don’t let Disabilities define you, and don’t let the bastards grind you down.