Dear 18 year old me,
I know this must be strange, receiving a letter from
yourself at the age of 23. No, this isn’t a school assignment (you’ve been out
of school now for 2 years, by the way) and no, I’m not sitting lonely in an
empty apartment with 14 cats scratching at my bedpost. You still hate cats.
I am writing this to you on an idle Wednesday morning. I am
sitting in my cubical at work in Charlotte, staring at 32 unread emails and
drinking coffee. It’s almost the holidays and I’m thinking of what to be for
Halloween. But most importantly, on my walk into work this morning, I was
thinking about the past five years and how much things have changed. How much
I’ve grown, how much I’ve learned, how much I have obtained and how much I have
lost. I will be writing you four letters of reflection and advice, and this is
the first-
Love your family with all of your heart. You already do
this, I know, and you will continue to do this until this day. Your family will
go through hard times in the next few years. You all make it through only BECAUSE
of the love and support you carry for each other. And NEVER take them for
granted.
Don’t be afraid to get excited about the little things.
Celebrate Halloween with silly costumes, not "sexy" ones. Run the Thanksgiving
Turkey Trot with your friends and don’t be afraid to jog slow. Get up early to
see the sunrise on the beach before class (Yes, you go to school at the beach). Take up surfing, and go outside in
the many snow storms you are to experience. Talk to friends on the phone when you can and listen to what
your parents have to say when they call you. Go to concerts that you REALLY
want to go to, pay the extra $5 for that peppermint mocha on a cold December
day. These little things will make up a big part of your character, and
therefore, the course of your life. No matter how inconsequential the task may seem, if it
makes you smile- DO IT.
Before you graduate high school, thank Mrs. Jones for all of
the Spanish lessons she taught you. True, she seems very strict and
makes the class almost “impossible” to comprehend sometimes, but I promise you- you will go into college knowing more than you think
and do better than you ever would have with any other teacher. She was a tough
cookie- but sometimes that makes for the sweetest rewards. Also, thank Mrs. Tringali. Sure, she made
you read about a book a week for five months and your hand cramped more than
you would like to admit from all of the essays (and rewrites) she required, but
you are seriously ahead of the game come college and she deserves a lot of
recognition for your future success. It's the toughest classes that make the road ahead smoother to travel to your preferred destination.
Read a book a month.
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Write a poem every day when you find
the time. Strive to gain knowledge in every nook and cranny of the library that
you can. I am not a novelist, I am not even in the publishing business, but I
am telling you now- keep up your writing and strive to use your passions for
your success. You love to write! And although you don’t believe it now, you are
very good at it. It is your strongest asset and so much of your creativity
rests in your fingertips.
Have a passion. Don’t go through life thinking that all
things come to those who wander. Find a passion, work hard to allow this
passion to provide for your life. If you allow this to happen sooner than later,
this won’t be your work, it’ll be your wealth. You will have friends who have
done this for far longer than you have and you will envy their happiness every once
and a while. You are happy and successful today, by the way- but at 23, you
know you’re only on the cusp of something great. Don’t let it just sit on the
shelf and gather dust as you sit on your computer browsing Facebook (a social
media site better than Myspace that you WILL spend too much time on).
Hold your morals and values. They are what make you unique,
strong, valuable, and motivated. You are still very hard on yourself- try not
to let this become detrimental. It is ok to strive for improvement, but once
you begin striving for perfection, know you’re only going to burn yourself out.
You will make numerous mistakes, morals will be briefly forgotten in weak
moments, and values will become muddled. But they aren’t far gone. You will
learn that life is good at distracting you, tempting you, trying you, and
teaching you. Don’t be afraid to slip and take a few steps backwards. You have
done this many times- but you have managed to take two giant steps forward
after the fact.
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Keep up your running but don't let it define you. You will learn
that you have an irregular curvature in your lower lumbar and you will
still fight for the chance to run in college... You will fail... kind of. You will go on to run half marathons, a full
marathon, a triathalon, and more than a handful of 5k's. Running may seem like your passion now, but trust me- God put it in your life for another reason and it serves you well... just not on the front burner. Just enjoy what
your body can do and love how it makes you feel.
Also, learn to dance to good music, please. Take up some kind of
dancing like ballroom, interpretive, even just gym-class hip-hop for cardio.
And STAY AWAY from the Twerk. Miley Cyrus is no longer a cute Disney star, and
I truly believe the Twerk is to blame…This doesn’t mean you can’t learn the
“wobble”, the “wop”, or the “burney”. These are very important, I
promise.
And on that note, I will leave you to wonder about what
would ever possess a human being to name a dance from the sound you make when
you swat a fly on the ceiling. Three more letters are to come… but remember-
You’re always living the next moment of the rest of your life. Make it count.
Love, M
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