My niece has an amazing blog and she recently did a "Letter to My 18-Year-Old Self" post (https://www.trendytallgirl.com/single-post/Letter-to-My-18-Year-Old-Self) and it was so thought provoking that I stole the idea for myself . Thanks Dani! ;-)
June 18, 1972
June 18, 1972
Dear
recent high school graduate and 15-day-newlywed Becky,
Happy
Birthday and congrats!
You’re
now old enough to vote but not old enough to legally drink alcohol! Actually, that may be a bonus! ;-)
I
know that even though your woman-child Soul yearns to join the hippy train and
hit the road in one of those funky psychedelic Volkswagen vans, the overpowering midwest elder peer pressure machine that insists young women marry young (to
someone local of course) immediately start a family, keep opinions to herself
and her ass in the kitchen is too powerful for your fragile self-esteem to
challenge. You feel powerless because
you have caved in to their judgmental definition of “normal” and chosen the
path of least resistance. Well, get over
it because your DNA is made of much stronger stuff. You’ll learn to rise above those who have
made it their mission to hold you down.
It
seems as though your closest high school friends have abandon you, please know
it’s nothing personal. You’re an old
married woman now and that puts you in the same category as their moms. Chill out, those whom you’ve bonded with, some
as far back as kindergarten, are floundering just like you, trying to find their
way also. You’ll eventually reconnect
with them as they too become wives, moms and yes even grandmothers, thanks to a
technology that’s in its infancy right now.
Your
vision of going to college was not supported by your parents or a lazy high
school guidance counselor but don’t lose hope.
You don’t need their support because the know-how to make it happen is
already within you. I know it’s hard to
imagine now but perhaps when you’re much older, and a little wiser, you’ll graduate
from college with honors and maybe … even become a local college’s spokesperson
in radio and newspaper ads encouraging non-traditional students, like yourself,
to “just do it” and get a college education.
(wink, wink..)
Your
parent’s extreme dysfunctions are not your fault or yours to own or fix. You don’t have to become the martyr your mother
seems to be and remember there are always two sides to every story.
Your
lifelong dream of being an archeologist and traveling the world in search of
untold stories is not dead. Your travels
will be magnificent and you will share your adventures with the world.
The
voice you struggle to find and master is there and you will find it. The Spoken Word will become your closest
ally.
Most
important of all, KEEP WRITING!
Continue
on with your poetry and journaling!
Don’t
EVER stop satisfying your Spirit on paper!
Your
thoughts and words do count and never ever believe otherwise.
You’re
a good writer and you’ll get better.
It
will sustain you when absolutely nothing else will!
Believe
it or not, someday others will pay you for your words.
The
day you stand before others and read those words out loud in your newly found
Spoken Word Voice will be the day of your true birth, regardless of your Earth
Age.
You
have your mom’s tenacity, your dad’s wit and thanks to your ancestors, a fierce
determination to overcome and survive.
And
you will … overcome and survive, many times over.
Sometimes
with grace and sometimes not so much but that’s all part of your journey.
Be
Brave, Carry On & Love You Mighty!
Your
Much Older (and still learning) Self
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