I was looking at a journal prompt book earlier and came across an idea to write a letter to my 13-year-old self. I pondered this for a moment, but then I decided against using that particular prompt as the idea was to discourage the younger me not to make the mistakes the older me has made.
I don’t know about you but I happen to think my life has been one long journey of living and learning, and whilst some of it as been really damn hard, it has really shaped me into the person I am today and I am actually proud of who I am.
Don’t get me wrong, if I had the choice I would prefer not to have been attacked, and yeah, I’ve learnt some really valuable lessons from that time in my life, but it isn’t something I would wish on another person ever.
There is also something I really regret doing – it’s a very personal thing – and I really wish I had never done it, but the past can’t be changed, it can only be learnt from. So, if those two things were removed from my life, just scrubbed from my history then I would be mostly happy with the other lessons life has taught me.
You know, I pondered a few decisions I had made with regards to certain so-called friends and I still think I would have done things the same way. The thing is, to change how I have lived my life would be to deny who I truly am and I don’t think I would be me had I acted in a different way.
The question “what would you change about your past if you could?” presents us with a real possibility to take a long, hard look at our lives and see how honest we can be. I am not saying my life is perfect, far from it. But I know I have strived to be authentically me throughout and that is something that has served me well.
I have made decisions based on being true to myself and to change any of that would mean I may not be honest with myself, something I am not comfortable with. The one thing I would say to my 13-year-old self would be to always strive to be the best version of yourself, that way you don’t need to compare yourself with anyone else, you are enough.
I think sometimes, instead of looking to change ourselves all of the time we need to just be true to ourselves. Also, trying to change the past is impossible, whereas learning lessons from the past is something we should all do in the quest to be our best selves.
Not your average crone 