Daily Prompt’s QOTD

What Advice Would You Give to Your Teenage Self?

This year’s version of me has changed. I would offer my younger self more than in the past.

Here Goes

I’d still tell myself that you’re going to lose people. People that you love.

Not all at once. Not always to death. Some will leave by choice. Some will drift. Some will stay in your memory longer than they ever stayed in your life. Losing that first ‘real love‘ is going to feel like something inside your chest was torn out. It will take years to heal.

But love that deep teaches you that your heart works. Don’t harden because of that hurt. Don’t turn your pain into proof that you shouldn’t care. One day you’ll understand that lost love wasn’t failure.

I’d tell him this too:

You don’t have to prove how tough you are.

People will call you strong. They’ll say it like it’s a compliment. What they won’t see are the nights you’re tired of being strong. The appointments. The waiting rooms. The moments you wish you had a choice in the matter. Strength isn’t something you chase it’s something that shows up when quitting isn’t an option.

You won’t always have a choice. But you will always have a voice, use it. Write things down. Even the messy thoughts. Especially the messy thoughts. There will come a time when someone else is really scared. Your words will help them.

You won’t want fame. You’ll quit caring about being known. You’ll just want someone to read your story and think, “If he’s still living, maybe I can too.”

Don’t wait for life to slow down before you live it. Go downtown. Take the photos. Sit on the steps. Show up to the event even if you have treatment coming. Cancer will try to measure your life in injections and scans but don’t let it. Measure it in moments, laughter and the people who stayed.

Most of all, I’d tell him this:

You’re going to walk roads you never would have chosen. You’re going to get tired of being called inspirational. You’re going to wish, more than once, that you could just be ordinary again. Instead, you’ve become extra ordinary in your honesty, imperfections and the way you show up for others.

You will have finally learned to honor that slogan ‘I Am Me‘ and will be remembered as someone authentic. That’s the best you can be.

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