A Letter to Younger Me
Dear Gabe (more specifically Gr. 12 [2010] Gabe),
Hey, it’s you.
A real life time capsule back from the future with some learnings and lessons from over the next decade. First and foremost, I’d like to acknowledge and appreciate your articulacy, your ambition and your passion. Those are traits that will serve you well in almost all your wide-ranging collection of endeavours. I hope that you will also learn to love your awareness, your compassion (for others as well as yourself) and your kindness, those are the traits that will allow you to be a well-rounded leader to others, as time goes on. These are traits that aren’t taught or valued by the majority of people around you at the time you read this, but trust me when I say that what makes you different from others in a room is also what allows you to stand out within it. You’ll make it cool to be authentic and vulnerable.
In time, the World around you will appear smaller, yet the impact you are able to have on others will seem bigger. In time, friendships will be more difficult to maintain, yet the friendships that are retained will be that much more special. And in time, the concept of time itself will become more finite, yet the memories that are created will become more valuable in your prefrontal cortex. I could tell you about the impending battle with depression.And I could tell you about the grief and pain you are bound to experience with the loss of certain people, and parts of your early adulthood. However, I’m choosing not to. As nothing I can type here will prepare you more than the experience of experiencing it for yourself.
Remember - where there is light, it also casts a shadow. Also, even if no one else tells you of this, remind yourself once in a while how far you’ve come once in a while, as everything you want, a previous version (or in this case, a future version) of yourself will have worked for. Be proud of yourself. (I would speculate that this is the part of the letter that you will find most difficult to believe, to apply, and to manifest.)I have the utmost faith that time will be a witness to your evolution and growth. Buckle up, my friend. Life is a wild ride.
Love you lots, April 2021#WeGotUs
On second thought, I’d be remiss to drop that piece of news on you without providing you with a survival kit. Please stay fluid to all the possibilities that life has to offer you to remedy these challenges. Have faith that each possible solution will get you closer to finding one that works optimally for you during that specific chapter.
Feeling inspired? You can find Gabe on Instagram as well as his podcast We Got This
Unsinkable Storytelling Author: Gabriel Lee