A Letter to My Younger Self

If you could sit across from your younger self—just for five quiet minutes—what would you say first?

Would you warn them? Comfort them? Or simply tell them that they survive everything they’re about to feel?

This article is a letter, a reflection, and a poem all at once. It’s written for anyone who has grown older but still carries echoes of who they once were. Especially for those moments when you look back and think, I didn’t know then what I know now.

Why We Write to Our Younger Selves

Writing to our younger selves isn’t about regret. It’s about recognition.

At some point, we all realize that our younger selves were doing the best they could with the knowledge they had. They were brave in ways we didn’t understand at the time—walking into unknown futures without armor, without answers.

For poets, this reflection often turns into verse. Poetry gives us permission to be gentle, honest, and unfinished.

The Letter (Written in Poetry)

Dear you,

with the restless eyes and shaking hands,

I know you think you’re behind—

but you’re not late,

you’re just early in becoming.

I know you apologize too much,

even when the hurt wasn’t yours.

One day, you’ll learn that softness

is not the same as weakness.

You will lose people you thought were permanent.

This will break you.

But it will also build rooms inside you

where compassion learns to live.

Please don’t rush your healing.

Pain is not a deadline.

You are allowed to rest,

even when the world tells you to run.

And when you feel invisible,

remember—

roots grow in the dark before they rise.

You don’t need to become someone else.

You only need to return to yourself,

again and again.

With love,

The version of you who survived.