With winter ending, I always find myself in a mood of nostalgia. I am not sure why I get into this mood at this time, maybe it is because winter ending means summer is near, or the sun is out more, or all of this change is new from the last few months of snow.
This nostalgia makes me wonder about the brain I had when I was younger. I have the same brain now, I know, sometimes I just question if it is the same brain that has been with me all throughout my life. I feel like this is a good way to reference the change that I did not feel happening from child to adult.
An accurate way to conquer this sometimes overwhelming nostalgia is to think of what I would say in a letter to my younger self. There is not directed at a specific age, just a letter that younger me could read at any time.
I think this letter would start out with me saying what I am doing in my life now. Something like how I am a sophomore college student and having so much fun. That the workload is stressful, but the weekends and the memories make up for it.
I would then write most of the things that I still find very surprising about my life now. I would write about how I bought my own car, and I was the prom queen, and that I hope to write someday for a career.
Next comes the hardships I would like to warn my younger self about. That you will not marry your first crush, that you will not go to school for fashion design, and that you will not have died your hair blonde. There are more hardships that I wish I would warn younger me about, but some things, this I know now, she has to figure out for herself.
On the note of figuring things out for yourself, I would write how the process of figuring yourself out is magical, beautiful and frightening. That it is all of these qualities, but is also new. I would not warn her about the specifics, even though I do not wish that upon my younger self, but I would warn her to be patient and considerate with herself as she grows up.
I wish I knew to be cautious and patient with myself when I was still discovering who I was growing up. I love the brain that I have now, but I think that it would have been a lot easier to transition into this older version of myself, if I had an older me to listen to.
So, in this time of transition from the winter into the spring, I hope that if you are stuck in the nostalgia of change, you may turn to this exercise of writing to your younger self, or at least what you would tell them. Because change brings out a lot of feelings, and it is hard not to think of how far you have come. So, I recommend.