{"id":2210,"date":"2011-10-13T00:22:17","date_gmt":"2011-10-13T04:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\/?p=2210"},"modified":"2011-10-10T15:42:51","modified_gmt":"2011-10-10T19:42:51","slug":"what-would-you-tell-your-younger-self","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2011\/10\/what-would-you-tell-your-younger-self.html","title":{"rendered":"What Would You Tell Your Younger Self?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A few months ago on Twitter, people were completing this sentence: &#8220;Dear Younger Self, ________.&#8221; Essentially, it&#8217;s a letter from you to the you from years ago.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2011\/10\/youngerself-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Younger Self\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2211\" \/><\/a>When I encountered the question, it got me thinking. Wow, so much I would want to tell the younger me &#8212; especially myself from junior high and high school when I thought the world was crashing in on me. I&#8217;d love to encourage her and tell her that things will get so much better, that she won&#8217;t be lonely forever and that the things that make her different will one day be appreciated. I&#8217;d love to spoil all the surprises and tell her that she&#8217;ll accomplish things she never dreamed possible and enjoy her life as a daring, messy yet beautiful adventure.<\/p>\n<p>So much to say. But I summed it all up in one sentence.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Dear Younger Self, don&#8217;t even worry about it.&#8221; That goes for everything. What I&#8217;d do with my life, who I&#8217;d love, who would love me, where I&#8217;d go and who wouldn&#8217;t be going with me. Don&#8217;t even worry about it. It&#8217;s amazing how many of those things I was concerned about worked themselves out. I don&#8217;t carry too many regrets from life, but I always regret time spent worrying. Generally, it&#8217;s true: everything turns out okay.<\/p>\n<p>So, what would you tell your younger self? Complete this sentence: &#8220;Dear Younger Self, _________________.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While you think about it, enjoy this video by country music star Brad Paisley. It will get you thinking.<\/p>\n<p><center><object width=\"640\" height=\"360\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/RQ3bn7V0zdU?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/RQ3bn7V0zdU?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/embed><\/object><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few months ago on Twitter, people were completing this sentence: &#8220;Dear Younger Self, ________.&#8221; Essentially, it&#8217;s a letter from you to the you from years ago. When I encountered the question, it got me thinking. Wow, so much I would want to tell the younger me &#8212; especially myself from junior high and high&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9,4,20,6,26,32],"tags":[184,437,436],"class_list":["post-2210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-courage-and-strength","category-happier-you","category-inspiring-messages","category-something-to-think-about","category-thought-to-ponder","category-well-being","category-your-success","tag-advice","tag-letter-to-me","tag-younger-self"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Would You Tell Your Younger Self?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2011\/10\/what-would-you-tell-your-younger-self.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Would You Tell Your Younger Self?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A few months ago on Twitter, people were completing this sentence: &#8220;Dear Younger Self, ________.&#8221; Essentially, it&#8217;s a letter from you to the you from years ago. When I encountered the question, it got me thinking. Wow, so much I would want to tell the younger me &#8212; especially myself from junior high and high&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2011\/10\/what-would-you-tell-your-younger-self.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Inspiration Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-13T04:22:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-10-10T19:42:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\/files\/2011\/10\/youngerself-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jennifer E. 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