If you could go back in time and give your younger self advice, what would it be?

If I could go back in time and give my younger self some advice, I’d probably start by telling her something very unserious.

DON’T GROW UP!

My dear, stay where you are. Enjoy your childhood. Play a little longer. Laugh a little louder. Sleep without having to calculate how many hours you have left before your alarm goes off. Because this adulthood thing? Hmm. It’s not exactly the sweet deal we thought it would be.

Nobody told me that growing up would come with so many responsibilities, difficult decisions, unexpected disappointments, and moments when you’d have to encourage yourself because, honestly, who else is going to do it?

One minute, you’re dreaming about how amazing your future will be. The next, you’re an adult trying to figure out life while life keeps introducing new questions you never signed up to answer.

And the funniest part? I honestly wanted to be an adult so I could eat the biggest meat in the pot! lol

Imagine! All that excitement about growing up, only for me to discover that adulthood came with bills, responsibilities, and plenty of things to worry about. If only I had known!

But jokes apart, there’s something else I’d tell her.

GIVE YOURSELF GRACE.

You don’t have to figure everything out.

I know you want to. You want to know what your life will look like, what career you’ll pursue, where you’ll be in five or ten years, who will stay, who will leave, and whether all those dreams in your head will eventually become reality.

But my dear, take a deep breath.

You can plan, prepare, pray, and work towards the life you want, but you cannot control every twist and turn. Some things will make sense only when you look back. Some plans will change. Some opportunities will come when you least expect them, while others you desperately want may take longer than you imagined.

And that’s okay.

You are not failing simply because your life doesn’t look the way you expected it to by a certain age. You are not behind because someone else seems to have figured things out. And you certainly don’t need to have all the answers to be doing well.

Life is not a competition, and there is no universal deadline for becoming who you want to be.

I wish I could tell my younger self not to spend so much time worrying about the future that she forgets to enjoy the present. Not to be so hard on herself when things don’t work out. Not to interpret every delay as a denial or every wrong turn as the end of the road.

Some things will happen when they are supposed to happen. Some lessons will take time to learn. And some versions of you will have to grow, stumble, and try again before you become the woman you’re meant to be.

So, dear younger me, dream big, but don’t put yourself under unnecessary pressure. Make plans, but allow room for life to surprise you. Learn from your mistakes without turning them into reasons to dislike yourself.

And please, enjoy the little things. The laughter, the friendships, the ordinary days, and those moments you probably think are insignificant now. One day, you might look back and realise they were beautiful in their own way.

You don’t need to rush through life to prove that you’re making progress.

You are allowed to take your time.

And if I could leave you with just one final thing, it would be this:

You will not always understand how everything is going to work out, and that’s okay. Keep learning. Keep trying. Keep dreaming. Give yourself grace.

You may not get everything you want when you want it, but that doesn’t mean you won’t get somewhere beautiful.

And honestly, if I could have one more conversation with you, I’d probably still end it by saying, “But seriously, babe, don’t grow up. The bills are waiting!” lol

With so much love,
Your older self.