Self-Love Prompts is a series I started after creating a list of 50 self-love writing prompts. People like you select a prompt that speaks to them, work on it, and send me their response so I can share it with you guys!
We’re continuing on this series with Reit. I’m excited to have her contributing to this series by answering the prompt, “If I Could Give My Teenage Self Some Advice, I Would Tell Her…”
If I Could Give My Teenage-Self Some Advice, I Would Tell Her…
“Dear teenage self,
You are different. All the years it was an undeniable truth you couldn’t ignore. You noticed that you are different than you friends, different than your whole surrounding. You’re still trying to hide everything that makes you unique. You feel ashamed. You’re scared to show everything from yourself. You are trying to be like the others. To act like them, to be like they want you to be.
But that’s my advice for you, little darling: stop it. Be bold, be you. Be brave.
You’ll always be unique. It will never stop.
And I tell you something else: it’s a gift. You feel ashamed of something that makes you beautiful.
You’ll always be “the crazy one” for others, but you know what? They would like to be as free as you are; free to be themselves, if they weren’t too scared.
You’ll jump and you will grow wings on the way down. But you’ll only realize this when you are brave enough to be yourself.
Celebrate your strangeness, run free. Don’t hold back any of it, never apologize for your passion and your enthusiasm. You are not a flame, you are the fire. You will inflame others.
And if you feel alone in your strangeness, remember: you are terrifying, strange and beautiful, but it is a gift. You little rebel.”
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What advice would you give your teenage self? Share in the comments below!
Are you interested in being part of the Self-Love Prompt Series? Select your prompt and send me an e-mail so I can give you more information!
Dear teenage self (I’m 18 1/2 currently, so this is to younger teenage me),
Don’t be afraid. One day you’ll meet a pretty girl and fall in love. You’ll be with her for five years. Being gay is not something to be ashamed of. In fact, one day you will embrace it. You will come out and your mother will say she already knew. One day you will be an LGBT+ activist, and you will help kids discovering their sexuality to know it is a wonderful thing to be queer. Of course, when you’re young and forced out of the closet by the meanest girl in class it can hurt. Kids are cruel. But you are not, and some day, when you’re older than I am now, you will embrace your kindness. You will help kids that nobody understands. Befriend them. Give them somebody to hug when they’re feeling down. Autism isn’t something to be ashamed of either. It’s a different kind of brain. Different yet equal. You learn differently. You teach differently. You socialize differently. And one day, when you’re a special education teacher you will learn the true value of kindness and understanding. I’m still waiting for the day the suffering stops and God leads me to my future, but until then, I can be a friend. A friend to the LGBT+ kids. The autistic kids. The socially awkward kids. And the kids with no friends. You will be fine. There is a plan for you, that includes compassion, something you have a lot of, if too much at times. You will be okay.
<3 Thank you for sharing, Juliet.