9 Things I Wish I Could Tell My Teenage Self

After watching Back to The Future for the first time, I wished I had a Delorean time machine. Despite all of the crazy mishaps Marty Mcfly experienced, I think we all would still take the risk with keys in hand. Going back to see your parents as teens would be one of the most amazing experiences I could imagine. We all make mistakes and wish we knew things before we learned them. Some of us wish more than anything to go back to a younger version of ourselves and smack them over and over. I am a big believer in learning things the hard way. Although I am satisfied with what I know, when I learned it and how, this is exactly what I would tell my teenage self if Doc left the Delorean unlocked.

Photo by Serrah Galos on Unsplash

1. Life is hard, and that’s okay.

I remember often I was the drunk salmon swimming upstream. Not understanding why I was doing it, but I was. I put pity on myself more often than not and complained too much about things that simply didn’t matter in life. Life is hard. It sucks. You are going to get pushed down, flipped over, and thrown off the bridge. You can’t stop it from happening to you, but you determine everything you do afterward.

2. Despite how alone you might feel, you aren’t

Growing up, I always struggled with meeting people that viewed the world in the same way I did. When I told people things I was doing, they never understood. Most laughed at me or rolled their eyes. It’s hard to find similar people in that context, but they are out there. I just need to keep looking. Eventually, I will find the people in my life that I need and push the ones away that aren’t helping.

3. You don’t have to have everything figured out at once

If there was one thing I remember from my senior year of high school. It was the amount of people asking me what I want to do next. I can not tell you how many people ask me this. It stresses me out. It kept me up at night and occupied my mind during the day. I was so sick of people asking me. I decided I wanted to do theoretical physics and started telling everyone that. Looking back, the stress was unnecessary, and I should have stuck with the truth. I had no plan.

4. It’s okay, not to be okay.