First letter
to my fourteen year old self:
I look at
your picture with those hazel eyes that twinkle and sparkle dampened spirits to
renewed hopes. Young and innocent; a spitting image of what I once was. Looking
at this picture is like staring at a mirror with time travel features, a moment
I reel in. Your teenage mind, clean of the corruption of images of delinquency
and flashes of truancy but instead has naïve dreams that have not been gunned
down by the gravity of reality. Since this is my first letter to you, I’ll try
keeping it short –
I know that
you don’t hurt like I do, even though we look the same (you are better looking
than I am), We share the same dreams, both fulfilled and unfulfilled and that’s
how I recognize you.
I envy your freedom,
Yearn your innocence with a sense of
nostalgia
Miss your freedom to be innocent…
Endless opportunities and the beauty in
your youth
Sitting back
here on this old bed whose dreams we share, I can’t help but flashback to the
time I was you. Reminiscing about you is a memory I celebrate and every-time I
stare at this picture, it’s like I am going through old belongings and reading
old scraps of poems I would scribble during break time and prep recess. Here is
some advice from your twenty four year old self:
Seek motivation;
Yearn wisdom;
Obtain understanding;
Chose reason over emotion;
Think in the heat of an argument;
Celebrate the first rains;
Write a letter to paranoia;
Realize the power of conversations;
Realize that ‘old house’ is your home;
Appreciate your taste in music;
Realize your greatest strength lies in
these words;
Realize that it’s this silence that your
thoughts are so violent;
Wait for the gentle breeze... and listen
to it.
Please
remember, my dear fourteen year old self:
Pursue truth
Advance knowledge
Calculate danger
Anticipate love
Install faith
Always believe
Be earnest.
Don’t forget,
my dear fourteen year old self:
Be earnest;
Yes honest;
Contemplate righteousness
Hurt less
Hateless
Be earnest
I’m Ernest
you are me... so don’t give up on we.
Twenty four
year old self.
***Inspired by Miss Tsitsi Hazel* **