A letter to my younger self

Dear Younger Me,

I know you’re worried about choosing the wrong path.
Right now, you’re convinced that somewhere out there is a perfect plan for your life, and if you don’t figure it out soon enough, you’ll somehow miss it. You spend so much time trying to answer the question:“What do I want to be when I grow up?”

Truth is, you’re going to answer that question a lot of different ways.

First, you’re going to want to be an OB/GYN.
You’ll imagine yourself helping bring babies into the world and caring for mothers during some of the most important moments of their lives.

Then you’ll decide fashion design sounds amazing.
You’ll fill notebooks with ideas and dream about creating beautiful things. -probably in the middle of math class

Then you’ll become fascinated with interior design.
You’ll rearrange rooms in your mind and imagine transforming ordinary spaces into something special. You even practice this in some way in the world of “The Sims” where it was much more fun to build the house than to actually play out the life of you Sim families.

Eventually you’ll be pulle to event planning.
Because apparently organizing a wedding for hundreds of people sounds completely reasonable to you.

And somehow…
After all of that…

You’ll end up becoming a nurse.
Not because nursing was always the master plan.
Not because you had your entire life mapped out.

But because each dream taught you something about yourself. The OB/GYN dream taught you that you wanted to help people. Fashion design taught you that you loved creativity.
Interior design taught you that you cared about creating environments that make people feel something. Event planning taught you that you loved bringing order to chaos.

And nursing? Nursing somehow became the place where all those pieces met.
-Helping people.
-Problem solving.
-Creativity.
-Connection.
-Chaos management.
-Teaching.
-Advocating.
-Caring.
You won’t realize it at the time, but none of those dreams were wasted.
They were clues.

And while we’re talking about things that don’t happen the way you expect…
Can I tell you something funny?
There will be moments when you feel completely alone.
Moments when you’re convinced that everyone else has found their person except you.
Moments when you’ll wonder if your story is running behind schedule.
What you don’t know is that during some of those moments…
Your future husband is already out there.
Not only out there.
Nearby.
Living his life while you’re living yours.
Existing in the same world.
Traveling roads that occasionally cross yours without either of you realizing it.
You’ll both be collecting stories.
Learning lessons.
Growing into the people you’ll eventually need to become.
You’ll spend years trying to force answers to questions that time hasn’t answered yet.
But the truth is simple:
It just wasn’t your time.
And when your time finally comes, you’ll understand why none of the earlier versions worked.
Not because they were bad people.
Not because you did something wrong.
But because your story wasn’t finished being written yet.
Neither was his.

You spend so much energy worrying about being behind.
Behind in your career.
Behind in relationships.
Behind in life.
But looking back now, I can see something you couldn’t.
You were never behind.
You were becoming.
Every dream.
Every detour.
Every disappointment.
Every unexpected turn.
Every season that felt confusing.
Every season that felt lonely.
Every season that felt like nothing was happening.
Something was happening.
You were becoming the person who could build the life you have now.
And honestly?
The life you end up with looks very little like the one you imagined.
It’s messier.
Louder.
More complicated.
More exhausting.

Most importantly it’s beautiful and meaningful
And far more you than anything you could have planned.

So stop worrying so much about finding the perfect path.
There isn’t one.
There are only paths that teach you something.
And one day you’ll look back and realize that all those seemingly unrelated dreams, all those twists and turns, all those moments when you thought you were lost…
Were actually leading you exactly where you needed to go.
Love,
Your Older Self

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