an open listicle to my 23-year-old self
not that she would've listened!
Lately every time I pick up my laptop to write, my kid squeals awake from his nap. I’ve tried to teach him about the importance of leaving women alone but I’m not sure it’s sunk in yet (he’s 4 months old.) I do spend every other minute of his nap scrolling Pinterest and TikTok and longing for a life full of writing and music and joy and love, but I’m serious when I say the second I open my laptop, it’s game over. He knows I’m about to make magic motivated somehow by my brainrot extravaganza. And still, he silences me.
So for now, inspired by grad season, I give you a list of things I wish I could say (or scream) to my younger self. My lost-er, slightly more confused and incredibly insecure self who would rather die than allow you to think badly of her. Definitely not my hotter self—it took me a while to realize that my naked body actually isn’t a military-grade repellent and from then on, I really blossomed. The below are 11 things I wish I knew then, but am still trying my best to know now.
I may find these to be idiotic and incorrect in ten years, and I think that’s beautiful. I hope I live long enough to have decades and decades full of lists, begging a reincarnated version of myself to be the wisest woman (or goldfish or whatever) on the planet. It’s a sin to not know things, and an even worser sin to pretend you do know things when you don’t! Heaven forbid we go through this life for the very first time. It’s embarrassing, really.
Say you’re sorry. Friendships don’t have to end just because you messed up.
Being real is better than being right!!!
“I don’t know” is a perfectly okay, and mature, thing to say out loud. Say it more often.
Your twenties are just a blip on the map. Have fun, be impulsive, and remember you have all the other decades to do that, too.
Collect conversations like Pokemon. Talk to as many people as possible, especially at parties. And actually listen to them. It’ll make you a better person.
Try to say yes as often as you feel safe to do so. Money will come back.
Boys can be fun but girls are literal magic. Invest in your girlfriends and I promise you won’t regret it.
When John Mayer said “your body is a wonderland,” he was talking about you.
You can’t get grounded anymore. Stop being scared of what your parents would think and do what you want to do. Ask yourself, “what do I really want?” and go do that.
When you start comparing yourself to others, put your phone away and go outside.
Get dessert.
#11 really resonated with me. 🙏🏼
:) — Fantastic. Dude, you've unearthed an old memory that I'll have to go digging around Evernote for (or I'll have to re-subscribe to that to even access it) of something like this I made in college called "Lessons for any future kid of mine" ... you talking about the reincarnations of ourselves, I'm laughing trying to remember what 22-year-old me thought my future progeny should know, hahaha.