A Love Letter to Me
In my PE class of mind and body, we did a one-week self-love challenge, each day we have a different task to accomplish, such as safely challenge ourselves physically on Monday, call a loved one who we haven’t spoken to in a while on Tuesday, make a plan for self-care on Wednesday, write down five admirable qualities about ourselves on Thursday, and lastly write a love letter to ourselves on Friday. In the past, I’ve written a couple of letters to my future self at the end of eighth grade and beginning of ninth grade, and I’ll receive both letters by the end of senior year. Although this love letter holds the similar idea of writing it to my future self, I felt more rewarding and contenting after writing this letter. Here’s how the love letter goes.
Dear me,
I hope this letter finds you well.
How is everything going? I’m assuming that it’s the end of January when you see this letter, and you have received most of your college decisions by this time. I understand how anxious you must’ve been for the past couple of months, (if you didn’t get accepted by your first early decision school:(( ), and how much effort you have put into the college application process. But remember, no matter what school and city you end up deciding to go to, you will be where you are supposed to be, so don’t stress too much over it. You and I go way back, and you have always made decisions that I feel proud of. Even at times that I wasn’t so proud or even regret, I don’t regret the experience and lesson that you have taught me. I believe that you will make the best option for both of us — the future you, and the past me when it comes to college, future career, or anything else in life.
Let’s not talk about schools now, just because I want you to be free of this topic for the first time this year. I don’t think that I’ve ever told you this, but I want you to know that I love you. I always have, currently am, and always will. You have carried me through this short seventeen years of life journey, and I want to thank you for sticking with me, learning life lessons through either good or bad experiences, and giving me the courage to always pull myself out of bad emotions. Comparing to what you’ve given me, I haven’t done too much in return. We’ve done so many silly things together, but I should’ve told you things like not climb on that tree when you were eight, not jump into that swimming pool when you were twelve, or not rollerskate so fast downhill when you were thirteen. Yeah, I know you’re still blaming me for the scars, hope it’s not too late to apologize.
No, but seriously, I should’ve told you to always be proud of yourself, to always celebrate your achievements, and not to be scared when you feel you don’t fit in. Ever since I could remember, you were the perfect child at home and the perfect student at school, but I didn’t realize that the pressure you put on yourself to keep the perfect figure has made you to listen too much about what others think of you. You started to feel overwhelmed by others’ thoughts. You became an introverted person who’s scared to pull yourself out of your shell. I forgot to remind you that I will always love you whether you’re perfect or not, and you are enough the way you are.
Perhaps you’re having a hard time, struggling in life or in school right now. But it’s okay, it’ll always turn out well because I’m always there for you and I got your back. I know that you often feel sad, disappointed, or misunderstood in life, but I assure you good days will come. You should NEVER feel that you are a failure. You should NEVER feel that you are anything less. You should NEVER listen to others’ opinions too much and forgot about your own. You are caring, strong, intelligent, and independent. You will overcome any challenges that come your way. You will persevere till the end.
Together, we are loved, we are strong, we are invincible, and we will always figure out solutions to get out of the struggles.
(P.S. if you ever feel down, try to write another letter to me or your future self. Believe me this helps because I tried!)
(P.P.S. hope you can get into your dream school!)
Love you till the end,
Me
schiu • September 25, 2021
lglembach October 13, 2021 - 11:00 pm
Selene this was an absolute pleasure to read. I too took Mind and Body for a PE class, but I decided to take it my junior year and I am so glad I did. Taking Mind and Body was probably one of the best decisions I have made, especially during quarantine, there was so much to write about and I loved re-reading the letters I made. Reflecting back on what I was writing about and how my life was at the time was so interesting. The class was so eye-opening especially for PE, I feel like I learned so much about myself and I honestly couldn’t have taken it at a better time. I really need to start getting into journaling again and writing about my day. It was always so calming and helpful. Now, back to your letter, I loved reading this, I felt like your words were needed by so many, I felt refreshed after reading it! Even though this was a letter geared towards you, I felt like I needed this message too, thank you!
zkarmadi October 16, 2021 - 4:17 am
Selene!!! I know there’s an almost unspoken rule that for these blog comments, we should respond to the latest blog post – except I couldn’t resist checking this out when I saw the title of “A Love Letter to Myself.”
Although I never took mind and body, my PE teacher last semester also taught that class, and she encouraged us to write ourselves a letter like this. Unsurprisingly, I feel as though not many of us actually did go through with it, and being able to read yours is lovingly refreshing! This conveys so much of the struggles that applying for colleges brings about for us, and it addresses and accepts the things we can’t change about the process.
As an only child who is also going through this without much of an older sibling figure to fall back on for advice, so much of this resonated with me – and it was so reassuring to know that we’re sharing some of the same worries and fears, and to have the confirmation that yes, even when the inevitably hard times are hitting us, we can still get back up.