A recent Youtube series by Vogue has selected some of the most well known celebrities to ask them 73 questions.
The series is great and a wonderful insight into the person behind the ‘glamour’, but one of my personal favourite questions asked is ‘what would you tell your 13 year old self?’ (sometimes it’s 15 or 16 too – but let’s go with 13 for this purpose)
This is a question that I myself have come across in my mind many times – after all how many time have we said ‘if only I knew then what I know now’…
There are 2 ways of looking at this – on one hand you could warn your mini me about all the challenges he/she are about to embark on, hoping that they will have enough wisdom to listen.
On the other – would you be who you are today had you not experienced all those things?
Yes of course some could do with a bit of editing – but all in all – did they shape you? Did they teach you about life, love, heartache, success?
What would life really be like had you not gone through them?
As a personal anecdote I can tell you my ’13 year old ‘ self was all kinds of mess – I was very very shy, adolescence was not kind to me, I was very much a hopeless romantic and far too philosophical for my age.
Needless to say high school was no picnic – to be frank not much was a picnic until about my early 20s.
But when I look back, I can’t help but wonder, if I knew everything – where would the lessons come from?
Would I have chosen my career had I known it would take years to climb that damn ladder? Or would I have just thrown in the towel and chosen a ‘safe’ road?
Would I have the friendships I have today, knowing that they are the real thing, or surrounded myself with a whole bunch of ‘yes’ people ( you all know what I’m talking about I’m sure).
Do yourselves a favour, take a little ‘you time’ and have a think about everything you have achieved
Think about the road it took to get there, and whilst of course the were some tears and tantrums leading up – would you risk not having what you have today to make the initial road easier?
At the end of the day, I believe everything happens for a reasons – so if I met my 13 year old self, all I would say is “breathe, buckle up, it’s all going to be ok” – how about you?
