Lessons Learned

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Advice and Updates to My Teenage Self From My 31- and 40-Year-Old Self

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I was digging through some old notes a few weeks ago and came across two lists I wrote back in 2014. I labeled the first as “some of the things I would love to tell teenagers today,” but if I’m being honest with myself, it’s a list of things I wish I could have gone back in time to tell myself when I was younger. The second is simply labeled “I don’t have all the answers,” and I think it’s a list I made thinking about my present and possible future.

I was 31 at the time I wrote these lists and wanted to share them, along with some thoughts in bold.

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Friendship Lessons of 2021

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I didn't originally intend for friendship to be a big theme of mine for 2021, but for a pandemic, I had a very full year of it!

I realized early in the year how much I was longing for past friendships that have dissipated or fallen by the wayside in recent years, even before quarantine and social distancing were in the picture.

This was one of the first times I know of in my life where I actively challenged myself to step outside my comfort zone of hiding behind my screen and to find people like me — and in a way that didn’t feel like I was bending over backward or pretending I was someone else or trying to act “normal” or make everyone like me (the impossible). I made some mistakes, of course. I even repeated a few until the lessons finally sank in. But I'm also proud of how I found strength and rebuilding in the process of getting back up from those setbacks.

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ADHD, The Rocky Horror Roller Show, and Lessons Learned

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If you ever want to literally hear the gears churning in my head, catch me on a day I’ve just had an amazing idea AND can plan it out and brainstorm it to my heart’s content!

With ADHD, this is actually a specialty of mine. I absolutely love that when I get an idea, sometimes it can hit me with such a force that I can pinpoint so many little details and also I’m able to zoom out and see it from a bird’s eye view to know what needs to get done and how. It’s a beautiful thing I credit my ADHD with being able to do.