An Open Letter to my 18 Years Old Self

 

A view of Porto from the Dom Luis Bridge
 

Hi Queenchi,

It is you from the future, 13 years later writing. This seems weird, it is what it is? 😁. If you are reading this, which I can't remember reading when I was 18 years old, just do me a favour let’s pretend that you did 😉.

The beautiful view I have from Dom Luis Bridge, Porto, Portugal, moved me to write this open letter to you. I know you just graduated from high school and you are sad that you didn't get admitted to the university, due to the bad decision you made about the school you chose to study for your undergraduate degree; Baby girl, please be gentle with yourself. Congrats my love, you made Mom and Dad proud because; you indeed got admitted to the best school for your undergraduate program.

I am happy to let you know that a lot of things have changed and the climax of it, is that life turned out to be wonderful. Your dream of becoming a mother finally came to pass, presently, you are now a girl mom and the most exciting part of it is that she is named after you. Can you remember the wish you made in your dorm room, you wish to travel to another country, my darling, that wish finally came to pass, you now reside in Portugal. 

Over the next 13 years, life will be like a rollercoaster, you will experience life in full dimension. It will be rough along the way but, the best part of it is that you are able to beat the struggles and you came out stronger and better.

Now, you are so social, making a lot of friends (enjoy it while it lasts) because adulthood is not a joke. You lost connections with all the friends you made at this stage because life played tricks on us all. The only thing I wished you knew was that the many friends that you made weren't necessary. You would have been more expressive while picking your friends and, you would have looked for friends that would have stood the test of time. I believe this would have helped you to keep in touch with them in the future.

It will shock you that 13 years later, you ditched makeup(surprised), you now prefer to have your face just moisturized (it is now called TEAM NATURAL). You now prefer to be an introvert, the weird part of it is that you stay in your enclosed space wondering if there are people like you experiencing the same feelings and thoughts🤣.

You remember that boy you could not live without, you thought he was your better half, my darling, he was not, and here is the shocker, you later had several relationships(this wasn't a good decision) because you were not proud of the relationships later in life. I wished you were more focused on building yourself at this stage and not thinking your joy and passion were tied to a man. Don't get me wrong, yes, those experiences made you find your right partner but they were not worth it.

You caught up in the timeline, you ran more than you shadow on this one, and this brought you stress and anxiety. You were anxious about life and it made you compare yourself with others and that made you make decisions that you were not proud of, later in life. I wish you knew that life is not a race or a competition. That Igbo proverb states: "Ebe onye oso ruru, onye ije ga-ru ya( The destination of the running man is the same as the destination of the walking man)".This would have been your watchword.    

Enough of crying overslipped milk, my younger me, congrats🙌 you turned out to be more opinionated about life. Your confidence later became top-notch. The most amazing part of this journey is that you started writing articles, ( remember you are scared of writing because of Dyslexia). Trust me you overcame this fear and technology also helped.

I would love to continue writing to you but, I have to stop now because our daughter😃 needs my attention. I hope you get this letter and respond to it.

P.S: Your long natural hair that you are usually fond of (enjoy it while it lasts) because now you prefer low cut😊

                                                                           Love

                                                                                     yours future self😘