I am slowly approaching my fourth and last year at university and with the thought of a new life ahead, I am also starting to reflect on the past. And I can say with confidence, that I am an entirely different person than I was when I first started university.
Looking back now, there are so many things I wish I could have told younger, first-year me. I would tell myself to be more open to feeling and being loved by everyone. I would tell myself the truth about needing other people in our lives and about how no matter how much we can thrive as individuals, as social beings, we need to build social relations in order to gain a sense of belonging in this world. I would tell myself to be more present and live life more consciously. I would tell myself to at least try to always prioritize happiness.
But at the end of the day, even though I know things would be easier if 18 year old me would have known these things, I find beauty in the fact that my experiences led me to finding them the way that I did at the age of 22, otherwise, would I even be the person I am today?
A lot of these, I’ve realized because they are a part of growing up and realizing that some things are just not worthy of your time and attention. Some of them, I’ve realized because going through a pandemic gave me the ability to become more conscious and aware that every minute is valuable.
I think that perhaps sometimes it’s good to look back so you can be able to acknowledge how far you’ve come. It might be quite beneficial to reflect back every couple of years or so, at every big milestone in one’s life. This can often give us the ability to get an idea about how far we’ve come and how far we would still like to go. The cherry on top of it allis that I know in a couple of years, I will be able to look back on myself now and reflect.
The one thing that hasn’t changed about me is my taste in music, thankfully so.