To my younger self
Hi Jen, We are 38 now, but I am writing to a younger version of us. (How's that for confusing?) I am writing to the awkward, coke-bottle-glasses-wearing version. Puberty is quick, though it may not feel it at the time. I am writing to the shy version who loves to be involved, but whose energy is zapped in big crowds. I am writing to the sad version who just wants to be a mother and continuously watches others around her seemingly get pregnant with ease. I am writing to the college version who was so close to finding her true self, and then it somehow went away. Today, I am figuring out the secret. The secret that I have worth just be being alive. That no one else is going to put my happiness first, and it is not selfish to do so, even as a mother. That I don't have to put others' needs above my own at all times. That I don't have to solve everyone's' problems for them. That I am in the body that I was given, and I need to love every curve, stretch mark