Dear 10-Year Old Self,

After experiencing 10 more years of ups and downs of life, I feel I have some wisdom that I could share with you. As a 10-year old, I dreamed of growing up so I could be just like my (older) brother and sister. I could not wait for my birthday because it meant I would be one year closer to becoming a "grown up". It may seem silly to want that as a kid but when you see your siblings get to do everything before you, like getting to drive a car, you get a little jealous.

Some advice I would want to tell my 10-year old self would be to stop wishing time away because I know now that I will never get those precious kid moments back. And, looking back on things, who wouldn't want to stay a kid forever? You get recess every day and math only pertained to numbers instead of letters and formulas. I loved the simply things that came with being a kid. I wish that we could freeze moments so we would always have to them to appreciate. One of the biggest regrets as kid is wanting to grow up and be a teenager then once I was a teenager I wanted to be an adult. Because, now when you ask most teenagers and adults, they will say they would love to be a kid again. The only worries that kids have in life are worrying about who they will sit by at lunch in the cafeteria and what time mom will be picking you after school.

Things get more complicated when you get older especially being the youngest in the family. The siblings you could always count on to ask for advice or play video games, will not be there anymore. They will have gone off to college or moved out to start their own lives. You will find your house extremely quiet and its terrifying at first because you begin to realize everyone is getting older and times are changing. You realize that the moments of your family playing basketball outside and kicking a soccer ball in the grass will only be memories. And, the times of you all sitting around the dinner table for a family meal, will only happen on special occasions like Thanksgiving and Christmas. You will not notice these things at first because little by little they will happen but one day reality will set in and you will begin to wonder where the time went.The moments you used to count on every day, will only be memories to look back on.

My 10-year old self, I am not trying to scare you away from wanting to grow up. I just want to stress the importance of enjoying your youth. Because, I love being independent and taking on challenges by myself. I love who I have become on my own at college and the things I have had to figure out and accomplish without any help from anyone. What I am hoping you will gather from this letter is that you need to hold onto your moments as a 10-year old because you will never be able to be that age again. You should not wish for days to fly by but instead cherish every day like it’s a birthday, enjoy the day, enjoy being a kid! You will have the rest of your life to be an adult so do not rush time along. Finally, the most important advice I could give my 10-year old self would be to ignore what the other kids say, Santa is definitely real.

Sincerely,

Your 20-Year Old Self