Dear me [A letter to the 18-year old me]

Dear Me,

I know you are young and extremely eager to make it big. You are looking at that space in your life called “future’’ wondering what it has in store for you. You don’t need to wonder, because over the next twenty years you are going to build your own life, brick by brick. Nothing untoward will happen, all that will happen will be only your doing.

Will it turn out to be the way you are hoping right now ? Yes and no.

No, you are not going to get very famous by the time you are 40. Yes, one national award, a photograph in all the newspapers is what you will manage. Your five minutes of fame will happen, but they will be so fleeting that you will wonder why you invested that much thought process in it anyway.

Stop wondering what will happen to all the hot girls and guys back at school. You will find all of them at ‘facebook’. Of course, you don’t know what that’s all about. But technology will surprise you here. Yes, you will find them again, their hot factor much reduced, age catching on, looking and behaving quite like the parents that they detested when they were your age.

Warning : You may not be able to recognize the guys you had severe crushes on, but that’s alright. You will realize what a waste of time it had been to moon over them when you were young. Instead, you may wish you had recognized and appreciated yourself more back then. You will wish you had focussed on having more fun instead.

Hold on to your music and books. They will stay with you even after two decades. Yes, even the dog eared Sidney Sheldons that you are sure that you will outgrow soon. Your music will soothe you, time after time. And you will never outgrow your books. Good authors will become scarce and you will hang on to the old ones for years.

I know you are feeling that you will find many, many friends down the path. Don’t fool yourself. The handful of friends you have now will probably remain your friends all your life. As time will pass, you will find many people who will come and go, maybe fade away, but they will never bother to care for you with that intensity. Whatever friends that had to be made in your life, are already made. So value them. They will see you through sickness and health, despair and hope.

You will find love early in life and this love will stay by your side. You will learn to love the same person in many, many ways as time passes. Do not believe people when they say that love fades over time. You will discover that love is not afraid, love is adaptable and love can survive almost any onslaught.

Don’t judge your parents in a hurry – they are doing their best. You will do much worse when you will be in their role. You will look back and marvel at the kind of parents you had, because you will realize how difficult it is to give your children roots as well as wings, without fumbling, without misjudging and without making a thousand errors.

Do not bother to hero-worship role models. Your heroes will suddenly develop feet of clay. The people you once looked upto will suddenly start looking hollow and pretentious. You will find yourself alone many times, with no guiding light except your own intuition and instincts to guide you. So go ahead, have faith in yourself.

You are not as vulnerable as you feel just now. And not as sensitive either. You will surprise yourself and others around you when you will display nerves of steel in adversity. You will fall many times, unexpectedly. Life will throw unpleasant surprises at you from time to time. But you will cope. You will make it. You have made it. See, here you are, after two decades, looking back with satisfaction. And that’s all that matters.