Tomorrow’s the first day of school – a new year, a new team, and new courses are all in store for me. In preparation, I’ve been thinking about one of the questions we used during our team building exercises: What advice do you wish you’d been given as teenager? Here’s my attempt at an answer:
I wish someone had told me that I’d always feel I have something to prove. That having a chip on your shoulder makes it even more important to seek balance. That sometimes the world throws you off-kilter, and that chip is the only effective counterweight.
I wish someone had told me that I’d never be comfortable being on top. That restlessness is both a blessing and a curse.
I wish I’d been told that life isn’t linear. That the danger of singular pursuit of goals is that your goals become singular. The higher you climb, the steeper the ground beneath you becomes – until you find yourself at a precipice, with only a binary choice: Jump or Back Down.
I wish someone had told me that it’s OK to retreat and lick your wounds. That sometimes that’s the only way to get clean.
I wish I’d been told that you don’t have to like yourself to love yourself. That it’s possible to acknowledge your own weaknesses, to recognize the ways in which you’ve engendered hurt – and still approach yourself with forgiveness and compassion.
Elizabeth DeOrnellas 