{"id":4523,"date":"2014-03-12T12:09:49","date_gmt":"2014-03-12T20:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/howlheritage.com\/?p=4523"},"modified":"2016-01-28T09:50:52","modified_gmt":"2016-01-28T17:50:52","slug":"14-year-old-me-by-gage-thomas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/howlheritage.com\/?p=4523","title":{"rendered":"14 YEAR OLD ME by Gage Thomas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Gage_Writing\"<\/a><\/div>\n
\nhttp:\/\/howlheritage.com\/media\/2014\/03\/letter-to-14-year-old-final.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<\/div>\n
Dear 14-year-old me,<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n

Didn’t see you there, with you down on the floor feeling sorry for yourself. Get up!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Come on, don’t be such a wimp. I’m just kidding.<\/span><\/span>Need a hand? You’re going to need to figure out how to get up yourself sooner rather than later. I guess this is where I should tell you to never give up, never surrender and all that other motivational crap, but I’m not going to do that.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Let me get really, really real with you right now. I’m not going to sugar coat it, I’m not going to beat around the bush, I’m going to tell you straight up, straight to the point.<\/span><\/div>\n
Life sucks sometimes. <\/span><\/div>\n
That is the truth.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
There will be days where you wish the world did not exist, there will be days where you feel like you don’t even have enough motivation to raise a spoonful of cereal to your mouth.<\/span><\/span>Sometimes life feels great. It is all part of the deal.<\/span><\/span>Life is like a bagel, often times you have it fresh, warm, and delicious, but<\/span> sometimes it is just cold, hard, and inedible.<\/span><\/span>Right now you may be feeling down; in fact, you may feel like no one understands you at all. I do.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I’ve been there, I know what you’re thinking. I mean, I am you after all<\/span>.<\/span><\/div>\n
But right now, I don’t care what you think because this is my letter to you, not your letter to <\/span>me.<\/span>Go<\/span> ahead, stay inside of your safe zone by yourself and keep calling yourself a loser. Or you could get up. Go outside of your comfort zone and be more daring.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
You don’t need me. You don’t need any of this motivational speaker garbage, you’ll be fine. But I’m here anyway.<\/span><\/span>You’ve got to learn to take risks.<\/span><\/div>\n
Life is too short for you to stay holed up in your room as an introvert.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The parts that you hate about yourself will change, they will make you want to slam your head against a wall. The parts I hate about you will change. Sometimes I wish I had a time machine to help you myself because thinking about you frustrates<\/span><\/span> me sometimes.<\/span><\/span>I assure you, you will change. Personality is like the disposable parts of our body, like our skin cells. We shed the unwanted parts and then make newer, better parts.<\/span><\/span>I guess this is just my way of telling you that everything is going to be alright.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
You’ll find that at times you struggle to find out who you are, but just go with it. Don’t try to change yourself, it will happen naturally. You don’t need to copy the things that other people do. You don’t need to copy what the ‘cool’ kids do. In the future, you will laugh at how you are acting now.\u00a0<\/span>Don’t apologize for being you and take things more lightly.<\/span><\/span>Don’t take things so seriously, learn to laugh at yourself and be less self critical.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
When you’re terrible at something, don’t cry about it, laugh about it, take it in stride.<\/span><\/div>\n
Be more relaxed about things, it will take so much of the stress off of your life. You will virtually have no stress.<\/span><\/span>I’ll keep this short and sweet for your primitive little brain (I’m kidding again, you’re smarter now than I am in all likeliness).\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Things will get better. If you quit now, you don’t stop things from getting worse, you prevent things from ever getting better.<\/span><\/span>Those are words to live by, stop worrying so much.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I guess I am pretty close to the end here, so let me give you some quick list on<\/span><\/span> future events that will happen and the things you should do:<\/span><\/span>DON’T TRY THE WET BREAD CHALLENGE. You will be better off.<\/span><\/span>Unless you want a broken nose, I suggest to never ride broken, rusty scooters.<\/span><\/span>You should also consider a career in writing, you will surprise yourself.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And finally, you will solve your weight problem, you will! Trust me.<\/span><\/span>That does it, ye<\/span><\/span> old chap. Just be yourself, don’t give up, and motivational words, et cetera, et cetera.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Now get on out there and start slaying them, you beautiful son of a gun.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
Sincerely,<\/div>\n
your<\/span><\/span> 18 year old self, Gage Thomas<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear 14-year-old me, Didn’t see you there, with you down on the floor feeling sorry for yourself. Get up! Come on, don’t be such a wimp. I’m just kidding.Need a hand? You’re going to need to figure out how to get up yourself sooner rather than later. I guess this is where I should tell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,30,18],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-4523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nonfiction","category-podcast","category-sidebar","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/howlheritage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/howlheritage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/howlheritage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howlheritage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howlheritage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4523"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/howlheritage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5618,"href":"https:\/\/howlheritage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4523\/revisions\/5618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/howlheritage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howlheritage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howlheritage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}