#writingtap day 066 — A message from the past: kind reminder.
It was fun reading old written notes. I happened to find this in my note, and this came from 19-years-old me. I really appreciate this note, it’s like a message for my future self. This encourage me to actually write more. Like, you would never expect some witty things come from your younger self. So, here goes:
Today, (or should I say, yesterday?), I have a really interesting experience, yet annoying at some point. Here’s the recap of what I learned:
- You have reasons why you can’t talk out someone who’s not in the right mind; so you don’t have to respond to any of it.
- In order to keep your mind safe, live your life the way humans should live theirs: eat healthy, watch fun movies or TV series, read as much book as you can, also pray and rely on God. Do something useful.
- Ever heard of reflecting on one’s self before others? Don’t blame anything stupid for whatever bad part that’s ever occurred in your life.
- Let’s not outsmart people by guessing whatever’s going on in someone’s mind; let their thoughts be theirs, they will tell you if they want to (or if they feel like to).
- Every part of your life is just chapter and chapters of a book; which when it’s going to end, it will be ended. Nothing bad in your life will last forever; unless you wish for it.
Whilst for mine, I’m grateful I’ve ever asked God to stop whatever things that aren’t in order, to select every person who doesn’t bring any good in my life (which I mean, those whom I won’t even feel like I have anything to lose, if they’re gone). See this: not only God’s arranging your life (in this case, selecting your circle), but mine as well, and also others’. I don’t have anything to worry about. I might be the one who’s bad for you; vice versa.
I don’t even bother about what impact I bring to your life: because in the end, I only have myself and my God. I take care of my own self. If I leave you a good impression, then great! If I don’t, then the door is always open for you to leave.
If people still aren’t satisfied about proving you wrong, perhaps you should just ignore them. Just… Live a happy life! When you write down your story, write a good one; one which you won’t regret reading it over and over, and over…..
How I perceive this now is rather different. First, don’t debate with people who don’t want to be convinced. Everyone has his/her own version of reality. You don’t exchange ideas through a debate. Someone must allow and give access to others; then and only then, they’ll get the new ideas. Live by focusing on improving your life quality. Take care of what matters, make good habits. Listening and talking to people of matter can also be good habit
About the third point, I just saw a tweet earlier today from Mark Manson:
While something bad might not fully be our fault, we are responsible to act responsibly in various situation. We cannot control what happened to us just seconds ago, even years back from this point. How we act though — choosing the better options — is fully to our liking. We can choose course of what happen next: how we act.
Next up, my past self said not to try reading others’ mind — or predict, actually. Even though you have hunches, it’s just not your place to have the say. Some intuitive kind of person have this strong hunch they felt it’s always right. From my experience since 2016 up to this point: always challenge yourself that there might be other sides to things, while considering your intuition. Intuition is there to help us tackle things faster. Wisdom is not to jump into conclusion right away just from past knowledges.
Last part of my point from 19-years-old me: things are bound to end. From my point of view now, it’s neither good or bad. It’s neutral, it’s only natural that things are dynamic. Knowing that things would end means we can savor and appreciate the happy moments — with the same message we know that persevering through the storms make it a whole different context. Things will end, we can’t choose how the reaction — we can, though, choose our response we’d like to show.
Who would’ve known that 19-years-old someone can give you unexpected wisdom? I think I owe it to my new knowledge which add, enrich, the old perspective. I’ve forgotten in what tone the note was written. What matters more is the context I give it now.
Time keeps moving forward, but the past is set in stone, and the future is unknown — the present, though, is up to us! Write things down consistently, starting now! Be surprised — find out what wisdoms you’d find from your current self for your future self. Be someone your future self will be grateful for.
