The 8 Year Old Me (Inspirational Friday)

I was a shy child. I sat in my desk at school, quietly taking notes and listening intently to my teacher. I was a good student with a few close friends. Middle school is where it all changed for me. I was still shy but I no longer had those close friends (they were at the middle school across town). I had glasses, braces, and acne galore. After school, I would return home and play American Girl dolls with my sister. We were obsessed with the Bratz TV show and pretended our dolls were Cloe, Yasmin, Sasha, and Jade. My sister and I always looked up to the Bratz because beyond their long hair, perfect makeup, and amazing wardrobe, they were 4 unstoppable best friends who instilled a sense of girl power into the viewers and taught girls everywhere that anything is possible. But in middle school, my dreams felt far from possible.

There's a quote that reads: if your 8 year old self met you, would they be proud? This happened to pop into my head during my shower today and got me thinking. If 8 year old me met the current me, I think she'd be awestruck. I don't think she would've expected me to be such a confident and successful woman. She would love that I live near Old Orchard Beach (somewhere 8 year old me always wanted), found an amazing boyfriend, and still remain a child at heart. Above all, she would admire that I grew up to be just like the Bratz - fearless, ambitious, kind-hearted, and creative.

We grow up each and every year. Sure we grow physically from birth to ~18 years but we are always growing. Since moving to college I've had to stand up for myself more, learn to argue effectively (#roommatessuck), manage my time, cook actual meals, etc. My surgery was a year ago and going from trying to have sex to not being able to have sex to crying about not being able to have sex to going to therapy because that was the only option left to finally having sex was a huuuge deal and that was only 4 months! My point here is that we are constantly growing from week to week, month to month, year to year.

I think it's so important to take some time and think about how much you've grown as a person. Back to the quote I used at the beginning, I almost think it'd be cooler to travel back in time and visit your 8 year old self. Just to take a moment to talk to her and say, "Hey, it's gonna be alright. This is what you're life will be like in 'x number of years.'" Maybe then growing up wouldn't be so scary.