For today’s #LoveMe Challenge task, I am to write a note to my younger self. Here goes…
Dear younger Nicole –
First of all, for God’s sake, start wearing sunscreen more religiously! If you saw the scar we’re going to have from skin cancer, you’d bathe in SPF 50 right now. That being said, we both know how much the sound of waves on a beach relaxes us, so keep going there to clear your mind – just find some damn shade instead of trying to coax your skin to be bronze. I know you don’t know who Cate Blanchett is yet, but she’s beautiful and pale as milk. Trust me on this one.
In college, continue to have the fun we enjoyed. If I knew then how fondly I was going to look back on those days, I would have tried to enjoy every drop of it. I mean, still study and get an education – but all those angsty days of worrying about the future? Psssttt, nothing is going to work out exactly as you planned anyway…Might as well use that time for more unproductive fun and silliness. Believe me, on the other side of adulthood, there’s plenty of time to worry about crap that won’t work out exactly the way you plan…
Go to Europe on that backpacking trip but stay even longer than I did. There are very few times in your life when you have the ability to take months to go traipse around Europe: at the beginning of your career, and retirement. I’m here to tell you – making it to retirement is not guaranteed. I found out the hard way, you don’t get to take it for granted that you’ll grow old. And when you get to Budapest, be a little more bold… you’ll know what I mean…
Soak up all the cultural and artistic stuff available to you. I regret taking those experiences for granted, especially now when they seem to be so few and far between. You and Josh get to do some really neat adventures to live theater, the orchestra, ballet, and the museums. Instead of worrying that other people wouldn’t know that you’re just friends, revel in the fact that you have a cultured and engaged person excited to share those experiences with you. And the wild nights at Howl at the Moon will make you smile 20 years later…
You’ll have to make many other decisions and you’ll think about the road not taken. “What if” never goes away so you can only follow your instincts and do what you think is best. I still think about how differently life would have been had I given Colorado Springs a chance…
Go to as many hockey games as you can. Travel as often as possible. Don’t worry about the disapproval of your bosses for taking all the vacation time granted to you. You won’t be at those jobs forever, but those memories of those trips will remain with you forever. Visit your grandparents a little more often. Exercise a little more often. Snuggle with Max a little more often. Be silly and laugh a little more often. Life shouldn’t be as serious as you make it out to be some times. And buy that purse in Maui. For 10 years, I’ve been trying to find another one and I’m coming up empty…
Seriously, about that sunscreen…