Daily writing prompt

What advice would you give to your teenage self?

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Dear Younger Me,

I know you don’t feel like enough right now. You feel like an afterthought, like you’re not a priority. I know how much it stings when people don’t show up for you, when they make you feel invisible or unimportant. And if we’re being honest, that feeling didn’t start with them—it started way before, when you felt abandoned as a kid. When you had no choice but to accept that the people who were supposed to be there… weren’t.

But here’s what I need you to know: You are enough. You always have been.

Your worth isn’t tied to who stays or who leaves. It’s not based on how much effort someone else puts into you. You don’t have to prove anything to anyone. You matter simply because you are you.

One day, everything is going to shift. When you become a parent, you’ll see things differently. The moment you hold your child, something inside you will finally make sense. You’ll realize that love isn’t supposed to feel uncertain. That you don’t have to earn it. That you deserve the same love and care you so easily give to others. And through your child’s eyes, you’ll start to see yourself the way you should have all along.

It won’t happen overnight. Confidence takes time. Healing takes time. But you’ll get there. You’ll stop doubting yourself so much. You’ll stop looking for validation in places that never had it to give. And one day, you’ll wake up and know—really know—that you are enough, just as you are.

So if I could tell you one thing? Believe in yourself more. You are not hard to love. You are not hard to care for. You are not a burden. You matter. You always have, and you always will.


With love,
Your older (and finally wiser) self