A friend of mine takes considerable pride in the fact that if she were to meet her eleven year old self now, she’s sure they’d be best friends. Which got me thinking: how would my eleven year old self react to the person I am now?
When I was eleven I spent most of my time watching the news and reading books, habits I still carry with me today. I still like true crime TV shows and still appreciate drawing, painting, and running around outside. I’m afraid, however, that’s the extent of our similarities.
Since I was eleven, I’ve had six years of learning about people, friendship, family, hard work, and existence which have drastically changed who I am and who I will be. When I was eleven my biggest goal was to one day be blond, like the popular girls in my class. In those six, transformative years I’ve learned to be accept my appearance like it is and strive for greater things than fame and popularity. Furthermore, when I was eleven I hated school immensely, emphatically. Now, my education is my greatest source of accomplishment and I go to school everyday eager to learn and challenge myself.
If eleven year old me met me today she’d probably think I was a nerd and maybe even a failure, afterall I am more than halfway through high school and have yet to have the experiences and romance Gabriella Montez had in the High School Musical movies. I am so different from how I was when I am eleven and I’m not too upset about it, in fact I’m overjoyed. If our truest selves are who we are when we are young, then what is the point of life? I’ve changed a lot, but I’m confident I’ve changed for the right reasons and cannot wait to see how much my 23 year old self is different from who I am now.
