Meerkat Prompts: If you could visit your younger self, what would you say to him?
This prompt was offered to me by the ever-wonderful Rawen Wolf, and this kind of reflection is often a fascinating exercise.
If I were to visit say, 18 year-old me, fresh out of the sixth form and entering the working world, I would suggest calming down. I could be a bit hyper, for lack of a better word, and tried too hard to be the joker of the pack. I would urge myself to be more comfortable in my own skin. I would suggest to myself that I stop fretting, and focus more on what was in front of me.
I think I would offer similar advice to 16 year-old me too, only in this instance it would be more about paying attention to coursework, knuckling down in the sixth form, and the like. I might also suggest that I go to the gym, and I would almost certainly suggest getting tattoos! Then again, that wouldn’t be legal till 18, so perhaps that advice would be for my 18 year-old self. I also suspect I’d receive serious pushback on that one, not least of all from myself!
Now, if I could, I would also pass on the outcomes of major sporting events, with the suggestion of placing a few bets, but that might be considered less advice, and more rigging the system 🙂
