Memoirs Q43: What advice would you give to your Younger Self?

I guess it would depend on how young we're talking about. I would like to think that I was sensitive and had a good sense of empathy even in younger years, so I would have to either focus on reaching out in that regard - or make my younger self realize that I would need to strengthen certain aspects of myself more.

I would certainy tell myself to invest in stocks. Apple, Amazon, Meta and the likes. :D From a life lesson perspective, I would say have patience. There wa a time I was wondering why I wasn't getting a girlfriend - that's okay. I would be meeting someone real special around my late 20s, and she would turn out to be my wife. We'd be married a whole lot longer than my parents, so no worries about perpetuating the same mistakes.

But honestly, I would also mention a few things I might need to do better. No highly dramatic mistakes to avoid - thank God for that. So yeah... patience, stay grounded, you're doing fine. No need to get rich at he expense of losing your soul.

If I met my grade school self, maybe help my younger self learn to be more assertive - learn some self defense. Help build confidence level. Thing is, I don't want to overly exagerate a change either. After all, any mistakes made allow for wisdom to step in. So that would be important too. If I were to talk to my fresh into college self, maybe suggest going out less - and focusing on studies more. Maybe shift to Lia Com which would allow me to have more time to adjust into college life, and have a double major. Heck, if I could change life entirely, maybe pursue my initial interest fo Medicine - but that could be too radical a switch.

I would try to keep a lot of things together and not change them if possible - my family for starters. I would love to preserve them.

Edit addition (11/26/25)

I have remembererd how frustrated I was with my family's dynamics - that is, the failed mariage between my Dad and Mom. By the time I was in my latter grade school, I was getting sued to the fact that my mom, with ny maternal grandma, lived separately with us kids - as we moved from place to place, while my dad stayed with my paternal grandma. This is not to say that we did not see him. Out of mutual agreement, he could pick us up on Sundays, and we would spend the day with him.

But there were definitel constraints. There may have been times I would have benefited from a father's presence when dealing with... well, puberty. And life in general. I don't know if what I got instead was the short end of a stick, or a blessing I was unable to see - or was I ust turning lemons into lemonade? I don't know.

Suffice to say, my younger self was adrift in that regard... frustrated. So, had I the chance, I would have sat down with him to assure him that things would get better - not between them, but with me... through the lessons learned from the experience. I would apprecaite love and support of family - that would in turn make me a better dad. It wouldn't be the answer my yuounger self may have wanted... but at least, maybe I would have added more hope to his life.

Maybe I will turn this into a speech. It's too good not to share.