For as long as I can remember, my Auntie Karen took the younger generations of our family on Kids’ Day Out trips. They eventually turned into Girls’ Day Outs because the amount of boys in my family was slim. Girls’ Day Out blessed me with some of my favorite memories. These memories include, seeing Beauty & the Beast in theaters, riding a horse for the first time and declaring my dreams of becoming a ballerina.
This weekend, the Peekaboo PrettyGirl Foundation will host their first ever Girls’ Day. The one day mentoring camp will focus on building relationships with 20+ high school aged girls, through girl talk, vision boards and of course — pizza. Reminiscing about my personal connection to experiencing girls’ day in my childhood, and preparing the Peekaboo event, made me think about all the lessons learned in my 28 years of life.
Image by Tenaciously Tanece for Peekaboo PrettyGirl
After reading Maya Angelou’s Letter to my daughter, I wrote a letter to my 19-year-old self. Besides it being my golden year (I turned 19 on the 19th), it was the year of a few major changes. The year I moved to and from Florida; the year I fell in love, and quickly got my heart broken. Unforunately, the list goes on. Needless to say, a letter was hard to write–let alone publish for the world to see. Here’s a list of things I’d want Young Ace to know.
Words of Wisdom to My Younger Self
Don’t dim your light to make other people comfortable.
You can’t trade in your rough past for an easy future, but it doesn’t work that way.
Don’t the ending of one friendship stop you from embracing another.
Acecily is a dope name.
Don’t let your head write checks your hustle can’t cash.
Be the example the best example of what it takes to love you.
What would you say to your younger self?
I wrote a similar piece wondering the same, but I guess that’s the flow of life. With time comes knowledge and that’s ok because everything happens for a reason. Cheers to continuedo growth!
Yesss, I’ll drink to that! 🙂
-Ace
The Palmetto Peaches recently posted…Goodbye Summer: Bucket List Revisited
Great words of wisdom and grace. Wish we could tell our younger selves that!
Right?! But who knows where we’d be without the life experiences we’ve had. Thank for reading!
– Ace
I love the first one! When you dim your light you compromise who you are and that is no good. Thanks for sharing these!
That’s one of my favorites that I still forget to do sometimes. Thank you for reading!
-Ace
Acecily is a dope name…and yes! Don’t write checks your hustle can’t cash. If I could go back, I would want my 19 year old self to know leaving college is a good thing-not one she has to put off an extra semester of misery I’ve actually done something like this before for therapy!
Why thank you 🙂 And yes, I spent 3 semesters at a private college because my ego wouldn’t let me take a year off. A very expensive decision.
– Ace