A Letter To My 16-Year-Old Self
It’s been awhile. 2018 flew by and it’s May. Moved on to a new company, a new industry and new role in April. Looked back at the year and realised that’s the key highlight of the year, while everything’s pretty much on hold. Just like every transition, it’s gonna take time, but I must say I’m blessed that it’s one of the smoothest I can ever ask for, with lovely colleagues around me. Now I just need to find my place and set my roots of growth.
The reason why I’m here is because I chanced upon a blog called ‘Letters of The Law’ (Link here) and read letters that local lawyers wrote to their young selves. And I thought “That’s a great idea! What would I say to my young self? Let’s try this!” Here I am.
A Letter To My 16-Year-Old Self
Dear Ke Qin,
By now, you would be really excited for the next stage of education, yet full of nerves. You wouldn’t have given much thought into which Junior College to go, as long as it’s one, because you just love the uniform (How very silly you would think back in future). For the past 10 years of your life, you’ve never truly dreamed how far you could go, as all you held was fear in your ability to get on to the next step.
You wouldn’t have known how huge an impact your Junior College would have made to you, and how blessed you are when God presented you a miracle to switch to your dream Junior College at the last minute. What came after was a huge milestone in life you would never forget.
Not only had you gained a huge circle of close friends, most importantly, it brought out the leader in you and you found your calling, your identity and sense of belonging in this world. I shall not tell you how that happened. But it truly is a blessing.
Through many obstacles, it would bring out the strength you’ve never seen, as well as the optimism and faith that carried you through them. You would be burning with dreams and passion. Not only that, you would have found the fighter in you (Never lose it).
Next, come University (Yes congratulations you ‘made it’). It opened you up to choices you were thankful for, where you would have met smart and awesome people. You would be surprised as God would present you with signs that guide you to a course you never imagined. University would be completely out of your comfort zone. You would find yourself burdened by starting off from the bottom, finding it hard to climb. There, you would work very hard by doing all the things you could to secure a good job upon graduation (This would not include just G.P.A, and you would have already known that).
But my advice to you would be to not fear. As much as the first job is key, live your University days to the fullest. Join activities you never expected, challenge your limits (think sports). Make more friends outside of your faculty. Develop yourself as a person. There is no one path to success.
Life is certainly more than getting on to that next step (of which wasn’t defined by you from the start).
Dare to dream — further. Never limit yourself. Don’t be afraid. You would meet a wise friend who would tell you “What’s the worst it could get?” and it would change your entire perspective of Life.
Keep writing and read broadly. (You have always loved that since you were a kid). Because knowledge truly is power.
Time would be your most precious commodity and you would always seem to struggle with that. To a point, you would try to remove the extra activities in your life and save all the time just for your loved ones, but you would find your heart aching for so much more.
So, the key would be to not simply ‘delete’, but be mindful and clear on what activities in life that would make your heart pump a little faster, that makes you feel happy and fulfilled, go for them! And remember, time for yourself is as important as that of others.
Many more things would happen in life and you would learn that this is just the beginning. And life truly is an adventure (if you let it). Go with the flow, let it take you. Stay excited.
You would find so much love in life, including the love for yourself. And you would understand what it means when they say ‘The world is your oyster”. So embrace it — positively (no matter what happens).
Last of all, I shall leave you with one last advice —
Always remember that beautiful woman you dream to become and go for it.
With love,
A much older Ke Qin
(May 2018)
