A Letter to my Younger Self

After an inspiring morning with the "Latina Writing Comunidad," I’m excited to share an excerpt from a letter I wrote to my younger self, dedicated to my late mother. Mami wasn’t a college graduate or career woman, but she instilled in my three sisters and me a profound desire to strive for more and be more. For that, I’m forever grateful.

Hello Young Hady

I remember you. You were so fearless. And while I don’t recall all of your dreams and goals, I know you always wanted to be a social worker because of your desire to help others. And that you had a love for writing—it was your way of being creative and using your imagination to think outside of the box.

WOW, young one. How smart and perceptive you were. Even then, you recognized your gifts and knew what you wanted to bring into the world. It may have taken a long time to get here, but you made it. YOU. ARE. HERE. I’m in awe of how you could have so much clarity and self-awareness at such an early age.

I’m still that little girl. And you are me. We are the same. We want the same things. We want to pour into others from a genuine place. We want to give without expectations. We want to spread our light and love. We want to create and share stories from deep in our hearts.

Who are we: we are unstoppable, we want to win, we will use our gifts to help others, we are a great judge of character, we will not allow others to hurt us because we will take ourselves out of situations that cause us harm, we love to express ourselves, we don’t give our hearts to everyone but when we love, we love BIG.

Sometimes: we make bad choices, we forget who we are, we lose ourselves, and we worry too much about what other people think.

Mujercita, hold on tight. Our story is far from over. We have so much more to accomplish and impact to make. Stay strong and focused —there’s so much more to come.

Con mucho cari?o,

La Hady de Ahora