What Would Your 18-Year-Old Self Think of Your Life Today?

Me at 18. I had no idea where life would take me.

This week, I'm heading north for my 40th high school reunion.

Forty years.

I'm not entirely sure how that happened. 😂

I'll be seeing people who knew me when I was 18 years old—before careers, marriages, children, grandchildren, successes, failures, moves, losses, reinventions and all the other things that somehow become a life.

And it got me thinking.

What would my 18-year-old self think if she could see my life today?

I'm pretty sure she wouldn't have predicted most of it.

I don't think she imagined that one day I'd be living in Florida, sitting on my dock watching sunsets over the water.

She didn't know I'd become a mother and eventually a grandmother.

She certainly didn't know I'd build businesses, have a career in real estate, write a book, own a publishing company or become a speaker.

And I'm fairly certain she had no idea that someday I'd introduce myself as "Your Beach Bestie." 😂

Life has a funny way of taking us places we never could have put on the itinerary.

We Spend So Much Time Planning What's Next

When we're young, life seems enormous.

There is so much time ahead of us.

We imagine where we'll live, what we'll do, who we'll marry, whether we'll have children and what our lives will look like when we're "grown up."

Then we get busy actually living it.

Jobs happen.

Families happen.

Mortgages happen.

Responsibilities happen.

And sometimes the dreams we once had quietly move farther and farther down the list.

Not because we stopped wanting them.

We just got busy being everything we needed to be for everyone else.

So I Have a Question for You

Forget about my reunion for a minute.

Think about you at 18.

What did she want?

Not necessarily the career or the house or the person she thought she'd marry.

What did she want her life to feel like?

Was she adventurous?

Did she want to travel?

Did she love the ocean?

Did she want freedom?

Did she imagine living somewhere completely different?

Did she think she'd try things you still haven't tried?

Now imagine that version of you sitting across the table from you today.

What would she think of the life you've created?

Maybe she'd be amazed by everything you've accomplished.

Maybe she'd be proud of what you've survived.

Maybe she'd laugh at some of the choices you made.

And maybe she'd look at you and ask:

"Are we still going to do that thing we always wanted to do?"

You're Not Finished Yet

That's the part I keep coming back to.

A 40th high school reunion sounds like something that should make you look backward.

I'm choosing to let mine make me look forward.

There are still places I haven't seen.

Things I haven't created.

People I haven't met.

Adventures I haven't had.

And probably a few mistakes I haven't made yet. 😂

I don't know exactly what the next chapter looks like.

Neither did the 18-year-old version of me.

And look where we ended up.

So if there's something you've been putting off because you think you're too old, too settled, too busy or too far along in life to change direction, maybe ask your younger self what she thinks.

She might remind you of something you've forgotten.

Your story isn't finished.

Mine isn't either.

And I have a feeling some of the best parts haven't happened yet.

Your Beach Bestie,Terri