When I Look Back On My Life, Here’s What I Hope To Be Able To Say About My Younger Years

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You were a risk-taker.

You were the kind to dive with your head first, embark on last-minute adventures, ride a freaking rollercoaster with a 80 degree drop despite the full acknowledgement of your weak heart. Your mantra was “you’ll never know until you try.” You hated being bound to repetitive environments and you always seemed to explore the unknown. Your beliefs were firmly rooted on the notion that one has the power to change one’s destiny. Instead of being afraid of the unknown future you were always ever so intrigued by the all the unknown vast opportunities that awaited you. The future never intimidated you, it inspired you. The fact that “anything can happen” in the future was the one thing that spurred you to continue going on. You were never afraid of “taking the path less travelled”. Failure always meant that you tried – and it didn’t matter how many times you tried without success. To you, the journey was always the most rewarding. You aspired to know and do many things. Bungee jumping, running marathons, folding 100 paper origami, getting a work published etc. You had a bucket-list that you swore to tick-off by the end of each year. Now that you’re 70, I hope what remain unchecked in that list is close to none.

You believed in true love.

I hope that by the time you’re reading this, you look to the man that you’ve spent more than half your life with and feel nothing but satisfaction and gratefulness. There might be several heartbreaks along the way, but each and every time you’ve never lost your hope and belief for finding true love – the one. You used to be terrified of love, when you were a lot younger. But I hope that when you’re reading this again, you can look back and tell me what a foolish child I must’ve been for ever thinking that I’d never find the one. I hope that the love you’ve found was tough, bumpy, sometimes painful but fully rewarded with peace and happiness at the end of the day.

You wanted to change the world.

You’ve always wanted to do something for the world. Whether it was to actively get involved in volunteering, or maybe perhaps inspire others along the way. I hope that now you’re 70, you can happily look back and smile at all the good that you’ve done for others. For the paths that you’ve paved for someone else to have a better life. I hope you’ve spread hope and love to at least some people who didn’t receive it from anyone in their lives, and maybe that small act of kindness turned their entire life around. You wanted to be a part of something bigger – something that was in fact a butterfly effect. You wanted to change the world starting with yourself, and I hope by now you have done so in your own little ways.