Dear Younger Me...

It will get better.

I know you don’t believe me right now, but you’ll see eventually. Because I know what rock-bottom feels like, and you haven’t even been there yet. You haven’t yet experienced what it’s like to be shattered to pieces on the rocks and the feeling of your soul being ripped to shreds.

You haven’t felt the gnawing despair of that deep, starless chasm. The frantic search for the smallest ray of hope and coming up dry and empty. The answerless echo of your desperate pleas for help. The way the loneliness seems to swallow you up.

I’m not saying this to frighten you. I’m saying this because I want you to fully know the darkness so that you can fully appreciate the light that comes after.

Because it will come.

You haven’t yet seen the depth of endless night.

But you also haven’t yet seen the breathtaking view of the sun breaking over the horizon. It begins gradually, slowly, so slowly you’re not even sure it’s happening. Then, the warm, golden light starts to pour into your being, repairing your broken soul and piecing together the shattered bits of your heart.

It’s agonizing, this exquisite healing. It’s heart-wrenching for a time. But then, it’s not.

The relief comes, and then the stillness of peace. The knowing that you’ve come out on the other side. At what point it happened, you can’t tell for sure. You only know that you’re there. Alive. Stronger than before.

And it’s beautiful. Glorious. A dream that you are sure you’ll wake up from.

But you pinch yourself, and find that you’re already awake.