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Erin graduated from college in May 2008 and was surprised at the lack of resources for college students about what the transition into the "real world" is really like. In an effort to share her experience as a recent college graduate and create a resource for college students and recent grads, she created College Grad Lessons.

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Letter to Myself at Age 11

Katie posted the following prompt on Twenty Something Writers:

If you were able to communicate with your younger self, what would you say? Would you warn yourself of the things that are to come? Would you tell yourself to avoid certain people? Write a letter to yourself at a younger age. Feel free to tell yourself anything that you’d like to. Let us know what age of yourself you are writing to.

In a previous post, I happened to write about where I want to be in 10 years. I figured it would make sense to write my response to myself 10 years ago. Here is my response:

Dear 11-year-old Erin,

Right now you’re in fifth grade and looking forward to middle school. You recently got into the Math/Science/Technology magnet middle school, but not the English/Social Sciences program that many of your friends are attending. While you are tempted to go to your home middle school to reunite with friends from your neighborhood area and not be a “nerd,” I’d like to ask you to strongly consider the magnet middle school.

If you attend your home middle school, 10 years from now you will be a web developer and trainer at the college you graduate from and will be wishing that you had embraced your interest in computers while growing up. You’ll be preparing to go to graduate school to finally study what you’re passionate about. Ten years from now you will find a passion that you avoided. Those ten years could be used to develop incredible skills.

Pursue your interests and passions, even if it’s the less “cool” thing to do. At 21, you’ll wish that you had gone to the tech magnet school, studied computer science in college and not worried about what others thought. Math and science aren’t subjects meant for boys. You can study anything you want.

Sincerely,

21-year-old Erin

This entry was posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 at 6:25 pm and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

6 Responses to “Letter to Myself at Age 11”

  1. Katie Says:
    March 16th, 2009 at 8:24 pm

    AWESOME, Erin.

    Oh, and just to kind of let you know, that when you posted the link to your ‘response’ it was totally the link to the TSW website.

    Haha.

    Do it again! It made me laugh!

  2. Erin Says:
    March 16th, 2009 at 8:27 pm

    Thanks Katie! Just reposted the link to my response on Twenty Something Writers. :-) You’re the best!

  3. Matt C. Says:
    March 16th, 2009 at 10:10 pm

    This is great Katie. You’ve inspired me to do one of these of my own in the near future. Really puts some things in perspective, eh?

  4. liz Says:
    March 16th, 2009 at 10:12 pm

    This was cute. Math and Science totally aren’t subjects just for boys.

  5. f.B Says:
    March 17th, 2009 at 4:14 pm

    not getting intimidated by doing the less cool thing is really solid advice. i wonder how things would’ve been different had i known how to do that…

  6. Erin Says:
    March 18th, 2009 at 7:40 am

    Matt - You should definitely write one! It’s lots of fun and look forward to reading yours. :-)

    Liz - Yes! Just wish I understood that as a teenager. My dad even bought be all sorts of computer/science stuff. As his oldest daughter…I always just thought it was because I was the closest he’d get to a son lol.

    f.B - Yeah, as much as I wish I had embraced these subjects…sometimes I wonder if I would have gotten sick of them and ended up doing something else as career.