for my younger self

by Brooke Summers-Perry, co-founder, coach, collaborator

In my search for writing prompts, I often run across the question, what advice would you give your younger self?

Now that I know what I know, what I’d offer my younger self is less of a knowledge dump and more of a self-empowerment training program. What I could have used then was a safe place to talk about how hard it was to be me. What I could have used was a group or even just one person who could handle hearing my pain without rushing me through it to get to the bright side and the “you just need to”s. What I wanted was to tell someone was how hard it was to wear the mask I wore. What I really needed was to shed the shame of the religious influence that kept me from forgiving and accepting myself. What I could have used was a way to express my pain without feeling more guilt and shame for bringing down my parents and friends.

If I could go back, I would give myself a creative community,

not to learn and train to be an artist or become a published writer. Rather, to give myself the prompts I needed to get all that muck out of my mind and out of my body. I would show myself how to journal more effectively, how to approach my big feelings not with guilt and shame but with curiosity and respect. I would give myself the gift of a group that respects each other and their big thoughts and feelings. I would show them how to discover the longings under the frustrations and the needs language to advocate for choices that serve them, not what everyone else thought would be best for them.

I can’t go back. I can pull these things forward.

We, the content developers and facilitators of WPL, are bringing these things forward, for our inner children and for the youth who are navigating a lot more bad news and challenges than I did as a teen.