Dear Shay,
First thing I want to say is, you did great, I mean you did the thang! I know you were intimidated by this project at first and to be completely honest, you still are. You may be asking how do I know that you succeeded when I haven’t lived it yet, well it’s simply because it was a challenge. Where there are challenges there are opportunities for growth, and when you grow closer to the person you are meant to be that is a success. I am not going to go through all the events that have happened so far, because duh you lived it already. So here are some jewels to look back on and smile either because of the naivety or because our hopes became reality.
Our hopes are wide and our goals are far which can be a blessing and a curse. A curse because of the high expectations and a blessing because of the high expectations. With these hopes can come disappointment, but also can get you into high places where you dreamed of going. With these dreams and hopes, in order to bring them to fruition, you need drive! Which brings me not to our highest hopes but the close seconds of hopes for future me who is also present me, if you are reading this in the future.
I hope you were fearless when creating your proposals and exploring new ideas. I hope you were confident yet humble when presenting them. I hope you were attentive and empathetic to the members of the community and their stories. I hope you were boundless in finding mediums to tell their stories. I simply hope that you were true to yourself and honest with the things you needed to change to better yourself. If you were fearless, confident, humble, and all of these things, then past you, and present me is proud. I love you and as always I hope for the best.
Best,
Past Shay
Thank you for sharing this Shay — I have high hopes of my experience here too and I hope that we can achieve them!
Wow this really resonated with me! It’s so important to remind ourselves of the challenges we’ve already overcome and giving ourselves pats on the back now and then. Especially during the daunting first week when it’s a little hard to see how we are going to accomplish all of the things laid out for the summer, seeing your reminder that getting here was an accomplishment in itself is an unexpected boost for my day and makes me feel like I’m prepared to tackle what lies ahead, so thank you! And thanks for the inspiration to take on the challenge to be ambitious with my goals and proud of the outcome, definitely going to try and remember this throughout the summer!