A Letter to Mini-Bagel

Consoling Your Past Self

Have you ever written a letter to your former self?

Stepping outside yourself to see your life from a different perspective, the 30,000 ft view perhaps, can help illuminate the path you took to get to where you are now, and shed light on the steps forward.

Through my experience in a recent writing cohort (shout out to the Foster crew), my coach suggested that, instead of simply revisiting the email that I wrote in 2010 to my friends when I literally walked out of my job – at the deepest depths of my depression and anxiety – that instead, I consider related writing a letter to my former self.

At the ripe age of 22 years old, I was paralyzed by anxiety-based depression. I was working a job that was both draining and totally incongruent with my personal values, dating a girl on-and-off that was a close friend from college, traveling non-stop, and trying to fill the deep void of depression and loneliness with nights of binge-drinking on the weekends.

Luckily, I had started going to therapy on my own accord, and even sought psychiatric treatment to help manage the symptoms that were infiltrating my work and daily life.

But I was still suffering greatly. I needed help. I needed someone not only to look after me, but to truly understand what I was going through.

Almost a decade and a half later, I truly understand what Mini-Bagel was going through. And I wrote him this letter.

See ya next week!

🥯 Bagel 🥯