Life at Hope College

A Letter to My Past Self

Yesterday I was sitting on the carpet of my room, typing on my laptop, and a thought occurred to me.

“Isn’t it weird how one day, at a particular time, your brain reminds you of something you haven’t thought about in over a year?” I looked up at my friend, who was standing nearby.

“It is pretty bizarre,” she replied. Because at that moment, I remembered the blog I started during my senior year of high school. I typed in the URL and I revisited “high school Sophie.” Each post made me laugh, reminding me of all of the little things that seemed so big at the time.

I wrote for the moment, because I didn’t know where I was going.

So much has changed since then.

College naturally makes me move faster. I’ve entered my major classes, I’m closer to completing course requirements, and I’m counting credit after credit. I hear the constant question, “What do you want to do when you graduate?” and I have a Pinterest board for an apartment I don’t own. I act like I know what I’m doing, and I think I know where I’m going, but in reality, I scarcely know what will happen tomorrow, let alone the rest of today.

Little Sophie, you had it right.

There are so many things to enjoy right where you are. You don’t have to worry about falling in love and finals week of next semester or even what you’re going to wear tomorrow. Start now. Look at what you have right now. There’s no sense in living for Friday and leaving Monday behind. Each day is an opportunity to be a little closer to building the future, because we can’t build the future by starting there. We build it by starting now.

Sometimes [drawing] from past experience is exactly where our future should lead. (I drew this for an assignment in my drawing II class).

We take each grace, and take it day by day, leading us a little closer to the destination.


Questions as you continue your college search? Want to know what I’m up to? Follow me @hopesophie17. Do you have questions, or just want to chat?

Exit mobile version