It Was Worth Trying
To the twelve-year-old who thought she wouldn't make it: you did. And you're only just getting started.
August Letters-01
12th August, 2026.
(P.S: This letter was written in August 2026 by a participant in our pen-pal project, addressed to their pen pal. We’re sharing it here with permission. August’s theme is A vulnerable letter to my younger self…)
Dear Stranger,
Ten years ago, you fell asleep before school with one earbud in your ear, tears spilling from your eyes and leaking through your pillowcase. You didn’t understand why your mind wouldn’t relax. You didn’t see a future where you could go to college, make friends, and be successful.
School was the biggest obstacle in your life, and while everything is dramatized at twelve, you took things to a new extreme. Small things that were out of your control, like having a partner in gym class, sent you into a panic attack. You spent more time trying to find ways to stay home from school, CPS be damned, than planning sleepovers with the girls in your class.
Did they even like you anyway?
I think that they did. I think they were concerned for you. They wanted to connect with you, but you pushed them away. It’s better to push someone away before they can do it to you first, right?
We’re still learning how to curb that instinct. We still don’t know why we have that reaction.
Don’t worry, though. Things get better in high school. It might seem like it’s a long way off, but it’s true what the adults say: it sneaks up on you, and then it flies by.
Therapy is back, by the way. It’s less stigmatized now, and you’re actually proud to admit that you need help. Where you once saw it as a weakness—and sometimes you still do—now you can appreciate what it means to ask for help.
We don’t talk about the weather and brush over my subtle OCD tendencies. We confront the issue head-on and work proactively to combat our anxiety. Steph is great. She fosters a judgment-free zone, and while it’s hard to speak your thoughts into fruition, she never pushes you too hard.
I think about you all of the time.
The little girl who thought she was so grown up, holding herself together the best that she can in what I can only describe as the hardest years of her life.
Sometimes you wondered if you were going to make it. If it was even worth trying to make it.
It was so, so worth it.
You made it.
Three months ago, you graduated college with your RN degree, surrounded by friends who became family. Girls who rubbed your back as you broke down in the bathroom, shattered from grief, and made you laugh so hard you thought your lungs were going to burst.
In two weeks, you’re going to start your dream job on a cardiac floor. It’s not pharmacy, like you originally wanted, but it’s a new career that you fell in love with. You were skeptical at first, but now you can’t imagine who you would be without it.
Tomorrow, you’re moving to your very first apartment. You’re terrified, of course, and wondering if it’s too soon to leave home. But you’re also craving the full independence that college didn’t give you. You can’t wait to have a space to fully call your own.
I am so proud of you.
I know you won’t believe me, and I know you won’t accept that you’ve done anything to be proud of.
But reflecting on what you had to overcome, with so few resources and what felt like so few allies, is truly something to admire. You have a kind heart, and you are selfless, even when you feel like you aren’t.
You are just getting started.
You are going to do so many good things in this world.
It’s worth trying to make it.
You’re worth so much.
With Love,
Anonymous
This letter was written as part of our global pen-pal exchange —“With Love, Anonymous.”
Each month, hundreds of readers around the world write and receive letters on life, love, and becoming.
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