Dear Younger Me,
It’s okay now, you are free to be you
and live your life in a way that feels true.
No more pressure having to mask …
was just being you too much to ask?
You were made to feel like you were wrong
when all you wanted was to belong.
In trying so hard to be like everyone else
somewhere, somehow, you lost a part of yourself.
What makes you you (the essence of your uniqueness)
had been misinterpreted as your greatest weakness.
You now know your personal worth
and can hold your head high going forth.
It’s okay to be congruently you –
Just live your life in a way that feels true.
With love from the Older Me
who has walked many a mile in your shoes.
© Julie Ann Bryant 2013
Please read: Intellectual Property and Terms of Use
This poem, as it appears on my webpage, has also been saved to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
This poem first appeared in my book, Not What You See (2026), page 87. Here is my back-story to this poem …
I have always had a strong sense of myself as being different to my peers, so when I was diagnosed with autism in my 50s it came as no surprise. It did, however, help explain and put into context my life experiences as I remember and understand them. This is another poem in my “Dear Younger Me” series.