dear my younger self

welcome to introspection ft. harsehaj! ⭐️ i’m harsehaj, an 18 y/o always up to something in social good x tech.

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btw, feel free to reply with topic ideas you want me to write about for future posts.

onto today’s topic: dear my younger self 👶 

i was a pretty focused kid, and that might be a good thing, but it also restricted my willingness to invest time in things that are outside the path i envisioned for myself: becoming a doctor.

my thought process in middle school was always, “will this help me get into the ib program?” my thought process for a large chunk of high school was, “will this help me get into my top choice university?”

my decisions were always based on how they would help me get to my next step, rather than acknowledging long-term potential and internal growth. 🧘‍♀️ 

something i’ve realized lately is that no matter how sharp your spike is in a certain skill or subject, the world is and always will be interdisciplinary.

so to my younger self: open your worldview.

i remember turning away from interesting clubs and unique opportunities simply because they were outside the scope of medicine and weren’t building my resume “productively.”

why does a middle schooler even need to care about that? 😭 

while building that focus, drive and discipline at a young age has definitely helped me to this day, i wish my younger self was a little more carefree and willing to veer off the precise course i had mapped out for myself.

there’s a built-in societal pressure to always know what we want to do when we grow up. to always know what the next step is. to always know what the 5 year plan is.

to always be certain.

i wish my younger self realized that it was okay to be uncertain, because certainty only creates boxes and restriction. uncertainty gets rid of expectations and enables a willingness to push limits.

advice for my younger self summed up? stop chasing the next step.

what would you say to your younger self?

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