10-Year-Old Self Had Higher Expectations For Future Self

My 10-year-old self would be appalled and disappointed to learn that I did not attend Harvard University and that I have not cured cancer. I suppose both of those could still happen, but who am I kidding? In my defense, my 10-year-old self was incredibly naïve, as kids tend to be, and knew nothing about the real world. His biggest life lesson at the time had been the realization that the husky section in the clothing store was for fat kids and that he really needed to lose weight so that his mom would stop taking him there to buy clothes.

The only reason he wrote what he did was because he knew it would sound and look good on paper, which it did. All of my other classmates’ parents read what I wrote and told my parents how they wished their kid had written something so forward-thinking and so ambitious. Most of their kids wrote about how they wanted to play in the NFL or how they wanted to play four-square for the rest of their lives (super unrealistic stuff.) Of course, they all laughed about what I wrote too because they knew I had no idea how the world worked.

I didn’t know that adult human beings need at least 2 hours to sit and drink coffee on the couch while watching TV to prepare for the day. If I had known that a lot of my day was going to be devoted to getting ready for the day, I would’ve realized that curing cancer was going to be harder than I thought.

I also didn’t know that Harvard really only accepts legacies and there’s a very small percentage of applicants who are accepted that don’t have alumni ties to the university. If I had known that I would’ve told my parents to try and attend Harvard years ago so that I would’ve had a chance. Too late to ask them for that now, I guess.

So yeah, I haven’t cured cancer and I have not attended Harvard. 10-year-old me definitely did not see that coming, but what do I care? If I could go back in time, I would tell my younger self that he should try curing cancer and going to an ivy league school with today’s inflation rate. I’m sure he would see things differently.