I Met My Younger Self for Coffee…

I recently saw this trend on Instagram and thought I’d take the opportunity to turn it into a blog because as a photographer who is always capturing such raw moments for people, I thought it may be nice to give you all some insight into my life:

I met my younger self for coffee.

She was 10 minutes early. I arrived just on time. We both nervously waited in our cars for the other.

She wore the latest Abercrombie and Hollister fashion. I wore leggings, Nikes, and an oversized sweatshirt.

She ordered a Mocha Frappuccino. I ordered an iced coffee, black with a splash of cream.

She asked if I made it as a Broadway singer. I told her we pivoted in our dream, but we still belt it out in the car and the shower.

“If not a singer, then what?,” she wondered. I told her we took a long career journey to the place we are now, in a job we love, working with students who need intensive emotional support in a specialized school. 

She was floored to hear this. I assured her it’s meant to be.

I added that we own our own photography business and we capture families’ and couple’s most precious moments. She looked around, wondering if she was sitting down with the right older version of herself. I promised her she was.

She lamented the heartbreak of her first high school boyfriend, the one who taught her how to drive and was there for her when her mom got sick when she was 16. I promised her she would experience the truest of loves in her life, each one molding and shaping her to become her best self.

She insisted she’d never be a mother, children just aren’t of any interest to her. I showed her pictures of my two handsome sons. She was shocked that we’d become a mother and that raising boys, not girls as she expected, was the best thing that ever happened to us.

She questioned if she’d ever truly find herself amidst a sea of friends who all seemed to know who they were and where they were headed in life. I paused…and told her it would take us until 31-years-old to truly know what it meant to feel alive, but that each passing day would bring us closer to who we were meant to be. Nearing 40 is when we’d feel like we were crushing it in life.

She circled back, “if there are children, who do I marry?” With a sigh, I told her we’d be married more than once, but that we’d be most at peace, satisfied, and confident when we are independent. 

Before she left, she asked for my advice. “What would you tell me now? What have you learned that I don’t yet know?” “Seek discomfort,” I said, “and the world will be your oyster.”