Discussion Would your younger self be proud of you?

[MrDarkness]

I've had this thought for awhile, I always think about this question and I can't say why, but If I was able to see my younger self I'd break down, I'd tell him I failed, I failed the promises I made to myself, I failed everyone around me, and how no matter how hard I tried I ended up failing. Thoughts like these make just wanna cry and accept how I'll forever be a fuck up within my own mind, always battling myself and my past

 

[Ongoing_trainwreck]

I've had this thought for awhile, I always think about this question and I can't say why, but If I was able to see my younger self I'd break down, I'd tell him I failed, I failed the promises I made to myself, I failed everyone around me, and how no matter how hard I tried I ended up failing. Thoughts like these make just wanna cry and accept how I'll forever be a fuck up within my own mind, always battling myself and my past

I cannot relate more. Word by word you said.
I've disappointed myself, my younger self would ask: "Who is this?" Because from where I've started and where I'm now... unrecognisable.

 

[leavingsoon99]

I've had this thought for awhile, I always think about this question and I can't say why, but If I was able to see my younger self I'd break down, I'd tell him I failed, I failed the promises I made to myself, I failed everyone around me, and how no matter how hard I tried I ended up failing. Thoughts like these make just wanna cry and accept how I'll forever be a fuck up within my own mind, always battling myself and my past

I'd have to do the same. The younger me had so many dreams and hopes about life. I'd have to break down and tell him that ALL of them were delusions. I'd have to apologize to him for not further developing our love for art and making beautiful things. I owe him so much, and I failed. So, I feel you on this.

 

[TheHuman]

My younger self would say "I won't end up like I'll be the best". I had an unhealthy amount of optimism, and if told them everything, no doubt they would 100% attempt to ctb. I can't blame them for not wanting to suffer anymore than I have, I just wish I could have ctbed when I was younger so I didn't have to live though more of this hell.

 

[sadscotsman]

I actually have a super hard time with this question. I have SEVERE OCD and I have these obsessive fears that I worry other people perceive about me and it's so bad that I often feel like my younger self would absolutely hate me and be so disappointed in me and ashamed of me, but then logically, I know that as a kid I was pretty compassionate towards others and I like to think I'd understand that I'm not a bad person. At least, I don't think I actually am a bad person, it's just my OCD that makes me obssessively question it. I'm not sure, though. There's definitely some things I'd be embarrassed about myself over.

 

[reaching_zer0]

I've had this thought for awhile, I always think about this question and I can't say why, but If I was able to see my younger self I'd break down, I'd tell him I failed, I failed the promises I made to myself, I failed everyone around me, and how no matter how hard I tried I ended up failing. Thoughts like these make just wanna cry and accept how I'll forever be a fuck up within my own mind, always battling myself and my past

My younger self would be so disgusted: I've literally become everything he despised, and failed anything I've dream of. My younger self couldn't understand suicide and the point of it, now not a day pass without me thinking about the final day. I feel you tho, one of the worst thing is that i will never be able to make my parents proud or even happy.
Maybe my death will release them from a weight, I hope so, at least finally something good with come from me.
I wish you the best anyway, nice question, it made me think a bit so thank you.

 

[Kerrtu]

This is an exercise I cannot fully complete yet. It's so fucking hard. Imagining if I could see myself as a kid, what I would tell my child self…would they be proud?

I've never thought if I'd be proud of me. If my younger self would be proud of me…I feel I've failed people I loved. I know it. I tried and it wasn't enough.

 

[MrDarkness]

I actually have a super hard time with this question. I have SEVERE OCD and I have these obsessive fears that I worry other people perceive about me and it's so bad that I often feel like my younger self would absolutely hate me and be so disappointed in me and ashamed of me, but then logically, I know that as a kid I was pretty compassionate towards others and I like to think I'd understand that I'm not a bad person. At least, I don't think I actually am a bad person, it's just my OCD that makes me obssessively question it. I'm not sure, though. There's definitely some things I'd be embarrassed about myself over.

Ah understandable, I just wanted to see what others would say, I hope your able to get ocd to be less severe

This is an exercise I cannot fully complete yet. It's so fucking hard. Imagining if I could see myself as a kid, what I would tell my child self…would they be proud?

I've never thought if I'd be proud of me. If my younger self would be proud of me…I feel I've failed people I loved. I know it. I tried and it wasn't enough.

I just came up with this thought during a shower, but I can understand, personally as a kid, I didn't really care much about my future so I'm also in the same boat kinda

My younger self would be so disgusted: I've literally become everything he despised, and failed anything I've dream of. My younger self couldn't understand suicide and the point of it, now not a day pass without me thinking about the final day. I feel you tho, one of the worst thing is that i will never be able to make my parents proud or even happy.
Maybe my death will release them from a weight, I hope so, at least finally something good with come from me.
I wish you the best anyway, nice question, it made me think a bit so thank you.

Hopefully death can set my spirit free and the weight of my actions, only time will tell

 

[locked*n*loaded]

Not at all. He'd wonder where it all went wrong.

 

[hodbu]

I've had this thought for awhile, I always think about this question and I can't say why, but If I was able to see my younger self I'd break down, I'd tell him I failed, I failed the promises I made to myself, I failed everyone around me, and how no matter how hard I tried I ended up failing. Thoughts like these make just wanna cry and accept how I'll forever be a fuck up within my own mind, always battling myself and my past

Hmm, no because of how fucked up my life turned out, but really I tried my best and it was mostly external factors that made everything so bad like my family.

I had often thought, what if I had a better family who encouraged me to pursue my own talents instead of forcing me to be a robotic minion for them? Maybe my life would be better now.

 

[sadscotsman]

Ah understandable, I just wanted to see what others would say, I hope your able to get ocd to be less severe

I just came up with this thought during a shower, but I can understand, personally as a kid, I didn't really care much about my future so I'm also in the same boat kinda

Hopefully death can set my spirit free and the weight of my actions, only time will tell

Sorry, I just realised it sounded like I was being like "I'm triggered by the question being asked" and that's not what I meant, I just mean that I have a hard time when I do think about it because depending on how my OCD is that day, I can end up going in circles with the same thought for a dumb amount of time. It's silly that it fixates on such a thing.

 

[sometimes.sometimes]

My younger self would break down and cry after realizing that the older version of her hasn't achieved any of the dreams she wanted to come true. I feel like she would cry more at the fact that I never made that video game and that my father left before he was able to teach her how to code. She would cry realizing that she now has scars all over her body. She would cry knowing that even after all of her hard work to feel better, it was fruitless.

Sometimes I just want to go back to when I was eleven and just give her a big hug, or even just start over again from that point.

 

[Hollowman]

My younger self would be disgusted with me. I wish I would've gone through with my plan when I was twelve.

 

[NoLoveNoHope]

Absolutely not, I failed in every meaningful way I could.

 

[delora]

I think it'd be a lot of mixed feelings, but I wouldn't use the word "proud."

My younger self would be surprised at some events that she thought would never happen (leaving abusive house, having a partner who loves me for who I am), and confused as to how despite all of this... the constant tightness in her chest is still there. I'm still anxious, and still contemplate dying. This would probably frustrate her.

She would also be very disappointed that we haven't achieved anything — and that her older version is just not putting in effort. I know that right now I deal with so much less shit than young me dealt with on a daily basis, and yet she was doing so much more. She had a lot more strength. I failed her.

 

[meowzerwowzer33]

Younger me used to believe in the religion they grew up in (mormonism), it was a big part of their life and now it couldn't be any more irrelevant to me. I think that alone would give them a negative view of me, anything that differs from the norm is viewed as "wrong" and child me just went along with it. Overall, I kind of hate them. I hate how stupid I was even though I was just a product of my environment. On the other hand, they might just be surprised to see me still kicking, and not think to question the circumstances.
Its kind of hard to articulate ngl, like I'm trying to remember the life of a different person.

 

[ArchmagePrincess]

Since I was abused from a very young age I think my younger self would understand that I'm still struggling and always will and wouldn't be upset I'm still failing in many ways.

I think she'd just be proud I achieved my dream to wear dresses all the time. Something I do casually now and the younger me would never have imagined I'd have the bravery to do it.

 

[suicidalloser]

no—my younger self wished to die, something i could never get right given all the chances i had to do so.

 

[lokabe82]

I would never be able to face my younger self. My hopes and dreams were so realistic and simple yet I still managed to royally fuck it up and burn it alive.

 

[alonely]

my younger self would say "i told you so". i should've listened to my younger self and ctb before my 13th bday, i had always told myself i'd never make it to 13. could have prevented so many more years of pain if i had gone through with it then. though, my younger self wasn't equiped with a method with a high success rate :/

 

[leloyon]

I think any version of myself that is two years younger or more could see myself now, they would be varying degrees of upset, the younger the more horrified. Two or three (16 and 15 years old) may be a little upset but unsurprised, anything younger than that would be utterly shocked to see my current state.

 

[airconditioner]

My younger self never expected to live beyond my early twenties, so I don't know if pride would have encompassed any response. Confusion maybe. I adamantly equated failures in school with my own so I am not sure how I would have stomached those patterns continuing into my thirties (that would have been the end of it, because no way would I humiliate myself any further than I had already been humiliated, or continuously fail despite my best efforts with no feel-good moment of accomplishment).

I think I would have been distressed by suicide not being an exclusively personal issue or something very specific to my own issues or inability to succeed in life. Unable to believe my conceptions of failure had been more conditioned than not, that I'd struggle with greater ethical dilemmas than whether or not I could finish school. That suicidal inclinations sort of lightened but people got worse through adulthood rather than peaking at a teenage level of sociopathy. That despite their flaws, my parents were probably, on average, better people than any of the public figures I sought comfort in. That an inability to secure a career was still somehow better than developing a personality that seems to plague society's preferred voices and public intellectuals. And that, even without a basis of comparison, my daily accomplishments often go hand in hand with continuing to harm (maybe moreso than my failures or inabilities).

I know it's a somewhat therapeutic technique to imagine knowing what we know now, but my younger self had enough struggles and I would rather leave them alone to deal with school-related struggles, depression and suicide rather than updated versions of future harm. "You thought school was bad" would have only invalidated what was very severe and unusual at the time, even though in retrospect it seems like a very distant and trivial concern.

 

[enough of this]

My younger self would be very disappointed in me.

 

[Shoya]

I really hate my present self.My younger self will say"Are you really me?I will never forgive you.You are a killer."

 

[Insulinsuicide]

When I was 16 years old I always wished to meet my old self and ask him will my life be great and did I achieve any of my dreams I wished if it's possible to know what mistakes I am going to do and how to avoid them. If I really met my old self I guess I would be able to change my life to the better.

 

[Praestat_Mori]

My younger self would see a huge failure that fucked it up somehow and would certainly not be proud of me. It's better not to meet my younger self.

 

[loopdaloop]

No, all insecurities and fears from back then would get confirmed and that younger version would be disappointed and disgusted with my current self.

 

[helicoptero]

Not at all. Struggling to achieve even the simplest things, being suicidal, isolated myself, harmed myself, and so on... She would be shocked and sad to see who she'd become. I'd probably be a disappointment to her.

 

[angel31]

I think its a question of how far u go back… if I were to go to myself while I was getting bullied at school at hated my life, my younger self would probably say "jup thats me" but still be surprised how bad I got… if I went to a time where I was … ok ig, I would probably be really disappointed in myself and I would just be scared for the future… I would hate myself for not managing to do something with my life… (not that I dont hate myself rn lol)

 

[deomlez]

We are our own worst judge...
I have stuck a pic of me at 19 in my diary and i use trying to look if i can see something about what i was without knowing it... and i have written 2 things : "you will make it"... and "it doesn't worth it"
I hate the fact i could have a Me who would have to live again all this, and I could talk with her. Just "kill you now".