Tuesday, September 16, 2025
Time: 5:07 PM
Song: Book of Days
Artist: Enya
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on shuffle on the way home from work.
Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/0XcqLTX64dvN9hFeDsIPAD?si=d86c9b89bcda4e5f
Note: At Write On
today, we did a journal prompt. “Write a letter to your younger self.” Here is
what I wrote.
Dear Danny,
Yes, there are people that still call you Danny. Your wife,
for one, but I won’t say who that is, because what is life without surprises?
If you’re at that age, oh about junior high, it might irk you to hear that not
everyone has dropped the “ny” as mandated. Don’t worry, at some point, you grow
quite fond of it, again.
Not because you want to be called Danny necessarily, but
because the voices saying it do so because they’ve known since when everyone
called you that, and when they see you, they still see that boy. You can’t
measure or really even define what you hear when they call you “Danny,” but you
do know that it’s good. It’s like seeing one scene in a movie you love, and not
having to see the rest, because you already know it, and more than that, you
already feel it.
“Hi, Danny,” is something they’ve said to you a hundred
times. Maybe in the hallway at school. Maybe in your friend’s basement on a
Friday night senior year. Maybe at weddings. At funerals. Maybe as your life
and theirs pass briefly one day or another. It’s good to hear, and you hope to
hear it more often. And you never know when you’ll never hear it again.
I can’t tell you anything you probably don’t already “think”
you know. I remember thinking I knew everything when I was you.
So, here’s the cliff notes on how to make it in the future.
- Keep exercising. Football will end when you’re seventeen, but you have many years of maintaining the blood and muscles and bone that comprise your body. It’s easier to keep exercising than start again.
- Try things. Learn an instrument. Paint a picture. Build an engine. Don’t back out of challenges because they don’t fit into your perceived notion of who you are now, because who you are later will be different, and it only gets harder to learn things.
- Practice patience and understanding. It’s not your strong point but remember the people around you are battling just as many challenges as you. Some are probably battling more. Give them a break, it’s likely they’ve already given you one or two.
- Value the people around you. They won’t be there forever.
- Live life with the courage to eat the biggest pieces of cake but the wisdom to only take what you really need.
- Oh, and write often and show it to people. Confirm what you suspect, you have a knack for it.
Finally, let the people who want to call you Danny call you
Danny. It has a youthful ring to it.
Sincerely,
Dan
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