letters to my younger self: 25 year old me.

Hey Jamie,

You’re halfway through your twenties now fam, can you believe that? It’s strange how the more you live, the more you realize life isn’t something to figure out but something to feel your way through. You’re not who you were at 18. You’re not even who you were last year and that’s the miracle right there. You’re starting to understand yourself more, your habits, boundaries, moods and heart. You’re learning what stirs you and what silences you, excites you and what drains you which is not small work, its everything fam.

At this point in your life you’re well versed with loss, friendships, lovers and even family and some of that loss still hurts bro. The people you thought would be around forever faded into past seasons and some left quietly, others violently, and a few have stayed and these are the ones who have showed you parts of yourself you might’ve never uncovered alone. Your twenties? They’re a furnace bro, but nothing you can’t handle. They’ll burn you down and build you back up over and over again until what’s left is real. Your twenties won’t be about achievements or timelines but about character building and taking shape for the man you’re today. Molding, becoming.

You used to think healing would bring you to a finish line. A destination but now you’re seeing it for what it really is, it’s not a place, but a practice. Not a box to check, but a thread you carry through every year, relationship and version of yourself.Some days it’ll feel like you’ve gone backwards, but that’s okay. That’s how healing works. You’re allowed to hurt and still be healing. Maybe what you need isn’t more time to figure it all out.

Maybe you need new. A new beginning. A fresh slate. A different city. A place that breathes and moves differently and gives you space to grow without reminding you of who you used to be.

You’ll pack up everything, leave a home where you’re loved and have everything and move to the middle east…yes bro, you will. Dubai… oh my! There’s something about this city that doesn’t just impress but awakens but it’s not for the weak too. Skylines that look like dreams drawn with steel. People moving with purpose, ambition in their bones. A thousand stories brushed against you in a single day, it’s amazing. Being here, away from home, feels like truly being in the world and of it, too. Alone, but never lonely. Far, but never lost.

You won’t be just living but building. Piece by piece, day by day whilst putting together a version of yourself you’ve never met before. The kind that carries coffee-stained work aprons and 5 a.m. mornings. The kind that learns to say no, say yes, and most importantly stay. Staying with yourself, even when it’s hard. Living in Dubai feels like peeling an onion. Layer after layer, revelation after revelation. You’re shedding everything you thought you were supposed to be, and slowly becoming everything you truly are and every conversation on a random street corner will fill like unexpected friendship or a glimpse into the future and You may not see it yet, but the people who will change your life are already orbiting yours here and the moments that will shape you are already on their way. You’re not lost, fam you’re just arriving.

I won’t spoil what’s next. because you deserve to discover it like the sunrise in your own time, in your own rhythm.

But I will say this bro, All is going well and you’re exactly where you need to be and please don’t give up on your dreams because today i’m living in that reality and they’re stubborn things, dreams, they wait for you, even when you wander and you’ll wander a lot.

And if you forget everything else, remember this:

You’re not just living in a new city.

You’re living in a new chapter.

And it’s beautiful.

Yours truly

You.