Dear Me

What if you could write a letter to your 16-year-old self? What would you say? The answers to those questions comprise the substance of Dear Me, a book of letters written by well-known people to the teenage versions of themselves. Most of the letters include advice and encouragement, while touching upon a whole range of emotions.

Here is a video introduction to the book from its editor, Joseph Galliano:

There is much I would like to say to the 16-year-old me, including something James Woods wrote in his letter: “Listen more than you may be inclined to do. Talk less.”

But, even if such time-traveling correspondence were possible, it might not have made a difference in my case. It’s not like I lacked for good advice at that age. It was the transferring of such advice into wise decisions where I often fell short. So it is possible that the teenage me would not have heeded the wisdom of his balder future self. Sigh.

On the other hand, knowing the winners of 26 future Super Bowls might have yielded some interesting results.