I am sure like me, there have been times when you have wondered what difference might have been made to your life, if your younger self had been gifted with the experience and knowledge you have accumulated over the years.

I invited several friends from the writing community to share their thoughts on this subject which I am sure you will enjoy as much as I did.

Today author, poet and broadcaster Annette Rochelle Aben shares her poignant response to the prompt…

I Wish I Knew Then What I Know Now #Forgiveness #Understanding

People do the best they can where they are! This is what I have learned over the years and what I wish I had known back in the day. If this had been how I believed in the early part of my life, I wouldn’t have been so hard on myself. I also wouldn’t have had such unrealistic expectations of others along the way.

The harder I tried to be the personification of perfection, the greater the distance between me and those I wanted so desperately to love and accept me. Naturally, this included family as well as friends. It never dawned on me that if I would love and accept myself first, not only wouldn’t it matter what other people thought about me, but I may have experienced other people treating me differently. I never realized what pressure it was putting on others to try to be what I needed them to be and the result was that they faded out of my life.

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