Creative Writing

You Don’t Know This Yet: a letter to my 15-year old self

At the age of 71, the author Michael Williams sits down and writes a letter to his teenage self addressing his adolescent dream of becoming a writer

The author writing to his younger self (photo, Lee Williams)

You don’t know this yet, but I’m going to be leaving you. The difference between her leaving like she did and me leaving is that I’m giving you some warning, letting you know ahead of time that I’ll come back one day. It’s gonna take a while though.

You see, I know that you want to be a writer but you’re going to get knocked back and you won’t have the gumption to resist or rebel against those who are going to stand in your way.

Your dad wants you to work in the steel company, earn money, buy a house, meet a girl, settle down, get married and have children. (Listen again to Cat Stevens’ “Father and Son”.)

Your teacher wants you to do something practical in life. He sees this writing dream of yours as a bunch of malarkey — “Mickey Mouse uselessness”, he’ll call it. Frankly, I always liked Mickey Mouse but the cats are going to get in your way.

But it’s not all bad. Oh, you’ll become frustrated and depressed and you will take a far different journey than…