A letter to my 25 year old self

Here's a letter I would have written to myself back when I was 25.

Dear Me,

Don't spend your energy worrying about things ... everything always turns out all right. Pay attention to your gut; it's rarely wrong.  Don't be upset or depressed when things are not perfect; life is a combination of good, bad, happy and sad days and experiences.  Don't be afraid to have an opinion or disagree with someone who has a different point of view; your voice counts.  Don't give up your values or principles for a man; the right man will love you just the way you are.  Don't lose yourself; laugh as loud as you want and be every bit of yourself as you are.  Don't sell yourself short; you won't always be the smartest, but you will work harder than anyone else.  Don't spend what you don't have; you will always have what you need.  Don't give up on love; you will find it much later in life and it will be worth the wait.  

Be present everyday and savor every moment, whether it is joyful or painful; there is a lesson in everything.  Everything happens for a reason.

Be kind, be generous, be grateful, be content, be happy.  You'll be just fine.

Love,

Me

 You know that fear that you have about producing ugly children?  No worries, they all turn out to be gorgeous!

This post is inspired by the latest issue Oprah magazine ... HOW TO GET BETTER WITH AGE.

Oprah writes a letter to her 21 year old self

My favorite song

You've got to hide your love away

John Lennon

Song facts:

It was rumored that this was the first gay rock song, a message to Beatles manager Brian Epstein, who was gay. In the part of The Beatles Anthology, that covers Epstein's death, this song is played, giving credence to the idea that this song was indeed a song about hiding one's homosexuality.

 

John Lennon told Rolling Stone in 1971, that when he wrote this, he was just knocking out pop songs, without expressing his own personal emotions to any great extent: He explained: "I was in Kenwood (his home at the time) and I would just be songwriting. The period would be for songwriting and so every day I would attempt to write a song and it's one of those that you sort of sing a bit sadly to yourself, 'Here I stand, head in hand...'"

Lennon then went on to say how listening to Bob Dylan was beginning to influence his songwriting around the time he wrote this.  He recalled: "I started thinking about my own emotions - I don't know when exactly it started like 'I'm a Loser' or 'Hide Your Love Away' or those kind of things, instead of projecting myself into a situation, I would just try to express what I felt about myself which I'd done in me books. I think it was Dylan who helped me realize that - not by any discussion or anything but just by hearing his work - I had a sort of professional songwriter's attitude to writing pop songs; he would turn out a certain style of song for a single and we would do a certain style of thing for this and the other thing.  I was already a stylized songwriter on the first album. But to express myself I would write Spaniard in the Works or In His Own Write, the personal stories which were expressive of my personal emotions.

 

The line "feeling 2 foot small" was written "feeling 2 foot tall." Lennon sang it wrong but liked it and left it that way.

 

Session musicians played flutes. It was the first time outsiders played on a Beatles record.

 

Lennon's friend Pete Shotton came up with the "Heys" in the chorus.