🌻 I Am 27, But I Was Once 17

I am currently 27, but I was once 17.

What I know now, I wish I knew then. Still, I trust that life unfolds exactly as it should. Every lesson comes in its own time. Every chapter writes itself the way it is meant to. And for that, I am grateful.

I am grateful for my life and the things I have gone through. I am grateful for my growth. I am thankful for becoming me in so many different ways. But when I think of 17-year-old me, I know she needed something she did not yet know how to give herself: grace.

🌱 What She Needed to Know

At 17, I thought strength was the only thing I could carry. I thought survival meant silence, and silence meant power.

But the truth is, she could have been vulnerable. She could have been soft. She could have been brave in a different way. She could have cried the tears she needed to cry.

I wish she knew that strength is not just holding everything in, but letting yourself feel. I wish she knew she was allowed to break down, to fall apart, and to still be whole.

🌦 Embracing the Rain

Seventeen-year-old me needed to know there was light in the darkness. That even though we love the sunshine, the rain has its place too. And the rain does not last forever.

She needed to know that her pain was not permanent, that her healing was possible, and that every storm eventually passes.

💛 Enough As She Was

Most of all, 17-year-old me needed to know that she was enough.

Enough in her strength.
Enough in her softness.
Enough in her mind and her heart.

She was brave. She was strong. She was smart. She was enough just as she was.

🌻 From 17 to 27

Now at 27, I carry both gratitude and compassion. Gratitude for the woman I have become. Compassion for the girl I once was.

Seventeen-year-old me deserved more grace than she gave herself. And today, I honor her by giving myself the grace she could not.

Because becoming is never about being perfect. It is about unfolding, blooming, and remembering that we are always enough — then, now, and forever.

✨ Wildflower to wildflower, what would you tell your 17-year-old self?