Latest / The Letterbox Podcast / Dear Stranger | A Letter About Growing Up & Finding Yourself

Transcript

Dear Stranger | A Letter About Growing Up & Finding Yourself · The Letterbox Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome back to the Letterbox podcast, the place
• 0:04
  where I share real letters from real people, one letter at a
• 0:08
  time. Today's letter comes from Leah.
• 0:13
  She's 17 years old and recently began sharing her writing
• 0:17
  online. Her letter today is a thoughtful
• 0:20
  reflection on growing up, paying attention to the moments that
• 0:25
  shape us, and discovering that perhaps an ordinary life is not
• 0:29
  really that ordinary at all. It's one of those letters that I
• 0:33
  think actually as an adult, if you look back at your own
• 0:36
  teenage years, I'm sure there was a time we could all resonate
• 0:41
  with some of what Leah says. But before I read you Leah's
• 0:46
  letter, if you would like to support the podcast, the very,
• 0:49
  very best way that you can do that is to press the follow
• 0:51
  button wherever you are listening and then share it with
• 0:54
  somebody else who you think might enjoy it as well.
• 0:57
  It really does help more people discover these stories and it
• 1:01
  sends these letters all across the world.
• 1:03
  And remember, if you feel inspired to write a letter of
• 1:07
  your own, I really would love to hear from you.
• 1:10
  There is no strict rules about what your letter has to be
• 1:12
  about. You don't have to have a big or
• 1:15
  dramatic story to be part of the letterbox.
• 1:17
  If it's important to you, then it's important to us.
• 1:21
  But here it is from the lovely Leah, dear stranger.
• 1:29
  I've been trying to figure out what my story is.
• 1:34
  Whenever people tell their stories, there's always a
• 1:37
  beginning, a moment that explains everything that came
• 1:42
  after. I've searched for mine.
• 1:46
  I don't think I have one. No defining tragedy, no
• 1:50
  remarkable triumph. Nothing that could fit into a
• 1:54
  sequence and make someone say, ah, now I understand you.
• 2:01
  I'm 17, and perhaps the truest thing about me is that I've
• 2:06
  spent more time noticing life than living loudly inside it.
• 2:11
  I notice how children spend time as though tomorrow is
• 2:14
  guaranteed, while adults hold it like loose change, careful not
• 2:18
  to waste a second. Teenagers exist somewhere in
• 2:22
  between. We're old enough to hear time
• 2:26
  leaving, but too young to stop it.
• 2:29
  Every ordinary Tuesday already feels like something I'll miss.
• 2:34
  Maybe that's why I write, Not because I have answers, but
• 2:39
  because I'm terrified of forgetting the questions.
• 2:44
  I've watched my parents become people instead of superheroes.
• 2:49
  I've caught my mother's anger in my own voice and my father's
• 2:53
  quiet distance settling into my habits.
• 2:58
  It's unsettling realising that inheritance isn't only in our
• 3:01
  eyes and our smile, sometimes it's hidden in the parts of
• 3:05
  ourselves we promised we'd never become.
• 3:10
  Lucky for me, I'm self aware and I'll never let the anger consume
• 3:16
  me and neither will I drown myself in distance.
• 3:21
  I've learned that friendships don't always end with arguments.
• 3:25
  Sometimes they simply become memories while everyone is still
• 3:29
  alive. I've learned that 8 minutes of
• 3:33
  someone's attention can make loneliness loosen its grip.
• 3:37
  I've learned that the people who say I'm OK often just don't know
• 3:42
  where to put the truth. I think that's why I've always
• 3:45
  been drawn to the things that don't have names.
• 3:49
  The silence after laughter. The version of yourself that
• 3:52
  disappears every birthday. The grief that comes from
• 3:55
  becoming someone new. I used to think growing up meant
• 3:59
  collecting pieces of yourself. Now I wonder if it's learning
• 4:03
  how to grieve the pieces you quietly leave behind.
• 4:07
  Maybe this isn't my whole story. Maybe I'm still too young to
• 4:12
  know what it is. Maybe this is simply the chapter
• 4:16
  where I learn an ordinary life is never really ordinary if
• 4:19
  you're paying attention. And if one day someone asks me
• 4:24
  who I was at 17, I hope they don't Remember Me for anything
• 4:29
  extraordinary. I hope they remember that I was
• 4:33
  paying attention. I hope they remember that I was
• 4:37
  paying attention. With love from Leah, a stranger
• 4:47
  who is still becoming. Thank you Leah for trusting the
• 4:57
  Letterbox podcast with your words.
• 5:00
  It is so clear in the way that she writes that she is really a
• 5:02
  poet at heart and so it was so lovely of her to choose to do
• 5:07
  something slightly different from her ordinary writing and
• 5:10
  create a letter for us to hear today.
• 5:13
  The letter really does remind us that not all stories have to
• 5:17
  have some big defining moment, and sometimes we do just grow up
• 5:22
  without anything big happening. At just 17, Leah reminds us that
• 5:27
  there is really something extraordinary about simply
• 5:30
  paying attention, and I think that's something that I need to
• 5:34
  work harder at. So thank you again to Leah.
• 5:39
  If you have enjoyed Leah's letter today or any of the
• 5:43
  letters that we have put out on the podcast, it really does mean
• 5:47
  so much to me and everybody who has written a letter so far.
• 5:52
  If you can, press the follow button and then share it with
• 5:56
  someone else. Everyone is choosing to send
• 5:59
  these letters in because they want them to be heard.
• 6:02
  So by sharing, following and rating, you are putting a postal
• 6:07
  stamp on these episodes and sending them all around the
• 6:11
  world. And that is really incredible.
• 6:15
  I really hope that if you're listening today and you are 17
• 6:18
  and you feel like you haven't had a big defining moment in
• 6:22
  your life yet, that maybe this gives you a little bit of
• 6:26
  comfort and a bit of reassurance that perhaps that is the
• 6:30
  greatest way to live your teen years.
• 6:32
  Thank you again for listening to the Letterbox Podcast.
• 6:35
  I'm Lucy and I'll see you next time.