MEeting my younger self for coffee

I met my younger self for coffee at 3 pm.
She was on time.
I barely made it in a mad rush on #mybrompton.
I wore my hair in pigtails under cycling cap and helmet.
Hers was in a tight ponytail – no concerns over balding at 18.
I had my cycling jersey and tights on.
She wore Guess jeans and rose-tinted glasses.

She flashed me the smile that I’m glad I still have.
I tell her to keep smiling and laughing.
The shine on her has now faded on me just a little, thankfully not too much.
I want to tell her that her journey will be quite different from what she imagined then.
But I don’t.
She doesn’t need to hear that the youthful optimism for life she’d just declared
in a romanticism laden commentary published in the local newspaper
will be put to test and challenged over and over again.
She just wants reassurance that I have lived up to her expectations.

We leave the aroma of coffee beans and cake (which she ate and I didn’t).
I walk her home because it’ll be another three decades before she learns to cycle.
We won’t meet again for 35 years.
But each day, she will learn that resilience is not titanium that won’t break,
But rather gold that has learned to be malleable.

#healthcoachonabrompton
#MeetingMyYoungerSelf
#poetry

Original poem by Jennae Cecelia