I deleted about 15,000 emails over the past few days to clear up space in my inbox, and wow, was that a journey into the deep recesses of my past.

The process was essentially a review of what I was paying attention to at different moments of life -- what I was working on + thinking about, what mattered to me, what I was prioritizing.

And an experience of wandering through a graveyard of my past selves.

It wasn’t entirely easy to look back, and there were lots of cringe-worthy artifacts: the stodgy, convoluted language in emails from my academic days, the weird collection of newsletters I’d accumulated over the years, old conflicts + faded dreams + forgotten memories.

As I went, I was tempted to judge my past selves, waving at me through the computer screen.

Because it’s easy to look back on all of it + cringe.

To be mean to our younger selves.

To turn away + shrink with embarrassment.

But I owe her everything.

As I was looking through this catalogue of past selves, I saw -- again + again -- a human who was fighting for herself + her life in the ways that were available to her at the time.

She was the one making the mistakes + feeling the hard feelings + wandering around in the dark + trying to find her way.

All so I could be who I am now -- and have what I have now.

She worked so hard to figure out this whole life thing.

And she’s the reason I’m here.

So please, be kind to your past selves.

They were the ones who learned the hard way on your behalf (with far fewer resources than you have now) -- and went through some really tough stuff + hard moments + painful fuck-ups to get you this far.

We’re meant to grow beyond ourselves -- to keep learning + growing + becoming -- but that doesn’t mean our past selves aren’t perfect as they are.

So how might you show all of you (your past + present + future selves) some love + care today?