Sad Me of the Past

Welcome to Sad Me of the Past, where we invite an established writer to revisit a piece they wrote in their tender years that fills them with affection, regret, nostalgia, embarrassment, relief, delight, anguish, all of the above, or something else entirely. Just as an infant must take those early, brave, awkward steps when learning to walk, we writers must make our own early, brave, awkward efforts as we set out on the journey of mastering our craft. So let's travel back to that ancient time when we were bursting with hubris or scared to death; drunk with language or paralyzed by it; determined to become a writer or terrified that we didn't have the stuff. I'll show them! we thought. But what did we show, really, and to whom?