Letters to My Younger Self
In honor of Modern Love’s 20th anniversary, we asked a dozen essayists to write a letter to the person they were when they published their essays.
We wanted to know: What would you say to that younger version of yourself? How has your life, and the way you think about your experience, changed since your story was featured in Modern Love?
What have you learned, realized or perhaps reconsidered in the intervening years? ‘The Name That Has Always Felt to You Like Home’ By Alex Marzano-Lesnevich In 2011, Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, who uses “they/them” pronouns, wrote about adopting a python named Pretzel while wresting with their sexuality.
When both Pretzel and the desire to date women become too large to deny, Alex gave the snake away and broke up with their boyfriend.
