Dear Determined Me: Taylin’s Letter to Her Younger Self
I'm Determined Youth Leader Since 2023
Meet Taylin: I’m Taylin Sellers, an 18-year-old senior at Harrisonburg High School. One thing I’ve learned from I’m Determined is to advocate for myself at school and in the community. At school, I tell my teachers about my accommodations and the time I need to complete my work. In the community, self-advocacy has helped me feel more confident asking for help at church and speaking up at restaurants to give my order. The tool I find most helpful is CAR—competence, autonomy, and relatedness—which has given me the courage to be more independent and help others.
Dear Younger Me,
When you were little, you could not speak. It was very hard for you to communicate, so you cried to get what you wanted or needed. When Mom took you to church, people would come up to you, and you were terrified because you didn’t know they were coming and you didn’t know who they were.
When you were in elementary school in Ms. Evans’s class and went to James Madison University, you got to learn about what I’m Determined is. When you turned 15, you started going to the I’m Determined Summit. You felt nervous about who was talking to you. At the Youth Summit, you got to meet Cesar, Jamie, Sara, Jenna, Caroline, and Natia, and you also got to see people you knew.
What I could have reminded my younger self is that I could have done better with telling people what I need or want. What I can do now is I speak at my IEP meetings, I make new friends and I try to get my work done and turned in. I also try to be independent with my home work. I also get to practice my cooking skills with my independent living specialist, Tessa. She helps me with my home skills and she helps me to learn how to take care of my self with out my mother around all the time. I have learned to advocate for my self but now I can advocate for my self and for my sister.
I would tell you, my younger self that you cannot always cry to get what you need. You don’t need to be scared to use words.
