Maya Angelou's letter to her 15-year-old self

I'm a big fan of poet, author, and activist Dr. Maya Angelou. I recently read a letter she wrote to her teenage self, and thought it might inspire you... especially after our last post about Amanda Todd, who came to believe that she was not worthy to  live, and less than human. If only she had Dr. Angelou to talk to...

Check out this letter, with thanks to CBS.com for bringing it to light for me.  What would YOU tell your 15-year-old self?

Celebrated poet, actress, author, and civil rights activist Dr. Maya Angelou's letter to her teenage self is below.

Read a page of Angelou's letter

This is a letter to myself when I was about 15.

Dear me, myself then... first I know that you know how to listen. When I was 8 years old I became a mute and was a mute until I was 13, and I thought of my whole body as an ear, so I can go into a crowd and sit still and absorb all sound. That talent or ability has lasted and served me until today.

Once you appreciate one of your blessings, one of your senses, your sense of hearing, then you begin to respect the sense of seeing and touching and tasting, you learn to respect all the senses.

Find a beautiful piece of art. If you fall in love with Van Gogh or Matisse or John Oliver Killens, or if you fall love with the music of Coltrane, the music of Aretha Franklin, or the music of Chopin - find some beautiful art and admire it, and realize that that was created by human beings just like you, no more human, no less.

The person may have keener eyesight, a better ear, the person might have a more live body and can dance, but the person cannot be more human than you.

That is very important because that ensures you that you are a human being and nothing human can be alien to you.

You will be able to go around the world, learning languages, speaking to everybody, because no one can be more human than you or be less human.

They can be meaner or crueler, or sweeter or prettier, younger, richer, but they can't be more human than you. Remember that.