Five stages of Wisdom: Letter to Little Saqib

It's been years since I have participated in an Anime Amino event, and a lot has changed. And what better way to get involved in this than talking to your younger self? When reading about the event, the keywords I decided on for this entry were "wisdom," "anime," and "timeless." As soon as I had that figured out and the small set of limitations to write a letter to Little Saqib and down anime wisdom, I was down for this challenge (that's possibly a lie because maybe Kaito got me involved in this lol).

But let me put that aside and explain the idea for my letter. See, what-ifs have always fascinated humans, especially when it's about one's self in the past. TikTok, Instagram, and social media are filled with posts that make you question what you would tell your younger self to best help them. But no one answer fits all, and that's fine because that's what makes us human—different.

We all have mediums of entertainment that we enjoy, and for me, those are anime and video games. When the idea about writing a what-if letter about wisdom I have learned from anime comes up, I have a lot to say.

Now, as I sit here and think about the wisdom I would down to my younger self, I realize that this letter can be more than just a letter full of wisdom that I will down. It can be the light for my future. Whenever I feel the same way as I did years ago, this letter can be a place I can come back to see what my future self might tell me to wise up.

The beauty of wisdom is that it's timeless, but our memories and feelings aren't. It's why we sometimes know the best course of action yet struggle to follow through. Other times, we might have known a quote or a perspective that would have helped us in a scenario, but we can't it, or it's buried under our feelings. That's why I want you to approach my letter as a timeless piece that not just me but anyone can come back to see what a wise man would have told them.

I am 21 years old, and I only started understanding life and its complexities when I was about 18 years old. My younger self can only take so much wisdom that he can comprehend, which is why I have decided to send this to my 19-year-old self, who can understand complex ideas and use them to grow into a better person.

Now that you are warmed up and understand the context, here is my letter to Little Saqib.

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#LetterToMyself

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April 17,

To Little Saqib,

I am writing this from 2025, when you have become better. You have gone through a lot and learned a great deal of lessons. I am nearly 22 years old, and I am writing this to down what I have learned throughout the years. To keep things entertaining, I am going to use anime as the basis of every advice I have for you.

You love anime and use it as a source of entertainment, but it goes beyond that. Certain shows transcend fiction, and you have to understand that to get the essence of this letter. It serves as a mirror to your feelings, unveiling things that are beyond normal sight, the same as you would not know what's on your face until you see its reflection.

This brings me to the pieces of advice to make you wiser. I have put this letter as 'Stages of Wisdom.' They are in specific order, and it's a step-by-step guide to help you end up in better situations than I did without the little regrets I have.

Wisdom Stage I: Reflection - Everything starts here

One Piece is a great example of this lesson. when Luffy lost Ace and despaired like never before? This was neither rushed nor simplified—there was depth and length. It was the first time I had seen Luffy completely broken. The same Luffy who was ever-optimistic and always smiling. I mean that was his whole character after all.

But Oda showed me that even the heroes and the most optimistic can fall into despair. They need time to reflect and process the pain. Moving forward, Luffy returns to his crew after two years. This time, he wasn't just physically stronger—he had emotionally matured through reflection. He now understands his limitations and the weight of being responsible for others.

Soon, you will have your own version of this loss when Grandma es away. Currently, you are getting closer to her and spending more and more time with her so she can be happy. You will create great memories, and she will open your eyes to many things and become an irreplaceable part of your life.

Although you all are expecting her to leave you soon, it will still come as a shock. There is nothing you can do about it either, so don't even try. I am you and I know you, so listen, nothing can be done.

Anyways, when she was finally gone, I felt just like Luffy did after Marineford. Completely lost and broken. However, just like him, I needed time to reflect and to understand what she meant to me. How much she loved me and how that shaped me into becoming a better Saqib.

Before going through all that, I was lost and didn't know what to do, but for you, it's going to be different. Two months after her ing, I was on YouTube and saw the events after Marineford, where Luffy re that he still has his crew to live for and says, "I want to see them again... I want to see my friends!"

That part hit me, and I started to reflect on what I have and started to grasp the meaning of grief. It was not something to avoid and run away from. As I reflected more, I understood that Grandma was gone, but her love was there. It was part of me, and I was going to live with it, just like Ace's spirit lives on with Luffy.

So, Little Saqib, understand that reflection is essential for growth, and start learning from anime rather than just watching it. When life and others put you down (spoiler alert: they will), don't be hesitant to get up and push forward. Take time, like Luffy did, to understand what you learned and apply that throughout.

See, true strength is not about 'never failing' as you understand it now; it's about learning to let go and processing things to take the lessons from them. However, don't misunderstand reflection for isolation. As Luffy once said, "I Still Have My Friends!" This simple quote reminds us that while we must process our pain, we don't have to do it alone. True reflections start by understanding our limitations and the strengths we gain from those around us.

Wisdom Stage II: Growth - Reflection leads here

Dragon Ball is still my favorite piece of fiction, but I see it as more than just that. For example, Goku's character has much more depth than you realize. For the current you, what makes Goku special isn't just his power but his mindset. Notice how he never stops growing and settles for 'good enough.' how, after defeating each enemy, he immediately starts training to get stronger? That drive for growth is what makes him so special to me.

Now I am writing this part with some regret, Little Saqib. You have started your journey as a Video Game Journalist, and everything is exciting right about now. Seeing your work published, and soon you will start being on top of the rankings on Google. All that will keep on motivating you to do more and more. But I need to warn you about what comes after.

After the initial success, you will start getting comfortable with that. The drive that you once had will slowly fade away. You will get into a cycle of doing just enough to get it done. It will all seem safe and predictable, but it's a trap that will make you lazy.

As I am now, I wish I could show you all the opportunities that I have missed because I stopped pushing myself like Goku does. I had chances to work with major publications and I did, but the laziness got the better of me, eventually leading me to leave all that to do just enough.

what Master Roshi said to Goku: "The path to becoming stronger never ends." Nowadays, I am working on recapturing that drive, but I have lost a lot of time. Don't make that mistake with work and other things to avoid becoming lazy like I have. The difference between where I am and where I could have been is not that I lack talent. It's that I lost the willingness to learn and work hard. It's a simple stage of wisdom, but master it in time.

Wisdom Stage III: Perspective - Lenses beyond

Itachi Uchiha from Naruto has a lot to teach us when it comes to seeing things beyond the surface. He appeared as a cold and ruthless villain who is out for blood and destruction. He is a man who's slaughtered his entire clan, so what other lens could one look at him with, but that is where we need perspectives.

In reality of things, he was protecting his village and little brother. The whole scenario is accurately defined by this quote from Itachi: "We all live dependent and bound by our individual knowledge and our awareness, that is what we call reality. But knowledge and awareness are equivocal. What if your reality is another's illusion? We all live inside our own fantasies."

Little Saqib, soon our mother will become very sick. It will be so bad that we will all think she is going to leave us. She will survive, but the treatment will leave her unable to travel for a long time. I would tell the exact time, but things will get messy with that.

From when she got sick, I had extremely dark days. I spent countless sleepless nights at the hospital. I was the most calm person after father. Funny how the most unlikely people were the calmest. However in private, I would break down in tears and prayers.

During this rough patch, I learned about having perspectives about people. I had a lens to see who truly cared about our family. Most stepped forward without hesitation and offered help and sincere prayers. But there were some unlikely people who showed their true colors and spoke pessimistically about mom. It's as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. says, "the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

That there is a great perspective to look at people through. Currently, there are people, especially in family, that you don't value as much and would go on to say that you dislike them. However, those same people will later go out of their ways to help mom. On the contrary, there will be unexpected people who will not wish our family the best.

So, Little Saqib, refrain from talking excessively about people while having a limited perspective of them. This is the best piece of advice anyone can give you or anyone about talking. Talking too much is never ever a good idea, but don't take it in the wrong way and go quiet even with the right people. Just try to find that balance, which brings me to my next lesson.

Wisdom Stage IV: Balance - Choices, Choices, and Choices

Balance is unlike any other advice because it's such a difficult thing to master. Even right now, I had been delaying this letter because I had work, dates, and a few training sessions. In between everything, I have missed many opportunities to squeeze some time to work on this letter, because I lack balance. Or do I?

See, the current you thinks being productive and taking the best course of action for maximum benefit is balance in life. The reason I said balance is an unlikely advice is because you think that you have perfect balance in life and you manage things the most ideal way.

However, you lack having fun. See how I said lack, but not completely no because yes you do have fun, but not enough. Kid, you are 19, take it easy when you are done with everything and don't go around looking for more things. Part of the reason I started being lazy and stopped growing in my career was maybe due to that I lacked true balance.

This is where I will advise you to start watching Gintama. It's in your watch list sure, but I only started watching it about a year ago and I don't want you to do the same.

Gintoki (the protagonist of Gintama) will appear like a lazy man, who is unmotivated to do anything. He is always just laying around reading Jump and eating sweets. What makes him special is the type of life he had and the ability to balance things. He fought in a war to protect his country, saw many of his own die, and yet he is living a simple life without any underlying negative feelings.

Typically, protagonists will have 100s of episodes where they develop, build resentment, and go on to redeem themselves for their past. But Gintoki is different, because he realized that all that is to eventually be around the people he loves and have fun, so why not do that without letting more of them die. This does not mean that it's okay to live like slaves though, but more on that later.

See, after mom recovered from the initial phase and was at the hospital, I was obsessed with working to make up for all the lost progress. This does not neglect my feelings of sadness about mom, but rather shows guilt for what I could have done and did not due to external factors.

I had built up a lifestyle where I would not need much sleep, so I would push myself relentlessly with work. I would not be having proper meals and ordering food twice or thrice a day to save a few minutes on eating. Any enjoyment I would get from playing video games just left and they were there purely for work.

For months, this cycle kept going, but I wasn't having a fulfillment. But I never could change my ways until the year when I traveled and had to make the biggest decision of my life yet. Yes, it relates to that, and I won't tell you what I chose, but whichever option you go with is going to work out the best.

That sudden change and me starting Gintama helped me find true balance. But by then I was burned out, so I started having fun and relaxing more. Work became a repeatable cycle, where I stopped taking opportunities. That's also where I stopped growing like mentioned above. Was it this lack of balance or laziness that stopped me? I don't know but I want you to avoid that patch of life as much as possible.

The lesson here is all over the place, but that's the point. You have to be better, you have to find that balance and enjoy life. But don't make enjoyment into a habit, but only keep it as a tool to balance it with other parts of life. Work is also important, so how do you balance it? Let me put it into universally applicable words of wisdom that can change lives.

The moment you sacrifice your ambition for comfort or your relationships for work is when you lose balance. There, and watch Gintama to learn when to be serious and when to have fun. Wisdom is not about being all perfect and always going at it, it's knowing when to appreciate and when to keep going. Now that you have the foundation, where does all that lead you? Purpose.

Wisdom Stage V: Purpose - Pinnacle of all Existence

So far, we have talked about how anime transcends beyond fiction to teach us about life, but what's beyond that? The simple answer to that is God and for atheists it's nothing. There are also agnostic folks, who are unsure, but you and I believe in God, so let's tackle that from that perspective.

See life, work, family, and everything in-between is fun, but what for and why. At your age, I never really thought much about purpose, and kept going forward. Now that I am older and wiser I understand that purpose is the ultimate peace.

See Naruto wants to be the hokage, Goku wants to keep training, Gintoki wants to protect his friends, and others have these goals. See how I call that goals and not purpose, it's because those are different things. Goals are your thing and set them as you like, but purpose is a different story.

Purpose is a destination where you want to end up, and for us that would be heaven. You and I are good people, kind, never wrong people, and want the best for everyone—I say this not to be arrogant, but self-aware. But why do we do that?

The key here to understand is that purpose transcends existence, individual goals and achievement. A great example where you see the difference between goal and purpose is Attack on Titan. At the start Eren has a simple goal to kill all titans, but as things unfold, the situation changes and we are eventually left with a lot of open-ended questions.

The journey Eren goes through is turbulent and with many shocking revelations that change everything he believed. His initial goals become meaningless when he finds the truth about titans and about the world beyond. Following that, he is searching desperately for a purpose. A drive that makes him take extreme measures. This here portrays how goal without purpose leads to destruction.

For us Little Saqib, we have God and faith, which Eren and most anime protagonists lack: a clear purpose that transcends circumstances. While you are focused on career, family, and much more, know that these are just stepping stones towards the ultimate goal of pleasing God and going to heaven.

Our purpose is to please God, and that leads to being kind. God is the most merciful, and He wants you to become the same. So be kinder, don't be harsh, learn to be quiet, and let go of things. This is how you make purpose practical. Never feel that you are lost because you lose a person, opportunity, or all because you lost your goals, but still have your purpose because that is ultimate wisdom.

Why is purpose the ultimate wisdom? Because without it, all other forms of wisdom are meaningless. Reflection without purpose is just dwelling in the past. Growth without purpose is aimless movement. Perspective without purpose lacks direction, and balance without purpose is merely existing.

Everything I have shared all points towards the final wisdom, purpose. Each stage builds upon the previous one. Reflection helps you grow. Growth helps you see and understand more perspectives. Perspectives give you a balanced approach to life. Once you have balance, you can then question why and reach purpose as the ultimate wisdom.

Yours truly—ha gotcha. Just gonna say a few things before leaving you with this letter. You are probably wondering why I haven't talked about your future relationships and that is because whatever happens in that is good. You will have a choice like I said, so you will be fine and now I will take my leave.

Yours truly,

Big Saqib.

P.S. Watch Gintama now. Trust me on this one.