{"id":6432,"date":"2026-03-13T18:42:47","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T18:42:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/?p=6432"},"modified":"2026-03-13T18:42:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T18:42:49","slug":"21-year-olds-poem-about-having-dinner-with-himself-at-every-age-is-bringing-people-to-tears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/?p=6432","title":{"rendered":"21-year-old\u2019s poem about having dinner with himself at every age is bringing people to tears"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A simple story with a deeply profound message for us all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are truths in life that are hard to put into words, which is why we have poetry<\/a>. A good poem<\/a> can tap into human experiences and feelings in a way that touches us in ways prose simply can\u2019t, and when a poem resonates<\/a>, it hits hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Self-decribed \u201cyoung aspiring poet\u201d Joshua De Shutter shared a poem on Instagram<\/a> that has gone viral for its simple yet profound message. With the text \u201cIf you could be friends with every year of your life\u201d over the start of the video, De Shutter recites a spoken word poem about a dinner party with every version of himself so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had dinner with myself 21 times last night,\u201d he begins. \u201cThey all showed up, each year of my life. Fifteen came in naive, stuck in his own head. One and two were at the end of the table, taking turns being fed by 16, who\u2019s a little distracted trying to fit in. Eleven wouldn\u2019t stop talking about how he wanted to be a policeman. Seven was soft and gentle, kind of in the corner alone. Nineteen didn\u2019t want to be there and thought about going home\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the poem goes on, each age gets a brief description and shout out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause most people don\u2019t have any friends, and I have 21,\u201d he says. \u201cEach of them who know everything that I\u2019ve done, walk when I walk, run when I run. They\u2019ve gone to all of the places I\u2019ve gone, and none of them could relate to each other. They were different. They had nothing in common. All they knew was me. But they loved each other as the stories went around, and then five looked at me and said he was proud. That\u2019s when I really kinda started to break down, so I stood on my chair, glass in the air, I said guys I can\u2019t thank you enough for bringing me here. Both the years that made me happy and the years that showed I\u2019m human\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"poet,<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The entire poem is worth a listen, as the outpouring of thousands of comments from people of all ages attests:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a very unique way to express your years. You are a pleasure to listen to. \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u20185 looked at me and said he was proud\u2019 This one broke me\u2026\u2013 Man with 38 friends.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy birthday was yesterday and I had dinner with myself 27 times. Now I\u2019m uncontrollably sobbing in bed \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRealizing I should have been gentler on so many of my 47 friends \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThinking about having dinner with all 33 past versions of myself made me cry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis made me cry as I\u2019m drinking my morning coffee right now. Life gets tough, and to cope, I find myself looking back at every happy version of me as I grow older. I\u2019m 28 now, and I miss my 16-year-old self, my 25-year-old self, all my gentler years.
Hearing your poem made me realize I can visit them anytime I want. But to do that, I have to accept and love who I am now\u2026 because she\u2019s the one carrying them all. And this.. just became my Monday reflection. More love and support for you! \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh my gosh. The way I have tears in my eyes thinking back to all the different versions of me. The hurt ones, the happy ones, the I can\u2019t wait to grow up ones. Thank you for sharing this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDamn man, you really got a way of \u201csummarizing\u201d how life should be seen sometimes. It\u2019s important to remember we are the product of every single person we\u2019ve have ever been. Amazing text, congrats!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"poet,<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Many people found De Shutter\u2019s poem therapeutic, perhaps because learning to embrace our past self with kindness is an important element of mental well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As clinical therapist Hattie Awe, LPC<\/a>, shared in a video about things she repeatedly tells her clients, you can\u2019t hate yourself into loving yourself. \u201cThere is no criticizing your way to confidence,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s no shitting on yourself into a version of yourself that you enjoy. It doesn\u2019t exist. And you\u2019ve probably learned all of the lessons of life that you need by hating yourself. You might as well get to the fun part of life where you learn all the lessons of life by loving yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo validate the past versions of yourself,\u201d she continued. \u201cValidate the functions of the brain and the fact that it\u2019s never really cared if you were happy. Validate how easy it is to fall in the habits of cyclical behavior, given the fact that our nervous system and brain is drawn to it. Have acceptance for that and be able to move forward. But we can\u2019t act like the person before us doesn\u2019t exist. And we can\u2019t hate her for existing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A simple story with a deeply profound message for us all. There are truths in life that are hard to put into words, which is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/649197912_1396145739213080_6904204125179741999_n.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6432"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6434,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6432\/revisions\/6434"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}