Article By Bridget Hall // EEW Magazine // Inspiration

Guess who’s still in celebration mode?

Award-winning filmmaker Tyler Perry recently turned the big 5-0, and the man who says he will be celebrating “all year” is marking the momentous occasion with some words of thankfulness addressed to his younger self.

“Dear 5 year old me, may I just say, ‘Thank you’ to the little boy that I was?” wrote the Christian movie mogul in a new Facebook message.

The Tyler Perry Studios founder, who suffered physical, sexual, and emotional abuse as a child, but overcame the adversity and went on to do great things, continued, “Thank you for all you went through to allow me to be the man I am today. I love you, and I am so thankful to God that you survived.”

In a previous post, the actor-comedian who will be forever known as the naughty grandmother “Madea”—though he retired her character earlier this year—said this milestone birthday is significant because, “So many of the people I grew up with never made it to 50.”

Now that he has reached the half-century mark, he told young Tyler, “Even when I didn’t want to, your pureness and innocence ushered me here. Thank you for these 50 years. I love you. We made it.”

Perry, who is quite the do-gooder, as well as an inspiration to aspiring actors, movie producers, studio owners and entrepreneurs, asked his audience, “What would you say to your younger self?”

He received numerous responses.

The question, he said, was an attempt to spur the reward of self-reflection and introspection. “I often tell friends to write a letter to their younger self. I promise you, it will change your life.”

Perry, who has officially teamed with BET to launch a new streaming service, ended saying, “If you can get through it, you should try it. It can be so healing.”