Dear 12-year-old me: 1. Your current friends will change. They will mature, and you will find the right people to surround yourself with. 2. You don’t have to fill every silence. Silence is not always awkward, and sometimes it’s necessary. 3. Don’t wear makeup. Nobody will care if you do or don’t. Let your natural face sit for a little…
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To be opened on January 1, 2021
Dear Future Me, I hope you’re happy. Yes, happy—and passionate, full of creative energy. Whether that energy translates into your writing or any other artistic form, I just hope that you’ve been nurturing the spark that lights up your life. I wonder if you still notice the beautiful minutiae around you—the static sparkling off television screens, the rare blue of…
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To Be Me or Not to Be Me
Dear me, You are wired differently from everyone else. You will never get two snowflakes of the same design. Even twins are not the same. You matter. You are beautiful. You are amazing. You are the best person. No one is going to be as amazing as you. So if you want to knit and crochet and read all day…
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I Want to See You Smile
Dear Future Me, I don’t know if you will ever have the chance or are still alive enough to read this. And I do hope that if you’re ever reading this, you’re not reading it while crying and thinking about disappearing for a while or maybe even forever. No, you’re not going to do the same things I’ve done before.…
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Dear Future Me, Wherever You May Be
Dear future me, I hope you’ve found your passion. I hope you’ve submerged yourself entirely in the creativity of words and writing, the only thing you’ve ever liked to do since you were four years old and you learned how to scribble “dog” and “cat” with multi-coloured crayons on tracing paper. I hope ideas are swirling around you like those…
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Love, Me. You. Us.
Dear Sixteen-Year-Old Me, Forgive yourself; the things that have happened are not your fault. I’m really sorry they hurt, but none of them come out on top. Although they have a knock on effect for the next few years, you get through it. I know that nobody has really told you that, but you will be okay. We are okay.…
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To My 16-Year-Old Self: Learn to Feel Beautiful in Your Own Skin
To my 16-year-old self. Firstly, things DO get better. Stop panicking. You leave all those secondary school bullies behind you, you pass all your Art classes, and your family is proud of you at the end of it. All the stress and heartache, acrylic paint on your bedroom floor, constant graphite fingers, and sleepless nights are all worth it. Go us! You also tell Frances…
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A Letter You’ll Never Read
Dear Me, I haven’t spoken to you for so long. I haven’t had the courage to. But today is the day, the day I finally pour my heart out, even though you’ll never read it. Today, you’re eighteen. Yes, that’s right. Weren’t you dying — oh, what a poor choice of words — to turn eighteen years old? You would’ve…
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Dear Future Me: I Hope You’re Doing Everything That You Said You Would
Dear Future Me, Do you remember struggling to get through freshman year of college? Do you remember being caught up in that place where you were expected to figure out what you wanted to do with the rest of your life, who you were, and where you were supposed to go? And how much all of these decisions were suffocating…
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Dear Fourteen-Year-Old Self: I Forgive You
Dear Fourteen-Year-Old Self, I forgive you. I forgive you for not knowing what was going on when he pulled you close, groped your breast, and forced you against himself closer still. You thought that’s how close you need to be to a dance teacher to learn salsa. You didn’t know any better, yet somehow at fourteen I expected you to.…
