Letter to my future child

If you end up reading this …. 

I’ll frown but not fret if you come home with muddy feet and dirt streaked cheeks because I’ll know you’ve been out exploring and challenging the limits of your imagination. In a touchscreen world where instant gratification is currency, I would want you to live your childhood. Adulthood, is overrated.

And in an age that prides perfection, I hope you don’t always come home with Straight As. Perfect scores mess with your psyche. School is not a competition of darts, or a game where every half point counts. If anything, develop the passion for learning new things and creating new experiences. Know this, the only A that will bring you far in life is Attitude.

Make friends who will make memories you’ll laugh at when you’re in your 60’s and 70’s. You’ll cut a class or two, you’ll probably be summoned to the principal’s office at least once (nothing is going to match the adrenaline rush you get within those torturous minutes waiting for your parents to arrive and your turn to be called in), but those are the stupid things you can afford to do only in your youth.

When you oppose the paths I’ll inadvertently point you towards, I’ll cringe, and bite my tongue, but inwardly rejoice at your spine and will. Because you’ll remind me that you were not born to be a mini me. Or an outlet for me to live vicariously through. 

I’ll know then, that you’ll be a person brave enough to charge through whatever obstacles that may stand between you and your dreams. A person of your own, who will not let someone else dictate the rules for YOUR life.  A person capable of making sound, reasonable decisions.

I’m not going to lie. You are going to fail at something, some point or another. Remember though that people look at the world through different lenses. Some people choose to magnify the negatives, some don’t realize that their lenses are coloured, some zoom in on their successes and ignore the things that don’t go their way. When things don’t go your way, I hope you’ll know that the bigger picture is made up of thousands of tiny dots, and some of these dots may not add up in your current situation, but all paths lead the way they were meant to. If you lose your perspective, zoom out and take a look at the bigger picture.

Pic credits