Dear Adult Me,

I’m hoping that you are reading this in the few short quiet moments of your life. If you are famous like J.K. Rowling, you made it. You did it, I mean I did it. Or if you are a famous singer or other kind of celebrity, wow I really went far. Even if you are normal, I’m proud.

Either way, famous or not, I hope that you have a family. I hope that they are in some kind of sport, mental or physical. Did I adopt the child from Siberia? I would hope that you have a loving husband. Is it Michael? Or is it Dream Boy? Or is it possibly someone else? Either way, I hope that your, our, family is beautiful. Is our daughter a genius like us? Is our son captain of the football team?

Let’s move on to our education. I’m assuming that you went to an Ivy League college. Or maybe you went to a veterinarian school? If you got a scholarship to an Ivy, then we did it! We showed all of those people who thought that we spent too much time worrying about our future. In high school, were we popular, or were we the ‘reject the status quo’ person? Hopefully we were the latter. Did we make varsity basketball and softball? Do we have our letter jackets?

How are the pets? Did Blue become the champion we knew that she was? Did Oscar live a long and happy life chasing squirrels, chipmunks, and mice at the cabin? Was Oh-oh’s life happy and full of long naps on our bed? Are any of them still alive? If they are, give them my love.

I wish I could meet you. Are you still me? Are we still the live-it-out-loud, fun-loving, never-wear-matching-socks person? Or have you changed into the always-matching, think-inside-of-the-box person? Are you still dreaming? Are they still vivid, or are they lost? Have you lost the “who cares what anyone else thinks, this is me” attitude? Do you still act juvenile once in a while? Are we still crazy? Do you remember who you were? Are you still that person? Are you still me?

Please tell me that we haven’t lost our imagination, our love to stand out. If we have then, I don’t want to be you. I don’t want to lose myself. I want to be free, not tethered to the ground. Don’t lose what we have as a child/teenager.
Sincerely (and with love!!),
Your 13 year old self