Dear Little Sister
Dear little sister,
Right now, it feels weird to call you my “little” sister. At this point, you are nearly taller than me, and you are one year away from being a legal adult.
You have a boyfriend and a plan for your life and I get so stuck on the fact that you are still little that sometimes I forget you are now a full grown person. With full grown problems, dreams, and plans. Over winter break, you were reading me the menu for somewhere we were going to eat and for a brief moment I wanted to help you becasue for a second, you were five again and needed help sounding out words.
Part of me misses those days where we would spend hours playing Barbies and Beanie Babies in our room, but I am so excited for the things we get to do now. Like road tripping to Seattle to see our favorite artist in concert. Or watching scary movies on your birthday. Or how now we can bond over a mutual love of piercings and art and all of those creative things. You can be my biggest challenge, but you are also my favorite person and anyones life you come into is extremely lucky.
You and I are generally very different, but there is one crucial point where we are the same. And that is the fact that we both hate being told what to do, and march to own drummer whether that is helpful or not. So, as you move into this next huge part of your life full of choices and planning, here are my best words of wisdom I have learned thus far. Hopefully they help you.
Let People Help You. Its amazing to be elf sufficient and not need other people in order to do things. But, there are always going to be times when having someone to lean on and letting them take away a little bit of the stress is going to make a world of difference. Its not weakness. There is strength in asking for a little help.
Don’t Give Too Much. You are like me in the way that you will do anything for anyone no matter what. And that is such a beautiful quality to have. Remember that not everyone is willing to do the same for you, and do not let the same people push you over every single time. Your giving spirit is amazing, but not everyone deserves it.
Walk Your Own Path. We were just having a conversation the other day about how people are making plans and going off to these big schools and how you felt bad for starting at a community college and not having a complete map. I am here to say that the regular way, the normal way, is not for everyone. After five transfers and forcing myself to fit into the regular college way, I know you would hate it. The constant barrage of small talk and people trying to tell you what to do and professors being extremely unreasonable; you would want to leave after day one. But starting smaller, working your way to somewhere more creative and open, that is where you will thrive and flourish and do all the crazy things you have planned.
Creativity Is A Blessing. People will tell you from here on out that being creative is a blessing but….and whatever follows after that is wrong. You may do things differently and see the world differently and constantly be covered in art materials and crazy clothes, but let me tell you that is the bets way to do it. Live loudly and boldly and as colorfully as possible. Those who hate it are not worth your times.
And last but not least…..
Never, EVER, Give Up. Living life like you and I do, flying by the seat of our pants, pursuing careers within art, wanting to do things our own way, all require enormous strength. It is so easy to get knocked down and not want to get back up. People will tell you how crazy you are and how bad of a choice you are making and how you need to be more practical. And all of them are wrong. If you have the courage and the drive to go after what you want, then it will happen for you. When you get complicit and afraid is when the doors start to close. Bounce back from failure. Learn from critiques. Cry about it if you need to. But every morning wake up refreshed and ready to keep creating crazy things and ready to prove them all wrong. You can do it. I have seen what you can do, and let me tell ya, you will set this world on fire.
