An Open Letter to Me

To the writer in me:

Never stop writing.  Never.  It can be something as simple as journal reflections.  Just don't stop.

Read more.  Read everything, read anything.  It's been a while.  You've slowed down since university started.  You know it doesn't feel so great.  You need to experience new worlds, old worlds, far away worlds, every world.  Learn from the writing styles.  Learn from the content.  Learn from the experiences.  Keep reading.  Don't stop reading.

Learn to let stuff slide, but don't stop feeling.  You can't write if you don't feel.  Don't feel so much that you can't function anymore, though.  Feel the good, feel the bad, feel the nice, feel the ugly.  Tell the world what you think.  You have a voice.  You are a voice.  Be your voice.  Live your voice.  Make an impact.  Say what you feel.  The world needs more opinions, more discussions, more thoughts, more thinking.  Be one of the ones to contribute to that.  Be one of the ones who gets the ball rolling.  Start a discussion.  Add to a discussion.  This is how change happens.

Listen to yourself, not your doubt, not your anxiety, not your fear.  Listen to who you are, who you want to be.  Your doubt, anxiety, and fear are a part of you, but if you let them take over, you won't go anywhere.  You won't do anything.  You won't grow.  Push passed them.  Break out of their grasp and be free.  Be you.

See through your own eyes and through others'.  You'll have more of an opinion if you have more perspectives to look through.

Encourage the good in others.  You need to be more confident, but don't leave your friends behind.  Help them learn about themselves.  Show them what you see in them.  Encourage their talents and passions.  Don't let their spirits die in their search for success.

Love.  Keep loving.  Love the little things and the big.  Love the moment.  Love your friends.  Love nature.  Love learning.

Have hopes, but don't be overly optimistic.  It can only lead to disappointment.  Stay realistic and plan things.  Not everything, but enough.

Stay sarcastic.  You love it too much to let go.  It keeps you creative.  It keeps you clever.

Don't stop creating.  Don't stop observing.


I'm not a particularly optimistic person.  I don't share those optimistic images and words online because they often feel empty and meaningless to me.   But I do know some places where I can improve or continue to grow.  This is something I thought to write as a pick-me-up in a bad time and as general encouragement for who I am currently.  Some of us like to pretend we are tough like we can take on the world, but inside, we're just softies.  I am one of these, I'll admit, and that's okay.  I just need to find a way to make different parts of me mesh together.  It's how I work.  It's who I am.  We are all filled with contradictions.  It's how we are.  It's just something we need to remind ourselves.  In the end, we just have to learn to accept and embrace the different parts of ourselves.  This is how we will become happy and successful.

Forgive me if this does not seem linear or lacks coherence as it was written as a stream of consciousness.