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.

Brantford, I'll be honest, I was pretty hard on you in the past. I chose you because you were a small city where I would feel comfortable. But, for some reason, I quickly began to feel like you were a grimy and unappealing place to be. I just wanted to say that I was wrong.

Truly, I've learned to appreciate you again for how small you are and how, even though you do still have some less appealing aspects to you, I've learned to acknowledge that every place and every person does. If anything, it adds to your charm. It gives you another dimension. You aren't merely a happy little borough, nor are you a gross, run down city with lost potential. You have life in you. Maybe not the life people expected, but life and that's important. In a way, I guess that's how we're sort of similar. Some times underestimated, some times given expectations that we can't meet, but we have a life of our own. A life with potential that only we can see and realise because that's who and what we are.

You're a strong little city and even though you didn't become the capital like once expected, you are still a great place to be. I've seen you in good weather and in bad and you hold up well. Similarly, while being here, I've experienced my own good and bad weather and I've learned to deal with it too. I want to thank you for the experiences you've given me. I'm really going to miss you and I hope I can visit relatively often. I've made friends and memories here that I'll never forget. I just wish I could come back to the same house; the sweet, dinky little house I never thought I'd be able to call "home", but have also learned to love.

I hope things go well in my absence and I hope that we can meet again soon.

You will be missed.

Hi, Gerard;

Lately, I've been rather frustrated with a number of people in my life.  A strange thing has been happening though.  Your voice has been stuck in my head and it comes in stronger every time I get angrier.  Your haunting "remember me" echoes in my mind.  I keep thinking it's your song in my head, but I feel like it's more than that when it starts to come in stronger and louder.

I feel like you are trying to tell me something.  I know it's not very likely that you'll see this letter, but I'd really like to know.  What is it that you're trying to tell me, Gerard?  Are you telling me not to let the people bother me and hold me back?  Is that it?  I know a lot of people are going to tell me that.  I feel like there's more you want to tell me than just that. 

I really want to know what's going on.  What is it that you want me to know?  What message are you trying to send me?

Wishing I knew what was going on,
Dusk