Dear six-year-old me,

You’re six years old. I have no clue what you are going through right now, try as I might to remember. Is it important for me to remember what you’re going through? Yes. However, it’s more important for me to support you through whatever you’re feeling right now.

It is twenty years later, and I can tell you from twenty more years of life experience, that life is a beautiful, wonderful thing. The world, and its existence; you, and your existence.

You’re going to struggle a lot to understand what your value is, and what you mean to the people around you. You’re going to struggle even more to find your purpose. You’re going to discover that without a purposeful life, life will become meaningless and dreary. You’re going to fight, and fight a lot. I’m talking about the fight to survive, and the fight to take one more breath each day. You don’t really know when the fight begins and when the fight ends.

But through the fight, you’ll discover that fight doesn’t just involve burning bridges, getting violent with yourself and/or others. It doesn’t just mean running away from home or running away from the things you cannot or do not know how to handle (because you will find the courage to learn).

Fighting also means you will discover how to love. You will discover that in fighting to live, you nurture yourself and the others around you. Some fights may be painful ones, but pain isn’t bad. You will also learn an important lesson—pain is not all bad. Not all pain is bad, unlike what you feel right now.

I know, I know. You’re terrified and confused as to why you have pain in your life right now. It’s not because you deserve it. You deserve all the love in the world—and so do the people who caused you to be in pain. You learn to take care of yourself first dear girl; it may not always be within your means to show love in tangible ways to the people who hurt you. But that’s alright, I understand what your intentions are, and that you are learning to take care of yourself now.

You’re going to grow older and find that the chaos and wildness within you will not be easily accepted by people. You’re going to have to accept it first, dear girl. You’re going to grow, and learn to accept it, and tame that wildness. You’re going to learn to let people come close to you. You’re going to grow into a beautiful woman with a large heart capable of loving and giving so much.

Take care also to give to yourself enough so you can continue to give to others. You are well protected, taken care of and nurtured by others—whether you see it or not, whether you recognize it or not.

There is an abundance of love in your life. Never feel that you are not loved. You are not a burden to those around you. There will be kind people who will enter your life when the time is right—they are blessings. Seek solace in their company, just like you seek solace in your own. I want you to grow up to be an independent woman, one who is capable of growing past shitty circumstances, capable of building communities, capable of seeing dreams, capable of turning those dreams into her reality.

I love you, and I always want you to remind yourself of that. I’m here for you, never fear. I got your back!

Love, Me