A Letter to the Past

Dear Sam,

You are so, so loved. More than you are even capable of understanding. Your heart is good and you have such a large capacity for empathy and kindness.

The next few years are going to be difficult. You are going to be tested. You are going to screw up. Sometimes you will make the same mistake over and over again until you finally realize it was a mistake at all. You will hate yourself at times and feel as though you have lost your identity to bad choices.

But you haven't.

No one and nothing can take your heart from you. You will always be the kind, wonderful human you are today. Bad choices do not a bad person make.

However, don't be complacent. Don't give up on your righteousness. Lean in! Fight for yourself and fight for, and to, love. Mistakes will be made, but focus on them. Why did you do it? Why does it feel like a mistake? LEARN from it. AND MOVE ON.

I'm not writing this to tell you to be careful or to warn you about the mistakes you will come to regret. They will happen. There is no changing that. BUT no one, not even yourself, can change who you are...

You are a child of God, made in His image to love and to be loved.

Never forget that. Continue plunging onward through the thickets and thorns because when you emerge on the other side, my goodness how worth it it will be.

With all the love and belief in you,

Sam