Dear _____,

You are changing. In some ways, you are blooming–becoming what you always knew you would. Except, you didn’t know precisely what that would look like or even what it was, just that you would become. So no, you’re not becoming what you always know you would, you’re becoming as you always knew you would.

You are 23 today. It was almost a year ago now that you left university life and plunged into the dark, cool waters of absence. Absence of structure, absence of love, absence of purpose or direction, absence of happiness–absence of context, so absence of self.

You have struggled. Winter almost broke you. You have never felt so lost, so isolated, so suffocated. And then you slipped quietly into the comfort of complacency. Absence of courage. Absence of movement.

Trudging aimlessly through forgettable moments, staring down not caring, you didn’t see the lake ahead of you and walked right off the end of the dock. Submerged again. But this time the waters were electric, they sent pulses through your body and got your heart working again. It was remarkable. Unprecedented. Majestic.

You awoke, slipping suddenly out of a dream you didn’t know you were having. And now, right now, years of presentiments are manifesting. Destiny has whispered in your ears for so long, and you never disbelieved, but you never really knew. But now you’re living the stories you used to hear on the wind, meeting characters foreshadowed by the moon, hearing songs written by bees.

You are changing. You’ve prepared a long time for this, though you were unaware that’s what you were doing. But now you’re in the current. You’re moving, swimming; using instinctively muscles you didn’t know you had.

You will go to San Francisco. Some of them will come with you. You wish you could hold them all forever, but you can’t. Some of them will leave you. But this is big. You will find something, you know this much.

You are doing well. You have structure, have love, have purpose and direction, have happiness–have context, know self

These are the times. These are the people.

Hold onto you. You’ve been a long time separated.

Love,

_____