Dear Me: Listen up, because I won’t always be around, and there are some very important things I need you to know before I wink out of time and into memory. Remember that everything I’ll be doing for the rest of my time here, I’m doing for you, your family, and the broad community that surrounds you. I want you to be strong and beautiful and confident, to keep building that shelf of dream packages I’ve been working on the last decade or so. I have always had writing and business skills, and so will you. You will do so much more than I can see or even imagine. I believe that, I really do. There’s no sense in my ever having been if I can’t count on you to BE. Likewise, don’t forget to remind the people you are close too, about how much you love them. How much we have always loved them. I don’t think anyone can completely deny genuine kindness and heartfelt generosity. Hey, you remember that time we won some basketball trophies and awards? The “most valuable player” one? It implied, “I am accepted. I am not denied. I am a one-of-a-kind individual, and not a failure.” Maybe that’s not such bad advice for you and me to remind ourselves about, kiddo.Accordingly, don’t you ever hide or conceal yourself from the world again. There’s so, so much to see, so much to learn from. Every piece of the universe is connected to some other piece. Life is a great big beautiful puzzle and don’t you ever stop trying to solve it. Remember that the stars are there even when you can’t see them, and even if they go behind a cloud or something, they always come back. Okay, because real love doesn't die, there are some wounds even time can’t heal. You live with a hole in your heart that is never really filled. This is the ugliest truth life has to offer. But the most beautiful truth lies within it; that real love like that really exists, and that somewhere, someone loves you like that. And you love others like that, because I do, and well hot damn, that’s an amazing, wonderful thing about us. Remember that there are no failures, only incentives to do better with what you are and what you have. I often forget that I can be pretty awesome sometimes. But don’t YOU ever forget. We deserve, at the very least, to believe in each other. People always said I was strong, and I never saw it. Thought, in fact, that if I couldn't FEEL strong, especially when I needed it most, then how could I possibly be? But kid, we ARE strong. We’re not just survivors. We’re fighters. We don’t just survive the