Goodbye, Sweet Sixteen

My birthday is tomorrow, the eighteenth of June. In fact, it's less than two hours away.

Well, congratulations, Kimby. What probably should have been your most lively year, and the most carefree one, was actually one riddled with alternating struggles and rays of happiness. You lived half of your sixteenth year on your own, surviving and being free for the first time in your life, and found a wonderful sweetheart who will take care of you whenever you're in need. Also part of your experience was losing loved ones - your parents, in a way, your previous friends, adjusting to an all-new environment forty minutes away by bus. Commuting two hours each day, forwards and back, to college.

So what has this year taught me?

Love. Learning to cope. That there are truly accepting people in this world. That sometimes, it's best to let it all out and cry.

And I survived. You're on your own now, Kimby, for the most part. But don't worry; friends and loves will take care of you, and you don't have to be unwanted and alone any more. You've earned all of this throughout the whole year. And that, in its entirety, is fair enough gift for a young girl to treasure all her life.

Aequam memento rebus in arduis servare mentem - 'remember when life's path is steep to keep your mind even'. And this will be a lesson to keep with you all your life.

You did well, girl. You did well.