​As much as I'd love to gift myself this, it's a transatlantic plane ride away. Oh well, this letter will suffice...

Dear Dani,

     Congratulations: you are now (or soon will be) legally authorised to procure your own alcohol from establishments all around the world despite the fact that you have no idea how to drink alcohol nor do you have the desire to learn this far down the line. 
     You will no longer be a dependent in any sane country. Courts will no longer process your emancipation request because you are emancipated. You are an independent human being capable of caring for herself… Theoretically… 
     It’s terrifying—growing up, growing old, growing… As is every significant occurrence in your ephemeral existence. Everything important makes you afraid because you only get one shot at this lifetime. It is human to feel fear when each step you take closes doors behind you and opens doors before you. It is our primal instinct to be afraid as we step into the unknown, and each day feels more and more like foreign territory when both societal expectation and your own expectation weighs on your shoulders.
     This year, Dani, be brave. Expectation can go mind its own business. This year, Dani, grow. Upward. Sideward. (Do not, however, develop diabetes or obesity. This is not the kind of growing we aspire towards.)
     This year, Dani, grow the way you were meant to. Trees need not be told to spread their roots toward the river, or stretch their branches toward the sun. Gravitate towards your Axis. Pray to your God. Go at your own pace.
     You’ve already started: despite the fact that everyone else expects you to be independent—though your friends and colleagues are probably paying their dues by now, you are in medical school fighting through hell to give more to strangers who will one day be dear patients and friends.  
     Congratulations: you have survived thus far. The road is yours for the taking, but don’t you dare choose the easy way out. You once wrote your dreams down on a piece of paper and swore you’d get them done within your lifetime—and so I shall reiterate what you once wrote: 
          What if we became everything we said we’d be? Wouldn’t that be grand?
     Go further: seek God, pray, go places, meet people, write stories, read books, study hard, learn all you can, and never you mind what anyone else has to say about you. 
     You have much to be thankful for—good health, family, friends, a functioning brain. These are all blessings that may be taken from you at any moment. Remember Jake Bailey:
          None of us get out of life alive, so be gallant, be great, be gracious and be grateful
          for the opportunities that you have. 

Yours truly,
Dani

I need to stop
Wasting time

Checking my phone 
For long forgotten fingerprints
When I’d wiped it clean
​Several times over.