A Letter to My Cousin

Dear Jordan,

On the eve of your Thirteenth birthday

when people start to ask

if you’ll be one of “those” teenagers

say no

Like something’s wrong with being a teenager in the first place

Let yourself exist

and by your very breath

you’ll be answering no

because no one is one of “those” teenagers

If they ask you if you will change

say no

Hang up new paintings on the wall

but pretend like

they’ve always been there?

People don’t realize the impact of every new dance

the way your soul grows larger with every leap

The first path to teenage independence:

fooling people into thinking you aren’t one

When you go to the bookstore

with your birthday money,

as I know you will go to the bookstore with all that green you receive

understand that you will read bad literature

Read lots of bad literature

Bad literature rings with the soul

in a way that something nice never will

The key to being an “independent teenager”

in all those movies

is being able to fight your way out of a scrap

Wanting to fight dead authors:

basically the equivalent of being a nerdy black widow

In attempting to wish you a happy birthday

I made a list of all the things I thought you should know

As a teenager

One thing to know is how to make a list

Yeah sure you probably already know what a list is

But like English class essay? List

Social studies research? List

Science vocab? List

Even Pinterest is a giant list

Being a teenager is basically living as a walking list

except it only lists items 13-19 for some reason

But with lists come check marks

So practice your karate skills and chop a check mark into existence

I do not doubt your physical strength

You can stand on your toes for long periods of time

I can not do that

So I have no doubt that when you are sitting in your classroom

And they talk about being “the future of America”

You can stand on your toes and already see it

You’ll have ideas

Let yourself have them

Most of them will be terrible ideas

So let yourself be the kind of person who gets laughed at sometimes

If you let people laugh at you, then it’ll give you power

You already have a throne, it’s made of awesome,

Letting yourself get laughed at is basically you

opening the door and

declaring

“Enter, all ye who dare to stand in my presence”

If they ask you if you know what you’re doing say yes

No one will believe you

you’re a teenager

but this is basically a letter about becoming independent

so it doesn’t matter

In the long run

you’ll fool yourself into competency

If they ask if you would like to have another slice of cake

make the decision yourself

Make snickerdoodle cookie and frosting sandwiches

if you want to

Let your dreams take charge of your feet

like they always have

If you are an artist, a dancer

first and foremost

let the art be your life

Don’t focus on being a teenager

You won’t really have another birthday for a while

And there’s a new Marvel movie out soon

Enough board games and practices to fill up afternoons

We can play Star Wars while we wait for something new

Stand on park benches to be taller

Watch ocean waves in October and Disney on the weekends

I can’t promise everything will stay the same,

but there will be enough beauty to fill pages of poetry

And I’ll end this letter not with a goodbye but

With a “World

See you soon!”

Sword raised to the sky

And grin on face

World, see you soon.

Your cousin.

Abigail.