A letter to 6-year-old me
Things haven't gotten hard for you yet.
You still smile with your whole face and love with your whole heart.
I know you feel wrong for feeling as deeply as you feel, for loving everyone you meet as if they are all your family.
Like you're broken for caring more than the people around you care. Like you're on the outside of your family who ignore you everyday.
But you're not wrong, broken, or outside.
You're exactly who you should be.
Empathy like yours is hard to fake and harder to ignore.
You see the sadness behind people's smile and the worry in their eyes, and you've never walked away from them.
There will be years you lose yourself.
You get selfish and your actions hurt other people.
But, you end up doing the right thing.
You'll jump from major to major, state to state, just looking for something that feels right, feels like home.
You find that in design.
And here, in design, is the one place empathy like ours doesn't feel wrong or broken, it feels like the missing piece.
So keep going, keep loving, keep hurting, because without all of that, without understanding the pain,
You would never have been able to understand the solution.
Love,
Me
Things haven't gotten hard for you yet.
You still smile with your whole face and love with your whole heart.
I know you feel wrong for feeling as deeply as you feel, for loving everyone you meet as if they are all your family.
Like you're broken for caring more than the people around you care. Like you're on the outside of your family who ignore you everyday.
But you're not wrong, broken, or outside.
You're exactly who you should be.
Empathy like yours is hard to fake and harder to ignore.
You see the sadness behind people's smile and the worry in their eyes, and you've never walked away from them.
There will be years you lose yourself.
You get selfish and your actions hurt other people.
But, you end up doing the right thing.
You'll jump from major to major, state to state, just looking for something that feels right, feels like home.
You find that in design.
And here, in design, is the one place empathy like ours doesn't feel wrong or broken, it feels like the missing piece.
So keep going, keep loving, keep hurting, because without all of that, without understanding the pain,
You would never have been able to understand the solution.
Love,
Me
A letter to 6-year-old me
Things haven't gotten hard for you yet.
You still smile with your whole face and love with your whole heart.
I know you feel wrong for feeling as deeply as you feel, for loving everyone you meet as if they are all your family.
Like you're broken for caring more than the people around you care. Like you're on the outside of your family who ignore you everyday.
But you're not wrong, broken, or outside.
You're exactly who you should be.
Empathy like yours is hard to fake and harder to ignore.
You see the sadness behind people's smile and the worry in their eyes, and you've never walked away from them.
There will be years you lose yourself.
You get selfish and your actions hurt other people.
But, you end up doing the right thing.
You'll jump from major to major, state to state, just looking for something that feels right, feels like home.
You find that in design.
And here, in design, is the one place empathy like ours doesn't feel wrong or broken, it feels like the missing piece.
So keep going, keep loving, keep hurting, because without all of that, without understanding the pain,
You would never have been able to understand the solution.
Love,
Me
Things haven't gotten hard for you yet.
You still smile with your whole face and love with your whole heart.
I know you feel wrong for feeling as deeply as you feel, for loving everyone you meet as if they are all your family.
Like you're broken for caring more than the people around you care. Like you're on the outside of your family who ignore you everyday.
But you're not wrong, broken, or outside.
You're exactly who you should be.
Empathy like yours is hard to fake and harder to ignore.
You see the sadness behind people's smile and the worry in their eyes, and you've never walked away from them.
There will be years you lose yourself.
You get selfish and your actions hurt other people.
But, you end up doing the right thing.
You'll jump from major to major, state to state, just looking for something that feels right, feels like home.
You find that in design.
And here, in design, is the one place empathy like ours doesn't feel wrong or broken, it feels like the missing piece.
So keep going, keep loving, keep hurting, because without all of that, without understanding the pain,
You would never have been able to understand the solution.
Love,
Me