Love Letters To My Younger Self

For when you are 14 years old and trying to find your place in this world,

First things first,
YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL.
I know you don't think you are beautiful enough. I know you're growing tired of hearing it from all your parent's friends and not enough from the people who matter, like the silly boys at school, but you are beautiful. And what I'm about to say may be the greatest lesson you'll ever learn:
No one can see you like you see you.
No one can love on you the way you can love on you.
You are your greatest treasure.
Delicate. Strong. Full of intricacies that not every one can water.
You control the nozzle.
YOU control who you allow to flow in and out of your garden + how roughly they may stampede on your flowers.
YOU are gatekeeper.

Next up,
One day, no time soon but still not too far in the future, you will soak in the sun. You will not be afraid of the aftermath of her rays.
I don't know who taught you that dark skin is not beautiful. I am begging you to unlearn it.
You will spend too many daylights hiding inside.
You have spent too many mornings afraid to look in the mirror for fear of finding darker flesh.
One day, you will learn of the beautiful Africa still living in your melanin. You will learn that you cannot whitewash a colored masterpiece.
You will taste your own skin and hum that song everyone sang to you.
The one about dark berries and sweet juice.
One day you will believe it.

Lastly, For now,
I know of the book of poems you have written and how you're afraid to share them because "Who listens to teenage girls?"
I know, by now, that you have written at least 50 stories on what it's like to be a little black girl from Stone Mountain, Georgia.
I want you to keep writing, baby girl.
You will soon know of the power you posses. Your words will heal friends, broken hearts, shattered homes. Your words will heal yourself.

I don't know how your story ends. I am still writing.
But here's a spoiler:
One day, when you're 21 + a senior in college + a smart mouth with a lot to say, you will change the entire world around you. You may not notice at first, but then you'll start to realize how close you've grown with your parents, how friends come to you for love and advice, and how the world just doesn't seem as big around you.
I want you to know that this paradigm shift all started with you LOVING YOURSELF FIRST.