A letter for the girl

By now you already know heartbreak,

and you have accepted that it will always

be a part of you from now on.

You have learned that not all stories

have happy endings,

and that knowledge has destroyed

but remade who you are.

There will be scars written on your body

when you look at the mirror.

You will feel shame.

Don’t.

Think of them as battlescars, won from wars only you have fought.

Life will not be kind to you.

It will relentlessly try to crumple and bend and break,

but you will survive,

though you will not be the bloodless girl you were before.

Your dreams will taste like ashes in your mouth.

You will learn courage, love, fear, sorrow, and happiness on your own terms.

There is a place within you where the girl you could have been will be,

but soon you will forget, because every memory of

fresh-picked fruits and careless childish naivety will feel like poison in your veins.

Your heart will be broken three times.

You will stop mooning over boys.

       (this is not a bad thing)

You will feel like a stranger in your own skin.

You will stop hating your sister and will instead give her all the love

you have left to give.

In time, you will heal, though it will not be easy.

And with each wound closing

you will learn, slowly,

how to find yourself again.