to the caged bird from three years ago, this is a love letter for you:

let me preface this by saying it did not take a couple months to get where i am.

it did not take a thirty-pound weight loss or twenty-pound weight gain to gain and lose confidence.

it did not take a couple of platitudes and inspirational videos to stir up the courage to stand here, breathe, and view everything differently.

i'd like to thank you to thank yourself for not giving up.

however, the obstacles i faced have gotten more difficult to overcome throughout the years:

you overcame your silence. you speak proudly of your ideas. you can shout "I LOVE MYSELF!" to the whole world.

you lost friends. many of which you've fell in love with or realized they're too toxic for your fragile heart to handle. your heart full of gold.

you lost yourself. you fell into a never-ending void of social anxiety, trauma, and angst. your move tremendously affected you, you isolated yourself from friends and family. you were cold.

you were in an arena, circumspecting judgment from every eye of a person including yourself. you couldn't tell which was acceptable or disrespectful. you were mold.

you persevered.

your words ring in my ears, "survivors will not give up until they've reached transcendence," as i cry with my wings faced towards the ground. i cried over the grief and sorrow i faced. i view the ripped pages from my journals floating among the cosmos, bundling up and forming into the stardust we all were born from. i want to hold you and captivate you in the light i radiant within in my soul, in our souls. my gleaming body hugs your shattering skin of fear and blossom you into the beautiful daffodil you are.

find love in yourself. take time being the observer of not only yourself, but your environment. notice yourself falling into the depths of people's eyes and the stories they all they. dip yourself in the blues of the oceans, feel the greens of the fields, and soar through the whites of the clouds. you are capable. you are a bee after all: buzzing through, pollinating flowers, and providing assistance to others.

you are Melis.