Dear girl,

 

Why are you living like tomorrow won't come?

Why are you running from what's already here?

Like you're running out of time

You don't appreciate your time

Here on earth

So let me tell you why you should relish this time

 

 

“In my time”

Is not a phrase one should hear from me

A girl of merely sixteen

Nearly seventeen

Who gets called “twelve” more than “young lady”

“In my time”

Belongs more so in tales of old

In storybooks of men long dead

Of broken heroes and villains bold

But “in my time”

Is where my story begins

 

In my time

I have seen way more

Than one my age should have

I have seen friends crumble and fall

Tears in their eyes and mine as they tell me

How they almost weren’t standing here today

I have seen death of the heart, death of the mind

Death of the soul, and how death itself

Can break these things

I have seen the pain we bring among each other

And mending that comes afterwards

 

In my time

I have heard so many things

Strange and wonderful alike

I have heard emotional proclamations

Of love and appreciation

That would bring the Stoics to tears

I have heard the words of the stage

Words of Euripides and Shakespeare

Who have found meaning

Reverberated in my soul

I have heard the words

“I love you”

Said in so many ways

And I’ve heard myself say it

In so many more

 

In my time

I have felt love

Enough to right my world of mess-ups and wrongs

I have felt the embrace of friends

Mutually reassuring each other that the world

Isn’t falling apart

I have felt my mother’s smile

After weeks of troubled waters

As the seas finally calm

And she comes home to us at last

I have felt the love of an audience

Felt the applause in my very bones

As the hours of lines and work calls

And rehearsals in dark halls

Finally come to light underneath the stage

 

In my time

I have lived

Quite a life at that

I have lived through a dark cloud

One that kept me from seeing

Friends from enemies

I have lived a life of laughter

Tears streaming down my face

As joy stabs me between my ribs

I have lived dangerously

Treading on lands not my own

Venturing far from my home

In search of a place in this bright, beautiful world

That could dare to sustain my adventure

I have lived through strife and struggle

Through good and bad

And here I stand before you

Battle-weary and scarred

But still able to stand here and say

That I have lived

 

In my time

I’ve found that life

Is a funny thing

I’ve found that your friends

Can tear you down or carry you

Through the streets of triumph

I have found that family

Will always have your back

And your truest friends will, too

I have found that love

That source of pain and tears

Can fix any wound

Can span the distance and the years

Can break the barriers of life and death

I have found a stranger can be your best friend

And your best friend could be a stranger

I have found that finding the answers to life

Is not the reason we’re alive

Rather it is to find reasons to live

 

In my time

I’ve discovered that this time on Earth

Our few brief moments

Are a gift

Whether you believe it’s from God

Or from a series of biological events

Either way, we are given this gift

Of time in this little delicate world

Cherish it

Own it

Because you are the last and first of your kind

A dying breed of amazing

A new gift to give back to the world

Take your time and treasure it

So when your time comes

You can look bravely back into the depths of time

And say without hesitation

“Life was good

In my time"

 

Sincerely,

Your future self