"I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always.
As long as I'm living my baby you'll be."
My beautiful, beautiful boy.
I am amazed by your light every day.
I am more grateful to have a hand in guiding you than for the air I breath in with each breath.
I hope someday you have the privileged of knowing the unparalleled notion of love in its rawest and most volatile form: that being the love from parent to child.
Everyday, you grow before my eyes.
I watch you search for knowledge and understanding with a passion I have never witnessed.
I hope that someday you understand that with all I have, I have been focused on imparting to you the extent of my learned experience on making your life something to be proud of.
You already know so much.
You are such an exemplary human being contained in such a tiny precious vessel.
The few following ideas are yours to consider.
Do with them what you may, as they are neither proven nor perfect.
But in wishing and hoping for your most beautiful life possible, I hope you learn them.
*Live your life so as not to cause harm to others.
One of my most proud moments in being your mother so far occurred while I was nowhere near you.
And yet, even while I prepare to type it, it gives me a swelling sense of pride.
I picked you up from 2nd grade one day, and you told me you helped a friend.
When I questioned you further, you told me you'd seen a group of older kids kicking around a small boy's lunch box.
You told me you thought he was sad about it.
And then you told me that you ran in the middle of them, grabbed the box and returned it to it's tearing owner, and proceeded to inform his tormentors that they should not be mean to him and they needed to leave.
I asked you, while choking back tears of absolute pride, why.
"Because he wasn't bothering any one and they should be nice to him. They needed to leave him alone. He needed help."
You instantly instilled upon me the very core of what I am trying to teach you.
Never lose that heroism.
Please remember, you by no means have to agree with any one or an ideal. Ever.
The beauty of free will is the option of choice.
You must, however, respect the choices of others so long as they do not cause harm to you or anyone else.
There is no fault in not taking someone else's stance in a matter.
If it is someone close and the need arises, than explain your position.
Then, let it be and continue on your merry way.
At no point should you be imposing your view on someone else, nor should your view be imposed upon.
This world is an amazing mix of ideals.
Add to it. Do not subtract.
*Love your family through their faults.
Your moma is perfect, so this should be easy ;)
I hope you learn, as I have been fortunate to do, that your family is everything.
Not your light in the dark, not your smiles only in good times.
EVERYTHING.
There is no replacement for the people that make up this unit. There are additions, there are extensions.
There is nothing without them.
I have been blessed.
Nana made sure I knew this very early on.
And though I may have disregarded or even dismissed this fact from time to time growing up, as will you,
I have never forgotten it.
Believe me, the older you get, the more valuable your family will become to you.
Now, your family is made of humans.
We make mistakes. We react quickly. We speak without thinking. We raise our voices.
But we love deeply, my son.
We love so fervently that all of these fleshly shortcomings do not define what we are.
What holds us together is our unwavering devotion to those in our unit.
And I hope that there is never a shadow of a doubt in your mind that you have the forces of all that we are behind you every moment of your life.
*Do not be afraid of your best. Demand it.
You have shown your ability at a very early age.
You give me so much to boast about.
You are consistently a top performer in your grades.
Teachers come to me and express their awe.
Outsiders are blown away by your ability to converse and reason with ability not attained by some adults.
You are brilliant, love.
I hope you never feel the need to hide or belittle your intelligence for anyone.
Let it shine.
There will always be people who cause you to question it.
You may even feel it necessary to hide or downplay your intellect under certain circumstances.
DO NOT.
Those who cannot meet your intellectual capacity have the choice to envy it or utilize it, just like you have to others.
I prey you never have to hide your hard work for fear of being judged by someone lesser.
On that note, guard yourself from that pitfall.
There will be people smarter than you.
There will be someone that thinks of the solutions you did not,
that solves the equations that allude you.
Take the opportunity to study from someone great.
Do not feel threatened, do not cause threat.
This is especially true in females you come into contact with.
Remember, mom has last approval.
If they twirl their hair and need you to discern left from right in your presence, walk away.
On the converse, if she makes you pause to think of your next response and can hold up her end in an adult conversation, bring her home.
I'll talk to her :)
*Take care to make a beautiful life.
Do not get so wrapped up in your head that you forget that you are living a miracle.
At the risk of sounding like a delusional hippy eating sunshine and s***ing rainbows (yes, I'm your mother)
please take pause to look around you and appreciate all that you have.
Whether you are single in a messy studio apartment, waiting for a career to take flight or running yourself ragged between your job and your family life,
give thanks.
There are far to many people around who get lost in the havoc, who get weighed down by the strain of the things they allow to matter.
Make sure you keep your perspective.
Right now, you are concerned with football and afternoon snack, trying to stay up later than you should and not wearing Polo's :)
Life will come, your responsibilities will increase.
Don't let them drain you of all that makes you smile.
Maturity does not mean you lose the right to fun.
Always have fun.
Life is amazing.
And you have made mine a life to be proud of.
You will always be my heart.
I will love you for always.
