To my future daughter,

Be loud.

Do not waste away waiting for the clock to tell you when it’s the right time for your voice to be heard.

Send vocal vibrations across the oceans and introduce it to lost languages and radical ideas.

Speak your mind.

Be powerful.

Do not shrink yourself to accommodate someone else’s space.

You are not a contortionist in that classroom or office.

Walk into a room and own it, it is yours.

Take up room to grow your mind, body and soul until it is impossible for others to ignore.

Be open.

You are not a mystery in a dusty case file waiting to be solved.

You are already solving it.

You are whole even when some pieces go missing.

They will arrive in your life when it’s right.

Be you.

Fall in love with yourself over and over again.

Learn every curve, scar, and birthmark.

Highlight every mole, curly hair, and crooked tooth.

Your body is not a museum, it’s your home.

Each morning morning when the sun rises,

it looks to you to teach it how to shine.