To someone who needs a hug or a little cheering up,

I don’t know what it was that made you upset. I don’t know what terrible thing happened to get you down in the dumps. I do know that if I could I would reach through this computer screen and give you a hug, along with a warm cup of tea and probably a tub of ice cream.

My dear, the world is a tough place. It’s cruel and it has an uncanny knack for grinding unlucky souls, such as yourself, into the dirt. However this is only temporary and you should remember that. It’s also important to remember, no matter how difficult right now, that the world is a beautiful and magnificent place. There are those rare moments when you look up into the sun on a clear blue day, as a gentle breeze tugs on your loose strands of hair, and just sigh. You watch the sun trickle down through the trees and gently graze your knee and everything just clicks. That being said there are also those days, like today, where your feet drag heavily through the mud under a drawn dark sky. When you can’t seem to find the smallest sliver of sunlight and you wear a perpetual frown no matter how hard you try not to. Chin up buttercup I’m here for you.

The rest of this letter is dedicated to filling you with all the warmth of a hug. Enough warmth and sunshine to part the clouds over twenty terrible days or things that may be getting you down because you my dearest are more than this stormy cloud over your head.

Whenever I’m upset I like to think about all of the things that make me happy. I think about little kids running around in the park with their dog because there is something so special about a child’s smile or about squirrels with fat cheeks filled with nuts and things because their face looks so silly when their cheeks are full. I think about the last time I laughed with my little sister over something we saw in passing, or about the last midnight ice cream run I made in my pajamas. If all of that doesn’t work, and there are times when it doesn’t, I walk outside and I look up into a tree and think about what it would be like to be a plant. Because who can really be sad when they’re thinking about what photosynthesis doesn’t feel like.

I think what I’m really trying to say is that, you have so many other wonderful things ahead of you and so many wonderful things behind you, that in the grand scheme of things what you’re feeling right now is small. Miniscule in fact. It doesn’t really even matter at all. You’re completely wonderful, and so are all of the beautiful things you have to look forward to. So take a minute and smile, because you’re you and not someone else and that in itself is a wonderful thing.

Love, Sydney