Dear Grandchildren, I love you. I miss you all the time (No matter when I saw you last: yesterday, a week ago, last month, last year). This letter is to future you – when you are teens and young adults. Those years are often so hard and confusing. Hopefully those years will be good ones for you. This is something I wish someone would have cared enough to write to me, when my world was crazy. Maybe this won’t be of any interest to you, but instead of being afraid of offending you, I’d rather take the leap that maybe you’d enjoy this as I would have.
Right now, you are that perfect age – still young enough to learn marvelous and wonderous things.
I want you to stay adventurers, explorers, and scientists. Keep telling me about your great ideas. Chase after heart-pounding discoveries. Dive into experiments that make society better. Be passionate about learning and having fun. Look for inspiration in the ancestors of yours who tried to get life right. Propel beyond their wildest dreams of creativity, education, and innovation. There is a lot you can do in this world to make a difference.
Never stop learning things. Do your best in school, don’t worry about getting perfect grades, just do your best. Take part in any sports or extracurriculars that interest you. Get an education after you graduate high school. Whether it’s Military Training, an Apprenticeship, a Trade School Certification, a Bachelor’s degree, or Master’s degree, or a Doctorate, it doesn’t matter. Just pursue your education because once you think you know everything, or have no interest in anything, you run the risk of becoming a bored/boring person. Furthering my education was one of the best things I ever did. I love learning!
You’re already aware of many things that don’t seem right with this world. Science says, the world holds far more good things in it than bad. Remember this whenever problems seem to pile up.
You live in a world with bitter, petty, self-absorbed grown-ups. I hope you will be smart enough to not behave like that. There are a few people who enjoy hurting people and making everyone around them miserable. There’s a handful of people who think getting into trouble is funny. Don’t be like that. Ever. Be someone who looks for the good things in life not the worst. Do not actively try to make your life more miserable or create misery for anyone else.
You live in a world with inequality, injustice, and bullies. Do not behave like that. Be as fair and right and true as you possibly can be. Be strong, you have been training and exercising. Sometimes all it takes is one person to do the right thing, then others will do the right thing too. Look at people’s actions and hopes and dreams, before you make friends or dismiss people. If most of what they say and do hurts others, walk away, don’t let their misery make you sick. If most of what they say and do helps others, carefully consider keeping good relationships.
Be someone who changes a law instead of breaks a law. Be someone who stands with dignity, instead of someone who bows their head in shame. Use your brains and your heart and your guts. They will get you through nearly anything. Sometimes life is really painful, so painful you aren’t sure you will survive – whether it’s a lost love, a death of your closest person, broken body parts, whatever. As long as you are alive, you will thrive because you have to.
You live in a world where few people know what Love and Hope and Faith are. People have actually told me they don’t believe in Love. People have said, they have no Hope. People have Faith in nothing. They act as if these things are a weakness. I can tell you grandchildren that I am stronger with Love and Hope and Faith, than I ever was without them. Poppa said himself, anyone who doesn’t believe in love, is missing out on the most amazing thing. Poppa and I are stronger together than either one of us alone. We live in love with each other. We never hurt each other, or lie, cheat, betray, or abuse each other. Take time to learn what Love and Hope and Faith are. Love does not mean letting people hurt you or hurting others. Love means you expect to be respected as an equal and you treat others as teammates and partners. Hope does not mean closing your eyes and pretending everything is all imaginary rainbows. Hope means opening your eyes and looking up, facing difficulties, and forging a better way to live life. Faith does not mean throwing up your hands and doing nothing about all the bad stuff in your life. Faith means believing there is a good plan for your life and you enough brains and skills to do the work you need to do.
You live in a world that doesn’t have a clue about spirituality. Grow yourself spiritually. The Great Spirit already knows you. I talk with God about you often. I’m sure all your other grandparents and great-grandparents have as well. Grow into your sacredness, grow into your power. And remember that you are no better or worse than any other human. You are equal to everyone. Too many people think they are less capable than most, at the same time they think they’re better than some others. We all hold the same value, with different abilities. The more different you are, the more interesting you are. Do not be like everyone else. Use the gifts given to you. You will make mistakes and mess up. Clean up the messes, apologize, and move on. That’s life. The more good things you attempt to do, the more good things will happen.
You live in a world where animals are going extinct daily. Pay attention to this planet and all the life on it. Pay attention and take care of it. Be aware of what you can and can’t do. You can’t chain, cage and kill all the wild animals, you can’t throw garbage all over the planet and into all of the water, you can’t drill holes through the earth, you can’t dig up its entire surface. You can plant and grow and preserve. You can learn to reduce, reuse, recycle, and remake things that don’t hurt life on this planet. You can learn from nature: science – biodegradable, bioluminescence, bio-diversity; math – Fibonacci sequence, golden ratio, weather patterns, growth patterns, migrating patterns; communication – between species, between plants, between the earth and the sky… There’s so much to discover.
You live in a world that seems to be filled with doom. It’s not. Be smart enough to see that. Be kind-hearted and light-hearted and have a good time here. You are a visitor, a guest here. You will only live on this planet for about 100 years. Enjoy your time. Discover all it has to offer. Create legacies and mysteries for the next generations to solve. Do not use up all the supplies so the other kids don’t get to learn and create cool things. Do not spend all of your 100 years crying, complaining, and pretending you don’t know what to do or how to take care of yourself.
You are brilliant. You are loved. Look around you and embrace your future. Buckle up because you are in for a wild ride! Share this note with your parents too. Remind them how awesome they are.
You can live an Awesome Life!
Look at where I’m from. https://rosevettleson.wordpress.com/2021/03/10/this-is-where-im-from/
Since then my life has been filled with education and adventure, and most importantly love. It’s been made infinitely fantastic with you all in it.
Love you forever, like you for always, Grandma Rosie
(Reprint Of a Favorite Post with edits)