1. By the time you’re 23, you will realize two things. One: If you keep giving everyone small pieces of you, eventually, you will break. If you keep loving everyone more than you do yourself and if you base decisions for them rather than for yourself; you won’t have anything left to give yourself. You will feel empty and nothing will taste great because you have given up your salt and your pepper. You deserve to be bitter. You deserve to have spice. You deserve to be sweet. If you give everyone your immediate response and never give yourself the time to think it through; you’ll just end up alone and with nothing left to give. Two: By now you will have learned to give it out carefully because the truth is, not everyone who appears like they will always be there will be. And it sucks that you will be this way, but if you ever want to grow, that is the first step.

2. Some nights, the moon will rise in the sky, but some nights, it rises inside of your eyes. Some nights, you can’t sleep. Some nights, you stay all the way up with the stars until the sun comes up. Some nights, you will be so alone that even the company of family will feel like the ultimate loneliness. Some nights, not even the comfort of your own bed and pillows can give you the sleep you crave for. Some nights, the promises will come back to haunt you. Some nights, you will come back to scare yourself. The truth is, they aren’t thinking about you as much as you’d like to think that they are. So that embarrassing thing you did in the past, no one remembers or cares about it, only you. So take it from me, for tonight…? Let this be the “some nights” you’ll fall asleep.

3. If you’ve ever been shy with starting a conversation, if you’ve ever been so nervous, your first words, you know that they will come out wrong no matter where your strange burst of courage comes from. Some advice, do it anyway because you never know, they might be ready to talk to you. Maybe… They are just as nervous as you. So hell, the old saying: you never know until you try. And how about some spice; you’ll always regret never knowing it. So you may as well try. Always try. Nothing bad can come out of it, if it doesn’t end up exactly like how you have imagined it, it’s okay. You have a million opportunities to keep trying. It isn’t the end until you have lost yourself. And even then, I still believe that trying is the key to success. It has to the one. You have to keep at it. And if you need it, I believe in you.

4. By the time you are 23, you will fuck up at least more times than 4 sets of fingers can be cut off by a butcher knife made from stars that you thought would last forever. Here’s something else, all you may see is their shine, but the truth is you’ve been missing the main one the whole time. Your own. Your shine. Don’t believe me? Ask your lover. How do you look when you sleep? Everyone is peaceful when they’re at ease. Everyone is beautiful when nothing in the world can slip into their mind. Everyone is pure when they’re asleep. Your mistakes are there for a reason. A learning curve. A block in the road. You may never forgive yourself, but you must and you will. Because that’s the greatest thing a person can do. Accepting yourself. No one is perfect.

5. You will have made a best friend. You may never tell them the whole truth, but they will know. You will depend on them more than your own heartbeat and that there is something worth keeping. That tattoo made just for them. That star you named after their voice. That day you dedicated to their beauty. That hug you’ve always wanted to give out. That family member you’ve always needed. The trust you never had to worry about. You will have that person. And if you don’t? Keep looking. They are out there. Look a little harder. He’s sitting in that book shop. She’s walking down the beach. He’s writing the importance of life. She’s stealing flowers from the earth. And if you never find this person, I’ll be honest; you will need to understand that your first friend, will always have to be yourself. First and foremost, you need this level of understanding about what you want and how you want it. This person is your equal, but you will swear that they are more. They may seem unreal and may only exist in your head, but that friend will always be yours.

6. That person you miss so fucking much. You aren’t on their mind. That’s the truth. There I said it, now you must come to terms with it.

7. Love is everything, but love will destroy you. So you either let it swallow you alive, or you pluck its petals until nothing is left. Sit by that bench and pretend that the clouds don’t change. Stare into the sun because the love it gives to you is just as blinding as the love you have given to them. The nasty reality seen by our eyes is never quite like the calming expectations we put into our thoughts.

8. My supervisor told me something that tore me inside. I’m still trying to figure it out. The other day, I watched her husband of 20+ years stare into her eyes like she had made the universe just for them, like she made the flowers blossom early spring just so he could be amazed by the beautiful pieces of the earth a whole week early, and like nothing in the world would go right if she just stopped existing right now, in that moment, he will have broken himself into his first cell from the womb if she did not have rights to his heart. She told me “never settle” and I think I’m starting to understand. Don’t settle for anything less than what you truly deserve. Don’t settle for someone who will leave once shit hits the fan. Don’t settle for someone who will have outgrown you because you weren’t moving anywhere. Don’t settle even if you are on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Don’t settle down. Get angry enough to figure this shit out. Live it up. If you’re an introvert, read until you meet that person. If you’re an extrovert, party until the stars numb into your eyes. If you’re an ambivert, do everything all at once and understand that your difference is exactly why you’re unique. Don’t settle for anything less than what you believe to be true.

9. For my music lovers, listen to the lyrics. Listen to it while you’re crying. Listen to it while you’re high. Listen to it while you’re sober. Listen to it while you’re numb. Listen to it while you’re whole. Listen to it while you’re bleeding inside. Listen to it when you’re fixed. Listen to it when you’re nothing. Listen to it when you’re everything. Listen to it when you’re in love. Listen to it when you’re heartbroken. Listen to it when you don’t want to listen. Listen to it when you need to listen to someone. Listen to it when you’re anxious. Listen to it when you’re brave. Listen to it when you’re lonely. Listen to it when you’re finally home. Because the truth is… Music is the way your soul moves for a reason. The lyrics will sound different every time and that’s because we’re constantly changing. Every second, you’re a different person. Every day, you’re a whole new spirit. So be free and listen to every word like you heard it for the first time. Even favorite songs can change. Even favorite people change. So listen carefully to them too because you never know when you’ll have to change the song… or the person.

10. For my writers, my poets and my young authors who strive to be better than who they were yesterday. That writer’s block is a stutter in your throat. That writer’s block is that bright 8 am sun blazing into your eyes. That writer’s block isn’t going anywhere until you start writing. That writer’s block isn’t going anywhere until you finally stu-stu-stutter your way through the whole damn sentence. That writer’s block will become the moon once you accept that it may take some time. That writer’s block will be forever if you don’t plan to be always working at it. The words may never come out right, but you won’t always be wrong. The poems may hurt because they sound awful, but remember, even great poets experience times of great stop. The books never turn out right and we have to reexamine each word like it was placed there to destroy your whole creative process. Your trash bin will stockpile with words you deem as garbage, but you never know the treasure it will be until it’s finished. You have to keep writing. Your thoughts will be exhausted. Your hands will fade from your desk. Your pens will be angry and you’ll never learn how to properly write when words don’t come as easy, but you must move on and keep at it. The writer’s block will be that lover who comes and goes, but the writer’s block is another milestone we must climb to be this writer you would like to be. Whatever it is that you’re aiming for. You must keep going. You must keep writing. And it’s okay to quit, it’s okay to stop for a second, but I believe that if the writer’s soul was embalmed into your very being. From your wrists that looks like hell from many dates with the gardens of devilish nights, from your eyes that have seen more sadness than a Shakespearean love story, and from your hands that have broken themselves upon the metal gates of who we have been versus who we are now because we have learned to be better than who we were yesterday…

If you were born a normal person and grew into a writer, if you were blessed with the gift of words and never knew anyway to express yourself but through a love letter and a pair of shaking hands, and if you loved more than you knew how to say it; look deep into your own eyes and say look, you can do this shit.

Now, write all of the words you have to say to them and read it out loud because those very words will define if you’re great or simply stupid enough to find out because some days–

Even I feel stupid. We’re human after-all.

We do these things, writers.

We keep everyone alive except for ourselves.

And we do it magnificently.

So I believe in your growth,
even if that writer’s block is there;
keep piling your thoughts into
more folders and bend those poems
into your heart and ask yourself–

How will I be alive today?

That’ll
be your
favorite
prompt
for always
& forever.