Happy 21st Birthday

To my darling youngest sister.

Today is your birthday. In exactly one hour, you will have been on this earth for twenty-one years. When I think about what I wish for you, I have to hold myself back from wanting to instill my values, my life upon you. But no one can live their lives by another's standards. You are finding your own way.

I admire your innocence. You have a way of caring about people that is so pure that I wish I could wrap it up and keep it inside my clothes, to keep away my daily cynacism.
Our lives, as the oldest and youngest children of our particular family, are as different as if we were born hundreds of years apart. Sometimes I can't relate to you at all. But then I think back to you at a year and a half to two years old: I would take you in for naps and hold you close, hoping I could keep this solemn, serious child from harm. And I still do.

I struggle to comprehend your world but you have a strong sense of self. You know your family is there for you. You are open and affectionate and you have forged a place for yourself that I don't envy. It cannot be easy to be the youngest in our family. Or any family, but especially one as opinionated as ours, as loud as ours, where so many of us seek out higher degrees in our quest for the lives we want that it can be hard to differ from that pattern.

Whatever may come in the future, I know that you are your authentic self and I wish you a very happy birthday.