Sister, Sister...

An open letter to my everyday crush.

Hey sister,

Not a lot of words

But the few there are, comes straight from the heart.

I admire you, ma.

I salute you,

For your courage in the face of setbacks and disapointments.

Your resilience despite painful hurts and experiences that threatened to make you lose your shine, and maybe sanity.

Your persistence.

Your keeping-at-it-attitude even in the face of demons that strove tirelessly to cripple you.

Oh my, were there demons, were there?

Your undaunting STRENGHTH.

Heck, how else can one explain your capacity to shine through the various ugly mirage that circumstances threw your way if not for strength.

How you manage to always show up, calm, beautiful, put together. How you are coming off it all as a whole piece despite all the life's vicissitudes you had to battle, regularly, without losing your shine.

Instaed of breaking you, they've made you sweeter, more relatable (as a subject), more empathetic, kinder.

Somehow people are beginning to notice your strength because they find it impossible to understand your bold, fiery, unflinching stance in the face of the darts thrown at you.

Even you, subconsciusly, have come to realize that you must be really strong, no matter how hesitatingly you accept such hasty revelation.

So next time someone tells you, maybe on your birthday(well, it's kind of like a culture for folks to be verbally kind to one on his/her birthday), or at a major victory, for which you, of course, worked very hard for, even in the midst of intense non-encouragement, that "I admire you, you are strong", believe it, it's not always clout, it is true this time, even if that cannot be completely divorced from the intentions of that someone tho. Accept and embrace the truthiness of such religious fact, and do not fail to thank that someone, with a wide smile. Because YOU ARE STRONG. Do not be modest with compliments thrown your way, ignore the intents, it's not your place to figure out what what means or why what was said, stay happy.

Don't forget to laugh, always.

Don't forget to always laugh.

Savour the sound of your laughter, protect it, safeguard it, it's your prize.

Your happiness, after all is the most important thing.

Never apologise for the loudness, or seeming squeakiness of your laugh. There is no such thing as a too loud laugh. So if throwing back your head to laugh works for you, please throw your head back. If hitting your hand on one or two of your friends while doing your thing goes for you, don't hesitate; the more reason why you should surround yourself with the right kind of people, folks who are about and seek out  the happy energy and vibes from you, not those who feel you're disgracing them with your loud laughter in public, and so cutting short on their prim and proper, prim and proper show.

You definitely are a grown woman, now, a developed one, a smartened one

You know the best part is that, where you failed before, you're going to try again, and this time, you're going to flourish.

You're going to blossom. 

To you, beautiful woman,

I stand in awe.

I celebrate.

I stan.

2020 is big, very big.

You are bigger.

Happy New Year.