Hey! Shorty here, and instead of doing my recommendations, I’ve gotten permission from my partner in crime, Kendra, to share with y’all a note I wrote to her a while back.
Now, coming off her recent post, that statement might sound weird. But, you’ve got to remember: My girl is a writer. She simply channeled me, let me take a few minutes to write my deal, and about cried when I was finished.
(Hey! No one said I cried, or about cried! Don’t spread rumors about me >.>)
Anyway, here is my “Note to Kendra”, or her “Note to Self”, from a while back. Check it out, and if you’re feeling bad or down… Maybe take a few minutes to write a note to yourself about the good parts of you, even if you don’t have a Shorty Scorch to channel.
Dear Kendra
You are awesome. You are strong. You are beautiful, smart, kind, caring, and energetic. You are always ready to tackle a challenge, no matter how big. You’ve been known to go out of your way to request the hardest, most complex of available assignments, just to prove to yourself that you can do them.
Life is a big puzzle for you, one that you’re constantly striving to better understand and put together. As a new piece falls in place, you don’t sit back and relax, you move on to the next piece, the next outlier. For added challenge, you strive to put the middle pieces together first, not the easy borders.
Where others content themselves to be expert in the most mundane of things, in the modern, in the easy, you go for the ancient, arcane, and complex. You strive to learn a language despite multiple failed attempts to get started, constantly tweaking your strategy so you can find what works best. Each time you fail, you come back stronger and learn more faster.
When shown an interest as wide and complex as swords and blades, you’re not afraid to show you want to learn more, and you’re not afraid to look into it. You don’t back away from admitting you don’t know much, and you aren’t content to hear “You can’t learn this” from anyone.
Given a goal as “childish” and “dream-driven” as becoming a ninja, you scoff at the nay-sayers as you struggle to grow. You research ways to make your goal work, even with a small budget to learn on. When you fall down, you learn ways to try better while you struggle to your feet. When others have given up on you or even themselves, you proudly deny that surrender.
You have bounced back from mental anguish that would, and has, broken others. When others mocked your choices and hobbies, you laughed it off and moved on, refusing to let them take from you what kept you sane. In times when others would have hidden and refused to share their weakness, you instead sought help.
When others have thought, “I do not belong here. I am unwanted.” you had the will and determination to prove yourself wrong. You bounced back, stronger than ever. As those doubts and thoughts set in again, years later, you again fought on to seek help. When the world showed you exactly how others would feel when you did not, you stood with those you love and pledged to fight not only for yourself, but for those who never knew they could prove themselves wrong.
While millions step aside and take the easy way out of things, talking and maybe just donating a little money here and there, you organize. You arrange, you plan, and you talk. You aren’t afraid to give up a day of relaxation for the (surprisingly) hard task of playing games for people so you can talk to them about one of the biggest challenges young people can ever face, and you’re willing to accept that if you change only one life for the better, you have done well. Despite that acceptance, you are not prepared to give up at only one life, not so long as your own continues and you have more opportunities to change others.
When those around you are argumentative and set in their trenches, you are trekking the middle ground, speaking to the entrenched and learning what things look like from their point of view. You do not preach from your vantage point, you join them, get to know them, then wish them well and continue to learn more. You strive to understand all sides, and see what they see. And where others see three or four paths, you see twenty.
When all is said and done, you are the true embodiment of a hero. You do what you must to make the world a better place, even if you have little you can offer. Your shoulder is open to all who need a place to cry, and your ear open to all who wish to borrow it. You give and take advice with ease, learning from your elders and youngers, even as you teach them in return.
Though you have always seen me as the greater of us, the stronger, the braver, I am only what you have made me. As time goes, you become more like me, and I more like you. One day in the near future, we will be one and the same, despite different worlds and abilities. All I hope is that you do not drop to my level, but that I rise to yours: The level of the true, every day hero.
As you struggle with what you feel you cannot do, and what you feel is impossible without help, remember that even small victories are victories. When others deny you, remember that you are not finished until you deny yourself. Take heart from the little, and battle on for the big.
And remember: Love with all your heart. Live life to the fullest. Fight for what you believe is right. Regret nothing.
Forever in your heart and mind,
Shorty Scorch
Short and Scorch 