A week or so ago I wrote about my sister Jennifer.
My sister likes to call me and tell me all about the silly happenings of her son Samuel. Let me tell you about Samuel.
“***This is crazy, a person a day for the whole year of 2016 to show love and appreciation to on social media. It may be someone in my everyday life or someone I may not have spoken to for years. You can feel free to jump into this craziness with all of us and start today. It’s never to late this year to start the love and appreciation. Check out the rest of the crazies participating with: #thisiscrazylove2016 - Tyler Merritt”
Samo, as I like to call him (and that is only because he will no longer let me call him S'mEarl) is a fun little dude.
I love seeing the way he sees the world. Like the time Samo dress up as Darth Vadar with his light saver.
I get texts like this from my sister all the time. They are always a breath of comic air in the midst of difficult days.
A few days ago Samuel lost his two front teeth.
Way to go Samo! I hope you put them under your pillow. The going rate is $20 per tooth.
Samo, here's the thing. This is what I want you to know. If you never hear anything else I say to you I want this to sink in.
I want you to always be you! Now, I know at your age they sentence doesn't make much sense. But the day will come, all too soon at that, when you will understand completely what I mean.
See Samuel, a lot of the grown ups walking around today don't know quite how to be themselves. They may just be uncomfortable with who they are or they may think they need to measure up to someone's expectations of them. Sadly, some of them may not know who they are.
Believe it or not, I was like this for quite a long time in my life. I would be what I thought someone else wanted me to be. And I'm not weird in that. Lots of people do this.
I know. It's kind of strange. But I know you. And I want you to remember this always. I love you exactly how you are. You're creative. You're inquisitive. You're soft hearted. You're and awesome dude.
So, as the song says, "Don't go changing."
You be you. Oh, and don't forget what I said about the going rate for front teeth.