Dear Little Rob,
You won’t believe who this is from.
Actually-you probably will.
You’ve always known time doesn’t follow the rules the way people pretend it does.
It’s me.
You.
Just a little further down the road.
I’m not here to give you advice, or hand over cheat codes.
There are no shortcuts in life. You don’t get to skip the hard parts.
You’re going to walk through some heavy things-
moments that won’t make sense for a long time,
moments that feel like they’re breaking you.
Like the fire is too much.
But it’s not burning you.
It’s forging you.
Shaping you into someone stronger than you ever imagined.
In ways you won’t understand.
Pain will be a brutal but effective teacher.
And laughter?
Laughter will be your best defense, your pressure valve, and sometimes your battle cry and the thing that dulls life’s worst lectures.
Your mistakes? The failures that sting and echo?
They matter.
Every heartbreak, wrong turn, and doubt-filled night-
they’re not detours from the path.
They are the path.
You’ll feel lost sometimes.
Alone.
You’ll carry things that were never yours to hold.
And just when you’re certain you can’t carry another ounce,
life will hand you more-
and somehow, you’ll keep going.
There’s a deeper strength in you than you know.
That doesn’t go away.
You’ll forget it sometimes,
but it never forgets you.
One day, you’ll wonder why I didn’t warn you.
But when you look back, you’ll understand:
the voice, the resilience, the grit-
they couldn’t be given to you.
They had to be earned.
People will hurt you.
Some by accident.
Some on purpose.
But a rare few-
the real ones-
will love you with a kind of quiet, steady depth you won’t think you deserve.
You do.
Let them.
Don’t shut yourself off although it seems safer to go it alone.
Keep your heart open-
just install better locks and learn where to draw the lines.
You won’t become who you expected.
You’ll become someone better.
A little banged up. A little wiser.
Definitely funnier.
There’s a kind of humor that only comes from surviving what tried to undo you-
from standing in the wreckage, and thinking of a joke.
Please-stay weird.
Stay wild-hearted.
That strange spark in you?
That’s not a flaw.
That’s your gift.
Don’t bury it to make others comfortable.
The world doesn’t need perfect.
It needs authenticity
It needs you.
You won’t land where you planned.
You’ll land somewhere better.
Not easier. Not cleaner.
But more grounded.
A clearer perspective than most.
So no spoilers, kid. Just this:
It turns out okay.
Actually-on most days, it turns out beautiful.
I love you.
I’m proud of you.
Keep going.
Big Rob

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