Day 4 of Myself, Only More So: A Daily Reader by Caitie for Caitie Oh and You Can Join Me

You’ve been Caitie—not Caitlin, not Caity, which you tried on around the time of your 8th birthday party—for a third of your life now. You try too hard at some things and not enough at others, and it’s okay that you can’t tell the difference (this will not go away, so try not to sweat it).

Good job with the deodorant and the sunscreen. Both will matter for a long time. Bless your preteen armpits and your freckled shoulders in the sunshine that burn for a day like your mother’s fair Irish skin and then mellow like your father’s even tan.

Caitie, bless your navy blue bucket hat. Bless its little enamel pins of Winnie the Pooh and his friends. You love whimsy and some part of you knows that it’s cool to like what you like. Bless those high striped athletic socks you wear with every pair of shoes you own.

Bless the skorts you and your mother picked out at Sears. Bless the performing arts teachers who ran those summer camps where you wore those skorts. Shakespeare! In middle school! What a thing. It’s improv games and adrenaline and boys and girls from other schools. And you’ll be reading and watching and writing about more Shakespeare for a long time. 

Keep playing with language. You’re on to something there. Try a lot of it on, see how it fits.

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Writing prompt: Write a letter, of any kind, to anyone. Don’t send it.

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