Moriah Snell Writes . . .

  Dear Younger Me, If I could tell you one thing today, if I could go back to you at 16 years old, it would be this: You heal. You will one day be 26 and happy. You will be loved and seen and known. One day, you will have a home. You will grow plants; you will grow flowers. Your alarm with go off at 7:30 so you can go running with your dog. You will read books, and they won't be a desperate escape. You will read them because you enjoy it and not because it's the only way you feel like you can breath. You will laugh at the characters and enjoy the plotlines. And you'll do it without wishing your life had the happy ending. You will read because it makes you happy. Words will stop being weapons and just be tools. They'll soften. They will rush out of you with excitement and joy, a waterfall still. That waterfall, though, will spring from everything you love and not from a fear that you will never be listened to. You learn to let the words out without the constant edge. The...