My dearest …,
I came while the house was asleep and I had a look at the bag by the door. It is packed properly. The shoes are out. Everything is ready, and the only thing left in this house that is not quite ready yet is the person, and that is entirely normal: .
I want to tell you something about tomorrow morning, , because I am at every single one of these and I know how they go. Every other child walking through that gate is feeling exactly what you are feeling. Every one. The loud ones too. They are just wearing it differently, and by about eleven o'clock most of them will have forgotten they felt it at all.
You do not have to be brave the whole day. That is not the job. You only have to be brave for about four minutes — the bit at the gate, the bit where you let go of a hand and walk in. Four minutes. You have been brave for longer than that over much smaller things.
And I know about . Anybody who can do that can certainly walk through a gate.
P.S. — Whoever takes you will stand at that gate after you have gone in, for longer than you would believe, looking at a door. Be kind to them tonight. They are worse at this than you are.
“Dreams” by The Compendium Company, LLC