TO: Mr. and Mrs. Ladybug
22 Crunchgreen Ct.
Tiny Town, East of Steadville
USA

Dear Mom and Dad,

I was going to write earlier, but things were difficult for awhile, and I didn’t want to write home with bad news and worry you. I’m getting a better grasp of it all now, and I feel like I can confidently say I’m on my way.

Things are hard. Some days I feel like I’m falling upward, and other days, it’s all I can do to put one leg in front of the other and keep going. But I keep trying. And it seems the same wind that blows me off one branch sails me onto the next one somehow.

I guess that’s what being on your own is all about. I just keep my eyes open and my mouth closed, like you and Dad taught me. Life out here makes you use every inch of yourself.

I remember reading how, when you’re a child, your parents are superheroes. The world is full of magic and it all flows from them, somehow.

Then you hit puberty. And suddenly… your parents know absolutely nothing. And each time they open their mouths, you shiver at their lack of it (“it” being that thing that they just don’t get).

Then one day… after high school and college are gone, and you look out over the expanse of whatever will become your life, you see just how hard it can be, just to push through another day. And you realize there was a time when your parents looked over this same expanse and had to make their own choices about their own lives, and you were one of those choices.

And you begin to understand just what your parents gave up to to keep you comfortable and ignorant of this long expanse of life and difficulty, and keep the world magic and amazing and fair for as long as they could. And knowing that, and remembering how well they did despite their very human frailties (the same ones you struggle with), you see, with clear eyes now, that your parents were superheroes after all.

I don’t have the words to tell you how I feel. The world is so big out here.

More letters to come. Give everyone my love.

Your loving progeny,
Pumice

P.S. I took this self-portrait on my new iMac. I know you said not to spend too much money but it was so awesome and so perfectly-suited to my lifestyle.

P.S.S. Please send lettuce.