Dear Little Me

(This has been rolling around in my head for a while, after an experience at a chinese place that made me want to cry)

Dear Little Me,
I saw you recently. You were skipping around the buffet lines at the Chinese place, mumbling to yourself about whether you wanted soup or salad or jello or dumplings or that chicken that looked like it had peanut butter stuff on it. I deftly suggested the dumplings because you could get jello and salad anywhere and you mentioned how you could eat 'like, 25' and not get full.
I saw you again, getting chicken on a stick and beef, and avoiding the broccoli because 'everyone knows cooked broccoli is icky'. that was the first time he yelled at you, and I felt my heart break. the yell that pierced an entire eatery. you brushed it off, just as I would have, and skipped back to your mama. The second time I heard it was when you nearly bumped into me. My heart shattered for you, little me, because I watched your eyes break as he screamed at you. Even with your little smile, your eyes broke and I know a piece of your heart broke too.
We met again at the ice cream counter; you were wondering about if you should get the rainbow sprinkles, chocolate sprinkles, or cookie dough pieces. I said you should do all three, just because. You laughed when you told me it looked like a rainbow threw up on your ice cream. Then he yelled at you again when you skipped back, making a comment about how you were going to be 'big as a house' and trip and make a mess.
Oh. Little me. My heart hurts for you, because i know your pain. I know how your spirit gets destroyed when things get yelled at you about your weight, your imagination, your perky attitude...but don't let them hold you down. you are still beautiful. You are still wonderful, imaginative, and great. Little me, you are fantastic. Your mind works in ways that others can't fathom, and certain people, even some of the ones who are charged with fostering that creativity, that imagination, won't like it because they don't get it. And that's okay. They don't have to like the way your mind works. You're worth so much more than they know. Don't let them steal your shine, little me. Keep on being you. Be wonderful. Skip everywhere you go. make it look like a unicorn puked on your ice cream.
And don't change. For the love of God, don't ever change.