Don’t suck those things under your skin and try to make sense of them

This manifesto is the result of a therapy assignment, which was for me to write a letter to myself as though I was a groovy aunt talking to my niece who needed help with her self-esteem. I'm pretty happy with the result and wanted to share it:

I want you to use your voice. I want you to yell and scream and run and jump and use every bit of energy you have to run around the block, race down the street, banging on drums and cymbals, car hoods and trunks, neighbors’ doors, the bells on bikes, tree stumps, and trashcans. I want you to be loud and fierce and wild, unable to be tamed, eager for knowledge and bloodthirsty for revenge. I want you to slip and slide, get wet in fountains and sprinklers, splash with all your might, and then get back to screaming. I want to hear you when I’m in my study, late at night, typing quietly on my computer. I want to hear you screaming for justice, for your momma, for another piece of pie, for a world that’s being raped by ignorance and intolerance. I want you to take a stand, find your place, claim an area, rope off what’s yours and I want you to let everyone know it. I want to know that you’re safe, secure, that every bit of power you were born with has been harnessed, plugged in, unleashed, and is in full use so that when you need strength, you won’t have to rely on your reserves. You can be sliced neat as bread, stacked like overdue paperwork and library books, but I want to hear your voice and your machinations. I want you in braids, in sunshine, dressed in liberty with a grey smile and a flaming torch. I want you to sell your wares, to spit in the faces of mean people who tried to take you down, tried to hurt you, tried to make you feel small because they were insignificant. Don’t let them stand on you, don’t let them make you cry; fight back when they threaten you. Break windows, steal cars, go shopping; whatever you do, make sure they know. Don’t shrink down because you’re a little bit taller, because you’re bigger, because you’re an indefinable shade of brown. You are special and unique and there is no one like you and believe me, little girl, that is a good thing. You will spend your life among throngs of skinny blondes with high-pitched, empty laughs. You will spend your life among people who will want you to shrink back so that they can step into the spotlight and claim all the warmth. Don’t let them. Move forward, take the light, accept the applause, understand how brilliant you are. People will inevitably say mean things to you or about you; don’t suck those things under your skin and try to make sense of them. Throw those words back at those people; don’t be afraid to grab a megaphone and let the world know you exist. You are to be seen and feared and admired. You have a breathtaking ability to change the world and I want you to know how important you are, how vital, how precious. I cherish you. I know how much ass you can kick if you put your mind to it. Bust forth, make demands, speak up, don’t shy down. You don’t owe the world an apology for anything and don’t you EVER forget it.