Happy birthday.

I’m looking at your pictures when you were twenty. Exactly two years ago. You seem so happy. There is a radiance about you in them. Some sort of determination. You went for what you wanted. It wasn’t necessarily what was best for you. But it made you happy. It made you become alive for the first time in your entire existence. 

As you turn twenty two today, my greatest piece of advice to you is to live. Get lost. Make mistakes. Do something when you don’t even know what you are doing. Just don’t confine yourself to what is supposed to be. Worry about yourself for a change. Go to  Rwanda. Finally get to Kitui and confirm whether its true those people don’t have water. Make that visit to Samburu. It will hurt, but let her go. In simple terms, worry about today, tomorrow will have its own worries. Test this God for yourself and see if He has your back. Don’t worry about blurred lines, draw your own. 

Stop explaining to people on how, making mistakes for you is out of the ordinary. They will catch up on the way. Visit Lamu for God’s sake. Discover yourself in the opportunities this year will bring you. The previous one has taught you about pain, letting go, being empty. And I pray that you will have an year of receiving for a change. Test the limits you can go for what you want. Stretch and see how much strength resides in you. You might break, the goodness is that brokenness is a familiar ground for you. Good news is that you might grow stronger. Maybe not wiser. But on your twenty third birthday I hope that the you’ll have taken other pictures worthy enough to replace this happy twenty year old. 

Happy birthday sweetheart. You have come a long way. I’m proud of you. May this be the year for you to set for yourself higher standard measures. You is beautiful. You is strong. You is bound for greater things in life. Happy 22nd birthday Mercy. 

With lots of love. 

20yr old you.