Don’t ever stop dreaming.

Don’t let your thoughts by confined by rules

because you’re a jewel.

You’re a clean, unwrinkled piece of paper,

the fresh, the uncut.

Your ideas haven’t been criticized,

edited, trimmed down;

To you, the world is a playground;

take a swing at imagination:

there’s no one to hopscotch over your goals.

Don’t let the lines of the coloring book fool you.

They’re not boundaries, just a guideline set to crush

the black sheep of the group.

Don’t be afraid to be the only girl in kindergarten

who wants to be CEO of Apple

instead of a beautiful ballerina

because it’s okay to defy stereotypes.

Lift your head up high,

and remember that no one can stop you

from climbing to the top of that slide.

When you drop your ice cream, I want you to be

that kid who picks it back up off the floor.

When you try no training wheels for the first time,

I want you to be that kid who gets up and laughs

after scraping your knee on the floor

because that’s courage.

 

You probably understood none of this — after all,

you’re five years old.

But what I really wanted to say was,

Make your own story.

Stand over your stuffed animals in glory

and tell them what to do:

don’t make yourself the puppet, be the puppetmaster.

Be you

because that’s enough.