Kate Bryant, College Relations Manager
Dear Alice (age 4),
I think about all of the things that I want to teach you, one of the most important things is to understand your own feelings and the feelings of other people. I know that we talk about our feelings a lot. (Almost as much as we talk about potty words!) Right now, you are learning what it feels like to be happy, sad, angry, and scared. Everyone has feelings, and the way that other people feel is just as important as the way that you feel.
When you grow up, you will see that we have an awesome life. You will realize how lucky we are to have all the cool stuff that we have. You have a dad who loves you so much and a little brother who looks up to you and who slimes your face when he gives you kisses. You have a house that is filled with books and toys and princess dresses. We have as much food as we want and tons of friends who can come over to share it with us. Not everyone has as much as we have, but that doesn’t make us better than them. We didn’t work harder than them, though we do work hard. We were lucky to be born into this life.
"Not everyone has as much as we have, but that doesn’t make us better than them. We didn’t work harder than them, though we do work hard. We were lucky to be born into this life."
When you go to college, you will make choices about what you want to study. No matter where you go to school, I hope that you will choose to study abroad. We will miss you so much but we will love to hear about everything you do and all of the new food that you ate. We will love to see you learn your way around a new place.
But, most of all, we will love to see you make new friends. We want you to get to know them, and we hope that you will understand that even though they have feelings that are different from yours, they matter just as much. All people deserve to have a life that is just as awesome as yours.
Even though you are the center of our universe, you aren’t the center of the entire universe. I love you so much. I can’t wait to see how you are going to grow and change the world.
Love, Mom
Read more Letters from IES Abroad Moms.
