I’m sorry. I’m sorry that you didn’t get to enjoy everything about your childhood; to indulge in the simplicities of being young, dependent, and carefree. It’s not right that children are robbed of their childhood simply because they exist in a household not right for them.

Children, to me, are the most important types of people, as they are full of life, exuberant beyond belief, but most of all, completely honest. Children say exactly how they’re feeling when they’re feeling it, and that’s a quality we can all learn from them. They don’t hide their emotions, pain, worry, happiness, or thoughts about a subject.

As adults, we need to obtain some of that directness. I’m sorry that your childhood didn’t go as it should have, and that these qualities were not valued for as long as they should have been. Whatever the circumstance was/is that forced you to grow up too quickly, I know that it wasn’t easy. Trying to mature before you should is one of the most difficult tasks life could have given you.

As a child, you may not have understood what was happening or why you were forced to act in ways that were different than your friends. Instead of planning your next birthday party, maybe you were planning the next time you’d get to see one of your sick parents or relatives.

Rather than enjoying the tiny parts of life that made you happy for no reason, you kept those to yourself, all because you didn’t want to disappoint anyone or get in trouble.

Today’s society is not conducive to leading a full childhood. The skyrocketing crime rates, poverty, and horrendous conditions that too many people are being forced to make being a child incredibly difficult. I’m sorry you didn’t get more time to explore the world before having to make mature decisions that you shouldn’t have ever had to make that young.

You deserved more time to just be a kid, go on playdates, and make mistakes. I wish the world would have been nicer to you and allowed you to have the same childhood that your friends had.

You were forced into situations that you didn’t like or didn’t know how to respond to, and I can’t imagine how painful and difficult that must have been for you. I applaud you for stepping up the way you did, and I know it only made you a stronger person in the long run.

Although that’s hard to see now, when you have your own kids, you’ll understand how to treat them the right way. You’ll make sure their lives take a different direction so that they never have to experience the pain that you did.

You’ll explain to them how you had to grow up, and how young you were when you became the most mature one in the family.

I know it was far from easy, but I promise, it’ll all make sense in the end.