A letter from May 16th, 2022

Dear Tatum, I'm not sure if you remember writing this, but it's currently Monday, May 16th, 2022, and i'm sitting in english class. It's hard to think that i'm a junior at this point, especially since I should have technically been one right now. I'm supposed to reflect on english right now, but I could really care less about that right now so i'll keep it short. Have I become a better writer? I think so. I've actually, for once, been able to write my own english paper rough drafts without relying on a teacher to help me. It's pretty satisfying to think about. My english class is going to drive me crazy though and I can't wait to leave them. My time at Choate has been difficult at times but so amazing at others. Winter was one of the happiest times of my life, but you already know how that went. Right now, though, I feel stuck. I don't really have a group of friends to rely on right now since the juniors don't want me hanging with them since they think they will be too busy for me next year. I've tried integrating myself into different groups but that hasn't really worked. I'm frustrated, since I also don't have friends in greenwich. By the time your reading this, I really hope i've figured it out and that I feel stable. It's getting hard to keep persevering through the year not having people I know I can rely on. Being a student in the pandemic honestly hasn't been that awful for me. The pandemic started at a time where I also didn't feel like I had a lot of people to rely on, like I didn't have a lot of friends, so I wasn't complaining when we started going online and I didn't have to go to school and face my problems. But now since everything's back to normal, everything has resumed and people have organically come together, but I don't feel like I have. It drives me crazy to see certain people be able to ooze into any friends group that they want to be in. I don't get it. I wish I could do that. I wish I could be much more well liked and people were naturally drawn to me. Instead im a nervous wreck and constantly am over analyzing my relationships with people and stuff. Okay, so next year I want to keep pushing myself to do well academically. I'm taking some hard classes, but I want to be able to persevere. I also hope that I have figured out the social situation by then. It's gotten pretty lonely where i'm at right now, and I could use some stability. For the world, I hope that Roe v Wade doesn't get overturned, and that more abortion protection legislation is passed so that women don't have to face such a dark future of not having reproductive health care. As for my encouragement, I know that you are probably very stressed out right now with all of your aps and lacrosse and everything in between. but I want to remind you that you can do it. You can do hard things and we have done hard things in the past. You are so incredibly capable of reaching your goals. I love you Tatum. And I can't wait to see what you have accomplished.