My portfolio is due in two weeks and four days.

Listen; Drive, Elliott

I've grown a lot since I moved away from home five months ago. I understood how important it was to be strong for myself before, but it was amplified when I was displaced from my birthplace. When you're apart from your friends and family, you're suspended by your own set of strings that you're responsible for. If one snaps, you can't ignore it like you sometimes used to at home and let someone else fix it. If you neglect any area of your life, every single string is put under strain and you run the risk of having them all snap. If you think it's hard to fix one of them individually, consider how difficult it'll be to climb back up and put all your strings back together so that you'll be able to balance your life all over again. In some cases it's literally impossible to regain the structure that kept you up.

It would be easy to crawl back home if you fell down. It's so much simpler to fall into the cradle of a familiar embrace and let someone else bare the burden of your hardship. You know very well that there are people in your life that care about you that much, so it's easy to take advantage of it if you don't have the fortitude to go through with it alone. But instead, when my strings begin to fray or when they happen to break, I maintain them alone. It's not like I don't depend on my friendships – I do. But I hold myself responsible for my own life, and only offer those people every ounce of support and love I'm capable of... because everyone's strings are different. Some are hardy enough to keep merchant vessels moored to great docks, while others bare innumerable wiry knots from the frequency of repair.

I want to be the one to moor vessels ashore. I'm able to help and support you no matter what difficulty you're going through. I care about you very much. If you find yourself fraying and too tired to tend to your strings alone, please know that I love you as reliably as the westerly, prairie wind... and I always will.