A letter to my daughter on your 10th birthday

Contents hide

To my darling E on your 10th birthday

I think this has to be the most emotional I’ve ever felt writing one of these letters. Now that your 10th birthday is here I simply can not get my head around that my baby girl is now in double digits, or that you have been on this planet and filling up our lives with love and laughter for a whole decade!

Those baby days feel so long ago now you are a strong, funny, sassy, smart 10-year-old…or as so many people like to point out…a mini-me!

We are hurtling at what feels like breakneck speed towards the end of year 5 and then your final year at junior school. I can’t believe how fast everything is transitioning…time slipping through our hands like sand.

I feel like I’ll blink and then suddenly you’ll be heading out that door to go to college. But then again, you still feel like my baby, although your hugs are getting stronger and stronger by the minute!

This year you have floored me with your sense and sensibility…as we’ve had to deal with not one but two of your grandparents being diagnosed with cancer as well as having to navigate through my own BRCA1 cancer risk.

It has been an incredibly emotional time but you have taken it all in your stride with a crystal clear view coupled with buckets full of kindness, empathy and positivity. Your sweet heart bowls me over every single day. Hang on to those qualities like gold dust in your journey towards independence my girl and they will set you up for life!

Your strength and determination need the space to grow and breathe yet I will always be there to take you in my arms and comfort you when you need it. I want you to know proud I am of everything you are, everything you choose and everything you do every step of the way. You are the greatest gift I could ever have wished for in life, despite the challenges we have faced growing up along the way.

Your creativity and expression continue to gather momentum and there is nothing you love more than not standing still and dancing and singing at every opportunity. You still know how to light up the room with your energy and positivity. Keep holding on to that passion and let it enrich your life for years to come well beyond your 10th birthday and you will never regret it.

Conscious of time running away to teen years, we decided it was time to take you back to your birthplace this year, and wow what a homecoming it was to be back in Asia again. We hope you will always treasure your roots now that you have reconnected with them and that it will continue to be a special part of you.

I love you so much my heart could burst writing this. I believe in you and everything you do. You are beautiful all the way from your insides and all the way out. Always be guided by your strong inner compass and remember that whilst life is not always easy, there is always light to be found even in the dark times if you look for it and approach it with gratitude.

These, my darling, are the words I want you to have, keep and cherish on your 10th birthday.

I’ve loved you from the minute you were a little glow worm inside me and I’ll continue to love you to the ends of the earth when we are all just specks of dust.

Keep shining like the star you are and stay fierce and strong always,