You found me. I’d thought hiding behind the flap of this book jacket would prevent me from being read – by librarians, anyway. If you’re a youngster (like myself) then I guess that shouldn’t be much of a problem.

You’ve got a good book in your hands. Yup, I’ve read it. But if you’re about to read it, then I won’t spoil the ending, and if you’ve already read it then I won’t wile away your time summarizing the events of Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy.

But if that’s not what I’m here for, you wonder, then for whom is this letter? I’ll tell you: This letter is for You. I can see you pointing to yourself, “Who, me?” and to that I reply “Yes, You!”

Why You? Because You are an important person in this world. “But you don’t even know my name,” You protest. True.  But I don’t need to know if You are a girl or a boy, and I don’t need to know Your age. The colour of Your hair, skin and eyes don’t matter either. All that I really know about You is that You’re literate (and very lucky to be so) and that You possess a huge amount of potential that You probably don’t recognize . . . as a youngster, anyway.

I may be just a letter – white paper and ink – but believe me, I have a lot of potential too. I can present ideas in the form of the written word. I can reveal the true st of facts (s’no such thing as a false fact after all). I bear the most imaginative of descriptions, and with these descriptions I invoke the deepest feelings of the human psyche. My kin (paper) and I can be bound in notebooks, published as pages of a paperback, or passed around between libraries (including FVRL). And if we’re lucky, we are read by hundreds of pairs of eyes. You may have just one of those few hundreds of pairs – and you have a lucky pair. One that can read.

Not everyone has that, You know. Don’t ever abandon it.

Unfortunately, I am a small letter. Actually, that may not be so unfortunate. If I were a long letter, people may grow bored of my constant rambling and crumple me up and throw me in the trash. No, it is good to be small. I hope you have the same attitude towards the attributes you possess. Some of those attributes you may consider to be weaknesses. If so, either change it into a positive strength, or change your attitude about it. People have criticized my distant neighbor (a non-fiction book on the shelf) for being overly stubborn because of his constant presenting of “facts”. But to this, I say “So what?” Stubbornness needn’t be such a bad thing; I say the most stubborn of people may in fact be the ones that don’t give up their dreams - or their relationships, or whatever other aspirations they may have.

You, youngster, are so much more than what others think you are. Sometimes others can’t see your true potential – or goodness, even you your own. But just because a blind person can’t see the world doesn’t mean the world isn’t there. Only You can determine the character you reap. You are in charge of your life dreams and goals, and if you really desire something out of life, then take advantage of all the tools you’ve developed to go after it. (Reading is a good tool; without it, I can guarantee your world would be much, much smaller.) And if you don’t have a particular tool . . . then do whatever you can to obtain it. The good news is, you’re young. You have your whole life to achieve any dream your mind can conceive. (“But I’m 65,” you say. Read you not the beginning of this letter? Age is not important – and if you’re 65 and wanting to achieve more in your life, then you’re still a youngster.)

I hope that my “potential” has not bored you and has inspired you with even but a spark. Otherwise, I hope this letter made you smile in one way or another, be it of ridicule, surprise, or curiosity.

Probably of curiosity. I wouldn’t be surprised.

The young mind is always curious.