October 14, 2022

Dear friend,

I am writing to you because she said you'd understand. She said you knew what it felt like to not belong, to not be the one in the middle of your friends when walking down the road, to sometimes feel left-out, to know great pain and infinite sadness, to be a wallflower.

This might sound weird coming from a stranger, but I would like to recommend you The perks of being a Wallflower. Although the book is easy to read, the story is far from being light or bland. Jump in the life of Charlie and follow him through the ups and downs of his first year of high-school.
You will feel the exaltation of finding friends that like you for who you are, and the great despair that comes when you are alone.
You will feel the thrill of your first kiss, and the numbness that comes after smoking your first joint.
You will feel the serenity of love, and the brutality of rape.
You will feel empty, and infinite.
You will just feel.

If I had to take only one thing from this book, it would be that we are not alone. Millions of people are hurt just like you, just like me, and there is no point in saying that some people have it much worse than you to try and feel better. It just doesn't work like this. Sometimes you will need to be the shoulder people cry on, and they will all like you for it. But you can't only be a shoulder, because people will never love you for it.

I am excited because I will watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show in two weeks with some friends. I am nervous about the costume I will wear and because I never saw the show before, but I am happy because I will participate, and this is what the book has tried to teach me. It is crazy to think that kids just like you and me saw it fifty years ago, and that kids will still probably watch it in fifty years. I guess that's just something that doesn't change, an heirloom passed from one generation to another.

I think it's time for me to say goodbye, I really hope you don't mind me sending you this letter.

Love always,
Tom