I’m Angela, a childless aunt, who sometimes goes by Angie.
Katie is my niece. She turns 12 in 2009, the year this blog started.
Katie and I share an IQ ranking (top 2% ish), a middle name (Jane), and a some key personality predispositions.
Whenever I am around Katie, I have the urge to share with her every life lesson I’ve ever learned, in hopes that she might not have to learn all of them the hard way(s) herself.
Thankfully for Katie, usually I just keep my mouth shut and work on being fun instead.
However, in early 2009, I wrote Katie a letter about grief, and I realized that it is easier for me write down what I believe about the world when I’m thinking of sharing it with her than if I’m just writing it for myself.
Also in early 2009, I came down with vertigo so severe that my productivity was limited to short bursts of writing. After I wrote Katie the letter about grief, I figured I could use my vertigo productivity times to continue to write, even if the writing is really more for me than it is for her.
So I started this blog.
I don’t know that Katie, or the world, will actually benefit from my collected thoughts. I don’t even know that Katie will ever actually read these things. It doesn’t seem to be the most important part of writing them.
I do know that I love reading letters that other people write to children they love. The format seems to distill realism, optimism, and love into palatable wisdom. At least it works that way when others do it; we’ll see how mine turns out.
Love,
Aunt Angie