Happy 18th Birthday, Baby!

I have another new writing project…

I need to write a letter to my niece.

My sister came up with the idea (I think she saw it on Pinterest) to have everyone in the family write her one-year-old daughter a letter – to read on her 18th birthday.

First – let me say that I’d love to write her a letter – like with my hand and a pen and cute stationery, but alas, I don’t have cute stationary anymore. I used to have a bunch of stationery sets when I was younger. Most of them were adorned with puppies or clouds and were packaged in little cardboard folders with pockets to hold the matching paper and envelopes. Do they still make things like that? Maybe with more sophisticated designs?

The closest thing that I have to ‘stationery’ is a box of resume paper that Matt’s aunt gave me for my college graduation – with my maiden name printed across the top of each page.

I have cute blank cards, but those don’t leave me much space to write.  And, I fear that seventeen years from now, reading actual handwriting may be a completely lost art-form anyway. So, typing it will be.

I was supposed to do this a month ago, but I just keep stalling because I don’t know what to say to an 18-year-old version of my one-year-old niece. (Her current hobbies include blowing kisses and stirring plastic pots and pans filled with plastic vegetables…)

And, of course I want my letter to be well thought-out, insightful, inspiring, and reaffirm her belief that I’m a really cool aunt…