“Things are just so utterly strange right now. I’m still thinking about imaginary characters more than real people.”

April 2^nd, 2012, Journal Entry

Dear teenaged Brenna,

You’re probably staying up late tonight reading, as you do, diving into worlds you desperately want to be in, worlds you like better than your own.

You may be in the Quarter Quell arena right now, watching lightning strike the tree. Or maybe you’re in Forks, Washington, a place so dismal and unlike your own lush backyard. Remember sitting in a hotel room the summer after 8^th grade unable to escape the FAYZ?

Say we go farther back to your middle grade fiction days, and you may be in that theme park from the Sweet Seasons series. Or a part of the infamous Clique from the series we all know and love to hate? Maybe even on the summer vacations of the Summer series you drooled over forever?

You may just be in a high school hallway, a world not so unlike your own after all.

To that girl, I just want to tell you to never let that feeling go. Never let the memories fade. Never forget the times you sat in class unable to think about anything but fictional characters.

Never judge yourself for staying in those worlds. Hell, you never left those worlds.

Love, Someone who cherishes those memories more than everything.