Dear Georgiana,
I wish I had a true good thing to tell you. Instead let me remind you of good things that exist. I think this will help even if you nor I ever touch these foreign realities (though your odds are better than mine).
Georgiana: there are children with plenty to eat and plethora blankets and bedding to keep them warm through winter nights: they have two parents who love them wholly because they planned for them in their hearts and minds long before they ever breached the threshold into the lovely world. These children never had to earn the love they received; it was simply theirs to do with what they pleased. These children do not know what a contingency is, Georgiana. Their souls want for nothing because everything they could need, and more, is but one call to dear mother or father away. The lovely lives these children lead turn them into lovely people. They carry no baggage into their futures because only the good of their parents seeped into their hearts, minds and souls. Everything foul——their parents shielded them from, ensuring transference of only the good. So, these now, lovely people live lovely lives, and make the lives of all they meet a little more lovely too.
Perhaps, Georgiana, the people at your college are all “different in the same way” as you say because they were all raised as lovelies. Have you given any of them a chance? Did you ever consider they might think themselves invisible to you? You are quick to judge Georgiana: your mind is too swift for your own good. Yes it landed you “a place on the field” to use your child’s metaphor, but I’d bet money that your hubris is the very thing that will get you kicked off the field, if anything does.
I’ll now meet my sternness with some sisterly reassurance. There is nothing you could do or say that would result in my rejecting you or ceasing our correspondence. Your letters are the loveliest part of my week. If I were not your sister I would be nothing more than a half-orphan. The luckiest day of my life was when you arrived: the only likeminded soul in this town. Now that you’re off at school, as you should be, I am seeing what my life would have been if I had been but one with no sister pair. To lose father all alone with only mother’s cold touch would have shuttered my soul shut. There is no one but you, Georgiana, who I most see myself in and wish the most for in this life. In that way I can almost pretend we are at your school together: two lovely sisters doing lovely things.
Speaking of your schooling: I believe your professors know the best course for your collegiate edification. My final advice to you, in this letter would be to heed them and pay no mind to your rebellious thoughts. My sister you are smart, but you have not lived long enough to be wise. Yes, you have seen a lot, too much, but you have only begun to live. I’ve grown to realize that’s the only advantage I have between us, so allow me to share it with you.
Study hard and write frequently.
Love,
Alice
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