Letter to the Tooth Fairy

What’s the most memorable thing you ever got in the mail?

On the day of my 13th birthday, I received a mysterious envelope addressed to me in the mail. Inside was a  folded sheet of yellowed notebook paper. I was pretty confused at first—it looked like an old letter written by a child. Upon taking a closer look (and an interesting glint of light in my mother’s eyes) I realized that child was me. And it was addressed to the tooth fairy. By then my mom had probably realized I didn’t believe in the tooth fairy anymore, which is why she was bold enough to hand me the letter she had kept all these years.

The day I lost my first tooth I was eating spaghetti. It had been driving me crazy for a week now, and it finally let go when I was chewing and bit into something hard. Excited, I carried it proudly inside a ziploc bag everywhere I went. I begged my parents to let me bring it to my friend's house that same evening. They told me no—knowing my character, they assumed I’d lose it. But being the insistent 6 year old I was, I managed to convince them under the condition that I would never take it out of the bag. 

Of course, I lost it. 

I took it out of the bag to see if it would fit back in my mouth, and somewhere along the way I dropped it onto the rough carpet of my friend’s basement, never to be seen again. After an hour of work with 4 kids and 7 adults’ contribution, we gave up. I was devastated of course, but my friend brought up the idea of writing a letter to the tooth fairy—my eyes lit up. I would give her a shiny red plastic diamond I had for months, and then I could still get a toy! I immediately got to work and used up my extensive vocabulary to write the letter. I was super convinced it would work…and it did. I got a toy the next day under my pillow. I knew it was because I offered that plastic diamond in the place of my tooth.

It was one of the first times I disagreed with my parents and insisted on doing things my own way, ending up realizing I was wrong and my parents were wiser. This was just one example—in the years to come I would lose toys, guitar picks, stuffed animals, and even 20 dollar bills in the exact same way. You would think I would’ve learned my lesson by then, but I guess not.

The note from my mom wasn’t used as a “Gotcha” moment. She wanted to show me how far I’ve come and how she was so proud of me that I grew into a person that was able to make wise decisions on my own. While I don’t lose items left and right anymore, I still have disagreements with my parents occasionally. The difference is I think “I’m actually right this time.” Sometimes I do have to wonder if I really do know what I’m doing, or if I’m still naive. On the one hand, I’ve developed the important critical thinking abilities I lacked as a child, and can think past my immediate desires to logically figure out how my decision impacts the big picture. On the other hand however, my parents have seen me grow my whole life and have observed me in stages where I didn’t know who I was. They likely know me better and know what’s best for me, and having lived much longer than I have, probably have better life experience as well. 

My current perspective is this: I’m still learning new things every day, but for now I’ll do what I believe is best, taking in account my parents thoughts, and in 10 years time look back and see if the decisions I make today are the right call or not.