Holli Garrido English 1103 Honors 7 September 2011 I am writing this letter to my best friend Liz, nicknamed Leyus,

who I was incredibly close with from the end of freshman year until the middle of our junior year in high school. When she dropped out of school the winter of our junior year, she stopped contacting me and our friendship crumbled within weeks. I have hardly spoken to her since but through the digital world I can see that she has few to no friends, is not attending college and has no job, and is becoming seriously depressed. Leyus, School has not been the same since you left, and my weekends feel incredibly empty now that they lack our numerous adventures and all the things we did together. It was strange to go through my senior year without you, having no one to scream my name down the hall or walk around holding hands with to get lunch money. I have no one to call full of excitement when I see something Michael Cera related or to drink cases of Yoo-hoo with at lunch while planning our next magical adventure. Maybe its just me, but I miss you very much, and I hope that somewhere in some way, you miss me too. Maybe you didnt realize it, but dropping out of school was a horrible decision, I figured you knew that, since we watched Mateo drop out just months before graduating, and we were so worried about him because we knew he was going nowhere with his life after that. Why you would choose a similar fate for yourself I will never understand. You were, and probably still are, so incredibly smart and talented. You understood things in a way I could only hope to figure out, and you had such an innate talent for photography that to this day I am in awe of the photos that you created. The most important thing you may have missed is the wisdom you could have gained from staying in school, which would have been the vital key to your success. We hated school; we hated the conformity of it all and the teachers who gave us bad grades because we did our own thing, regardless of the rules. Mrs. Hester was too stupid to even recognize real talent, and we knew that and mocked her for it whenever we could. Of course at that time we didnt know that the wisdom we needed came in the form of literacy. Not literacy how we were taught, as the simple skill of being able to read literature and write a decent paper, because we both

know thats pointless. What I have come to realize now is that this literacy is so much more than that and so much more than either of us could have imagined, and we need it. In college, which is so much more than we ever imagined, I have learned that literacy can be broadly defined as three things: power, adaptation, and a state of grace. Already this definition is far beyond what I thought it could be in high school, and even more astonishing is the realization that you had literacy as adaptation, and you used it every day. You were so well read and you could talk to everyone from Dyer to Sandie, Ashley to Mateo, people from all walks of life. You could communicate with them in an intelligent yet friendly way that made them want to be around you. You were able to adapt like few others could. I know I was jealous because I have only recently been able to adapt and interact confidently with my friends and share the knowledge I have learned. Of course, literacy as adaptation wasnt enough, and this became apparent when you decided to drop out and have since then lost just about everything you had. Youve blocked me on Facebook but people talk, and I know that you have few to no friends. After watching you scream and cry over the things he had done, Nick finally left you, and I honestly think thats for the better. You deserve more. You arent in school and have no job, leaving you at home with the parents you cant stand, and worst of all you seem to be severely depressed. You no longer adapt because you have nothing to adapt to, so this form of literacy has become useless to you. What you need is literacy in a different way, a way that can help get you back out in the world, being magical. You need literacy in a way that can be accomplished by coming back to school. Staying in school, especially high school, seems like a complete waste of time. I have felt this and you have too. What they didnt bother to tell us in school is that the social literacy you develop there helps you in every aspect of your life, not just in the academic world. Literacy, most importantly, can act as a state of grace. It gives you the ability to make connections with people, to care for others and have them care for you. I have become more perceptive as Ive gone along and I can see that youve let your insecurities or your mothers belittling comments break you down so that youve become scared and almost jealous of the people around you. The only solution you see is to cut all these people out of your life so you dont have to deal with them, but that only does more damage than good. Literacy as a state of grace can give you the confidence to know that you are a phenomenal person and that you dont need to compare

yourself to others and you definitely do not need to be jealous of them or feel threatened. I know it seems like more of a hassle than its worth, but you know that I am no bundle of confidence and I swear by this notion. Come back to school, finish your education and gain the confidence and acceptance I know you, and I too, desire. I wouldnt be saying all of this if I didnt mean it, and if I didnt believe one hundred percent that this is worth it. I love you so much its retarded, Hawly