Kirk Espinoza
802 University Way
Tallahassee, FL 32306
(786)-270-6212
July 22, 2019
Kirk Espinoza
2341 10th Street, SW
Miami, FL 33135
Thirteen-year-old Kirk:
I know that your thirteen-year-old brain will not understand why I am writing you this letter, but I need you to really listen to me. I need you to pay attention to your surroundings and who you are hanging out with. You need to understand who will be there for you through thick and thin and who will not. You need to stay out of relationships and focus on school. I know you are still a lost little boy, but you have to listen to me. You have to try sports out and stick to them. Sports will be your best friends. Sports won’t hurt you or leave you. They won’t back stab you. School won’t either. You need to love these things with a passion. I am telling you this because if you keep the friends you have now, you will end up in jail just as I did. You will have to go through the trouble of watching your aunt cry while the police take you away in handcuffs. You will have to go through the struggle of missing class your freshmen year of high school so you could go to court. You will have to go through the trouble of going through a court mandated three-month program. I know you want to keep them as friends but listen to me. Break up with that girlfriend as well. She won’t do you any good. You will be better off without her. You won’t have to go through the heart break. You won’t have to go through the drama. You won’t have to go through all the trouble I had to experience. Stay away from her and focus on what is really important Kirk, listen to me. In high school you will become an athlete and it will make you into one of the most resilient people ever, both physically and mentally. Sports will take you places you thought you would never reach. Sports will get you everything you want. If I started sports at your age, I believe I would’ve been a state placer… or maybe even a champion. You know you’ve always wanted to be first in something. You know you’ve always wanted that attention people get when they are good at something. Listen to me Kirk. Focus on your academics the most. Make it your number one priority. I really regret doing terrible my freshman and sophomore year because I had to work really hard my junior and senior year in order to get my GPA to a mediocre 3.8. You know we don’t like being the average. You know we like to always be on top. I need you to get the 4.5 I never got. I need you to get the gold tassel I didn’t get to wear at graduation because I was .07 points away from it. I felt like such a failure when that happened Kirk. It felt like a truck hit me right in the heart. Yeah, I got into Florida State University, but why does it matter if I don’t have any credits? Why does it matter if there are a lot of people ahead of me and now I have to make it up? I know you want to be a surgeon. I remember always dreaming of being a surgeon. I also remember that dream dying because I was so lazy in health science class that I kept telling myself that I wasn’t interested in the medical field anymore. Don’t lie to yourself like I did. Work hard Kirk please. You need to do what I didn’t. You need to reach places that I can never reach because of my past. Listen to me Kirk…
Eighteen-year-old Kirk