You won't always be this hungry, little girl. I promise there will come a time when you will have everything you are dreaming about right now, and then some. The emptiness you feel in your belly will become a familiar feeling. It'll move around and give you different kinds of pain, but you will remember this dull need inside you for the rest of your life.

As you stand there staring at the cupcakes in the bakery window, mindlessly playing with the two coins in your pocket, knowing full well you don't even have enough for a small taste, remember this; one day you will have enough money to buy the whole store. And you know what, little girl? By then, your taste for sweets will have all but vanished.

I know right now you think that cake is what you want, but trust me, its not what you need. Hook a left at the corner and head down the road to the library. Its warm in there and there's whole section about magic and miracles. Your life is going to be filled with blessings and most of them will appear when you least expect. There are some dark moments ahead, but when you sit down to write your life story, you're going to realize how important the stumbles and falls helped you realize how strong you really are. Those feelings of being small and helpless will fade. You will need to wield your power gently. You will have the strength to destroy people, even people who love you very much and hopefully you will remember the hunger you are feeling right now, before you flex your muscles. People will hurt you, but everyone has different needs. Sometimes its easier to be the one who is hurting rather than live with the shame of retaliation.

You need to laugh more. It doesn't seem like there is anything terribly amusing in your life right now, so maybe you should laugh at yourself. Why wait a lifetime to mock yourself? Get a head start; begin today.

I know how it all turns out, well except for the end, but I'm far enough down the path at this point to be an expert witness, so I think I can wisely give you some advise.

You will face a major decision in your life. There's no point in my giving you a time line. You'll know it by the smack across the head you'll feel when you need to review the two options. It's here you'll need to remember that awful hunger you feel today. One path will take you straight through the middle and while you may get some scars from all the bombastic fallout from the chaos exploding all around you, you will survive. You might even earn a Purple Heart, but unquestionably you will emerge as a survivor.

Now the other path is the scenic route. It meanders all over the chart, but the view is breathtaking. You are so used to pain at this point that you might not think you are worth the kindness of an easy gait, but if you don't give yourself a chance to stop running into things, you'll spend the rest of your life with regrets and an acute case of the "what ifs." So here's a thought I hadn't thought about before, but it may be valuable when it comes time There's nothing written that if you choose this option and find that it isn't half as pretty as it looked from the edge of the forest, you can always backtrack and take the other path.

Oh yeah, some small stuff, but if you take it to heart, it will save you a lot of grief later. Smoking may seem to be cool and I suppose if you don't take up the habit you might miss some juicy gossip in the designated smoking area, but trust me, there is nothing cool about an old lady coughing up gobs of phlegm.

Forget you ever even thought about trying to learn how to drink scotch. No, it doesn't make you look tough. All those "Guffaws" from the business men you will be entertaining are not some form of admiration. What they're actually hoping is that after a couple of shots of Chivas you might give them the grand tour of the suite you booked at the hotel. By the way, it was more than a couple of shots the time you took that guy home with you. If it's any consolation, he probably can't remember your name either. And no, no one ever found out, so don't waste any time on guilt.

There are some memorable highlights in your life, but if I told, it would only ruin the surprise.

I have to go, but just one last thought. You are going to be a beautiful woman, not in some Barbie, big hair kind of way, no a classic runway unique, beauty that will captivate attention. I know that you will never feel that pretty, but it's a Hell of a waste when you're eighty and thumbing through old photo albums to find out how gorgeous you were.