Advice to my son

I just received an interesting email from my son’s English teacher. They’re reading Hamlet in class, and she wants to personalize the scene in which Polonius gives advice to his son, Laertes before he leaves for France. She’s asked us to write our High School Senior a letter full of the advice we’ve spent the last seventeen years trying to impart. My writerly, parent brain loves this idea so much I thought I’d share my letter here. Advice to my son before he leaves home: 1. Be kind. Your kindness to someone else will always make a difference. 2. Give yourself time to sleep. You need it more than you think you do. 3. Walk or run when you can. Make time to hike in nature. Movement will be a pressure valve release on stress. 4. Drink water. 5. Take a moment to photograph that sunset, or the cool cloud pattern, or even the interesting cornice on a building. Look up, notice things, find beauty around you, make a record of it. 6. Spread your w