it's okay to let confusion drown you, pour over you like the wind sweeps the Great Plains clean. it's okay to mistake up for down, and have to wear a compass rigged with alarm bells as an amulet. it's okay to forget your name and make up a new one. there will be days when you can't see out the window past the dust and sun-charred veneer, and they will serve as reminders of the universe in the bathroom mirror and it's impossible reality. it's okay to feel like mundane chaos, or a deflating balloon in the dessert sun. it's okay to save secrets for yourself and to wear your mistakes as medals on your chest. it's okay to doubt all that you've ever been told. there will be days when no amount of coffee will cure the weariness compiled in your bones and you will have to set a timer for breathing. it's okay to squeal in ecstasy and in fury and in despair. it's okay to miss people who do not think of you and wish that they would. it's okay to wonder if you have every truly loved anything. there might not ever come a day when it all makes sense, and that is okay too.