Oh yea – I forgot your name is “Dallas." (Wink-wink.)
I can’t tell you where I live in Texas until I know you’re actually Margarita, but I think you’d like to visit here. It’s a really small town and quiet. Even though everyone knows each other, it feels like home. The only thing we’re known for is our big rodeo and massive ranches that supply food to the majority of Texans.
My parents took me to Austin once, and I hated it. I wonder why your parents didn’t name you Austin instead. You should ask them.
When I visited that city, everyone was rushing around and being loud. It's not that I dislike noise—I can be quite the loudmouth, especially when I sing—but the people in Austin seemed trapped in their own worlds, unwilling to notice those around them.
Where I live, there are animals, sunshine and I get to be barefoot without worrying about stepping on broken glass bottles. I play outside a lot, too.
Sometimes, I wonder what it would be like to have grown up in Los Angeles. Would I be different? Would I actually prefer the noise and mayhem like Austin? Would I be a movie star?
I’d like to live somewhere else someday, maybe even Los Angeles, but I think that even if I lived in Los Angeles, I’d somehow always find my way back here, to this small town in Texas where you can sit outside and hear nothing but the birds and the bugs.
Please write back Margarita (or Dallas. I don’t care either way now.)
XoXo – Paloma
Chapter 4 – Dallas
Twelve years ago… Dallas is 19 years old; Paloma is 14 years old.
Paloma,
Not sure if you’re aware, but your return address is written in the upper left-hand corner of this letter therefore I know not only the city you live in, but your parent’s home address.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to do anything with this information, but I thought you should be aware in case you plan on sending any other letters out to strangers in the world looking for someone named Margarita.
I don’t think you should write letters to me anymore. It’s kind of weird being an adult writing a letter to a 14-year-old girl, so this is the last letter that I’ll be writing and I'm only writing it to answer your mostly ridiculous (sometimes funny) questions.
Being an adult isn’t that fun. There are some good parts to it, but it's certainly nothing to rush to become. I turned 19 years old last week and I don't feel any different.
Yes, I eat whatever I want and go wherever I please, so I guess that part’s cool.
My parents named me Dallas simply because they liked the name. My last name sounds like that of a movie star, fitting since both of my parents work in the film industry, as most people do in Hollywood.They probably assumed their only son would want to work in the industry, too. One of the things I appreciate the most about them is that they support me either way.
Another great thing that they didn’t pressure me into was going to college. When I was in high school, I taught myself to code so that by the time I graduated, there was no need to continue on to school. It was never an expectation, and I think that's pretty rad of them.
Everything in life has come easily to me. I don’t mean that to sound like I’m bragging, it’s just a fact. Most of the time, I've hated that everything comes so easy to me, and I search out for ways to challenge myself because I get bored quickly.My last girlfriend was constantly worried that I was going to break up with her out of boredom when things became too easy.
Unfortunately, she was right and she’s no longer my girlfriend.
Without some tough times, and challenging situations, how do you grow?
Yea, I know, I know, I was born into privilege which is why everything comes easy to me.
You don’t think I know that already?
I’m sure that’s a major part of the ease with which I coast through life, but I also have the confidence to admit that I am naturally smart. I never had to try hard in school, and the same applied when I built a new app from scratch after graduating. It blew up.
I can't tell you which one I built, though, because I'm afraid you might spam it with one-star reviews and tank my success.
I'm currently in the process of finding a buyer to sell it to so that I can do something different but let’s just say, it’s a pretty big deal.
I’m going to stay on as CEO of the app for a while, one of the youngest CEOs in the history of apps like this, and then I think that I’ll do something different. It’s getting too easy for me and I'm growing bored.
I'm not cocky, I'm just confident. Over analyzing your abilities anddoubting yourself leads to failure. If you don't go confidently into every new venture, you're setting yourself up for failure. You know?
Actually, don’t answer whether you know that, because this is the last letter we're writing to each other.
