The chosen recipient for my care package is my youngest brother Lucas de Oliveira Coratti Silva of the year 2032 which is when he will be achieving the age of 18 years old. Lucas is currently a 4-year-old child living in Feira de Santana, Bahia (northeast of Brazil). He is very energetic and active with a constant will to explore and ask how things work to anything that comes close to him. As a teenager, I had a lot of doubts about how I was feeling and what I was supposed to be doing. Since I am his oldest brother, I would like to use this care package to transmit some experiences and learnings I had throughout my adolescence so that if he sees himself out of track, this care package might make him see that what is happening to him is also happening to more people, happened to me and it is completely normal. In addition the objective of this care package is to make the recipient feel more interested in the world he lives in with information about black holes, the universe, and spaceships while also giving due attention to small details of life such as short songs and petting a dog by creating a bound while he is reading it with the future him and the present me.
In order to start talking about such an important subject, I must put this academic article to give the reader solid and specific information about depression in that age written by Cilem Bilginer and Sema Kandil “Emotional and Behavioral Characteristics of Childhood Depression”. The article talks about how depression can also manifest in children, and it can be as serious as in adults. People often believe that kids don’t have such problems and being shy or not having any friends are just part of a phase, Cilem Bilginer clarifies that “Having fewer friends or a lack of friends may have been caused by depression among the children or could be a result of these children’s behavior problems” (89). I hope you understand that some details of childhood might be signal of how one is feeling, and if someone is going through mental confusions, the person should not let it go unnoticed.
Researching about science helped me find areas I was good at and eventually I was able to choose a program to study but, I understand it might be hard to find a place to start. The universe is both a broad and interesting subject, that is why I want to give my recipient this article written by Dennis Overby on The New York Times newspaper which talks about Stephen Hawking’s last scientific paper before dying, in which, he discusses how black holes and the information fallen into it are related: “‘When I wrote my paper 40 years ago, I thought the information would pass into another universe,’ he told me at the Harvard conference. Now, he said, it’s on the surface of the black hole” (Overby). It was believed that information would get lost as an object would fall into a black hole, however, new perspectives are being observed and the theory behind it is being modified, revised and enhanced as Dr. Strominger points out “‘We didn’t prove it,’ he said in an email. But, he added, they did succeed in showing how all the pieces could fit together: ‘If our guess is right, this paper will be of central importance. If not, it will be a technical footnote’” (Overby).
A friend of mine, Giovanna Gomiero, gave me a poem book before I came to Canada, which was carefully chosen to be an engaging reading since I don’t enjoy reading a lot. I loved the whole Meu Universo Particular book, but the poem “ Espero um dia voltar a ser calmaria e amor” changed the way I used to judge most books and also helped me throughout a moment of transition I was passing by. For those reasons, I hope the reader is going to enjoy it as much as I did. It talks about someone who might be stressed and starts to understand that it is fine to rest sometimes. As the speaker of the poem states “I hope my shoulders feel lighter when laying down becomes a necessity” [Espero que meus ombros se tornem leves quando o deitar for uma necessidade] (115). In adolescence, parents generally start charging more their kids because they must begin making important decisions for their lives and in addition, there is all the emotional pressure by themselves and people around them. Consequently, some teenagers usually forget to take some time to rest and relax and this poem is important because it reminds us that the world is ready to understand and comfort us when it is needed to slow down.
If the recipient feel like the language used is too dense or complicated, I also submitted the movie Interstellar about black holes and the universe. It is a movie made for lay people; therefore, he can watch and enjoy it even if he does not have a solid background on the subject. It has a deep plot about an apocalyptic version of earth, in which dust storms destroyed farms and therefore a lot of people were starving to death. With no hope to save the world they were living in, Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) finds a secret group from NASA trying to send spaceships to possible habitable planets in order to save humanity. Cooper agrees to pilot the spacecraft; however, he must leave his daughter and son behind with chances of never seeing them again. This movie transmits a mixed feeling of understanding the wonders about the complex universe we live in while also focusing on Cooper’s relationship between his daughter and son. The main character knows the importance of his job although he can’t ignore all his anguish, sadness, anxiety, which illustrates how we must take care of our mental health and that the world inside our head is no less important than the world outside.
I also submitted a playlist that the recipient can listen while reading the rest of the letter. I selected 10 specific songs that helped me throughout high school and put together in the playlist “Hello Lucas, I’ve been waiting for you”. It was built with a mix of different singers and genres by focusing to give the listener a flown and strong emotional feeling. Some songs were picked because of the relaxing melody and others have interesting video clips worth watching, for instance, Jeremy Zucker’s song “All the Kids are Depressed” which briefly tells different stories from depressed teenagers who are fighting against it. The main goal of the playlist is to demonstrate that confusion is a common feeling throughout several moments of life and therefore we ask if and how can we become better versions of ourselves as the character Bojack Horseman said in the song “Is It Too Late for Me: “Do you think it is too late for me? Am I just doomed to be the person that I am? The person in that book? It’s not too late for me, is it?” (Gcoratti).
I also put in the package something that is going to love the recipient unconditionally, it will bring him joy and happiness while also helping to build his responsibility. The first dog our family had was a Salt and Pepper colored Schnauzer and after that, we did not stop having dogs. Dogs deserve the most we can offer, getting one is like having another family member in your house and I am sure he will love it. A puppy is a must-have object to my care package since dogs can easily teach us humility, happiness and to have fun. Furthermore, dogs are animals that generally have a short life expectancy and for this reason, the recipient may want to pay more attention to simple but significant moments of life such as spending time playing catch with it.