by Miley Cyrus
How could I be born into a name like Destiny Hope and not believe that things happen for a reason? Life is unpredictable. Nothing is written in stone. I’ve told you about myself, but I can’t really say who I’ll be. There’s no right or wrong, success or failure. I don’t look at things as black or white. My life won’t be a series of either/ors—musician or actor, rock or country, straitlaced or rebellious, this or that, yes or no. The real choices in life aren’t that simple. I think of it more like a story that keeps moving forward, with plain old days and then surprises that turn everything upside down. I don’t set limits for myself. I want to be the best I can be. I want to dream big, but dreams change.
What I want, who I want to be, how I want to spend my time—keeping these questions open is good. It’s life. I’m living every day of my life. When you think like that—and when you’re only sixteen—then you’re living a story that has chapter after chapter of blank pages ahead. If there’s one message I have for my fans, it’s that you can make your dreams real, but you have to enjoy just being. Make the best of the life you have every day. I can’t wait to see what’s in the days ahead, but I also don’t want to fill them up too fast.
Afterword: Before I Sleep
When my dad tells me that for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction, he doesn’t usually stop there. He reminds me that life is a series of ups and downs, peaks and valleys for everyone in every walk of life: farmers, businessmen and women, people who work in steel mills like Pappy did. And it’s a whole lot harder to come down than it is to go up. But in the valleys, you find out who you really are.
My parents both talk about the day when all this slows down. My mom thinks I’ll enjoy life more. My dad thinks I’ll have more time to take it all in. But I know I’m blessed for this moment. I love my work. If I don’t work this hard forever, I don’t know what I’ll do with all the extra time and energy, though I have a few ideas (see the next few pages). I may have to get really, really good at calligraphy.
Even with a party to look forward to, I didn’t want my sixteenth birthday to come. I love being the baby and thought that might stop. I don’t even have any idea how to do my own laundry. (That’s one of the ways in which my mom has babied me a little.) I have plenty of grown-up responsibilities—working full-time while still doing schoolwork, having meetings, meeting deadlines. My mom knows I need to be a kid sometimes, to feel safe and cared for and be driven around—though I hope that last one ends the second I get my license.
But yeah, I’m going to have to figure out the laundry thing at some point before I leave home. And you know what? I’m kind of excited. Because no matter what I do, even if its just a load of laundry, I’ll be traveling forward, making my own future—and there are still miles and miles to go.
After the After
In the original afterword, I wrote that I was scared to grow up. But I think I might have already done it—without even knowing. I mean, not totally. Like I said, I do still have miles to go. (At least I have my own car now!) But the experiences of the past year have pushed me forward in ways I’d never have imagined. I sat on a beach and came to grips with letting go. I opened my heart and fell in love again. I lost love but gained friendship. I traveled to new countries and went back home to familiar places. And, you’d be proud to know, I learned to do my laundry!
Still, those are only a few lessons. Only a few of the mile markers. There are more to come. Some of them I can guess, some of them are going to be surprises. And you know what? I can’t wait.