Peyton, the road is humming again
Low through the mountains
Down through the flatlands
Pulling you south like the tide knows your name

You follow that ribbon of highway
Past truck stops and thunderheads
Till the air tastes like salt and rain
And the whole world opens blue

Oh, Peyton
There’s a place where the sea keeps no fences
Where the horizon stretches so far
It teaches your heart how to wander

Earlier you came searching for wonder
Sunburned and laughing
Barefoot and brave
Sleeping beneath stars that looked close enough to hold

Now you return carrying something different
A steadier fire
A map in your spirit
The kind you only earn from wind and weather

Cause the ocean ain’t gentle every day
No, the ocean tells the truth
About fear
About strength
About how small we are beneath creation

There’ll be long paddles against the current
Storm clouds building without warning
Cold nights wrapped in damp clothes
And mornings where your hands ache from rope and salt

But Peyton
That water is shaping you too

Out beyond the reef line
Where the sky melts into the sea
You’ll hear yourself clearer somehow
Far from the noise of landlocked living

You’ll teach wide-eyed kids to read the tide
To move carefully through coral gardens
To leave a place better than they found it
To love the living world enough to protect it

And maybe that’s what growing is
Not becoming harder
But becoming deeper

Learning how to bend with the wind
How to keep wonder alive
How to stand steady
Even when the waves don’t

So go on, Peyton
Head south where the pelicans glide low
Where the mangroves hold the shoreline together
Where the stars scatter wild across black water

May the road rise up to meet you
May the sea keep you humble
May the hard days make you kinder
And may you always find your way back
To that open stretch
Where sky and ocean become one thing
And you remember
Who you are.