If I Could Speak to My Younger Self

Dear Daniel,
I’m writing to you as you stand at the airport at the age of five, trying to understand what’s happening around you. You’re watching someone else leave, someone you love, someone who promised not to leave, and you’re wondering—‘Why do people always leave? What’s wrong with me?’ You don’t realize it yet, but that curious mind of yours is already leaping to places it doesn’t need to go, trying to piece together a world that feels broken.

Twenty-three years later, I’m here to tell you this: You’ll be okay. You’ll endure, you’ll thrive, and you’ll find a strength you didn’t know you had