Everyone sees you trying, but few truly understand everything behind it: the effort, the difficult moments, and all that you had to go through to get where you are.

It’s something I had never felt before. Something so beautiful, yet at the same time something that hurts so much.

We sat across from each other, a cup of coffee in our hands, and began to remember school, our friends, the laughter, and those years when someone would secretly send songs, letters, and love poems.

That summer we worked side by side, slowly learning each other’s names, our stories, and the quiet ways our souls seemed to understand one another, even if our bodies never crossed that line.