Dear past me,

You did great. I am so proud of you for everything that you went through. I know that you wouldn’t believe where we are now. That after everything we endured and all the struggles and heartbreak we would be here now. There were definitely some days I know we didn’t want to keep going, but we did it. I can’t believe everything that we’ve accomplished. It seems so small to me sometimes, but I know you would be in awe. There are a lot of things that you wanted that have changed since we were kids. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. You still got married at 23, but sadly we didn’t stay with them. It’s ok though. We had so many love affairs. We loved so many people and it all worked out even when it didn’t. We finally traveled back to Korea. We didn’t meet our birth parents, but we got to see where we came from and we loved it so much. We still do and one day we’ll go back and really enjoy it to its fullest. We made most of our dreams come true. I know there are still some bucket list items we are working on, but we are getting through them. Thank you for being so resilient in the face of the worst times. Thank you for always having faith that things work out exactly how they’re supposed to. Thank you for never letting the worst of times get us down. Thank you for facing everything head-on and never backing down from a challenge. Thank you for teaching me how to do that as an adult too. Thank you for always being curious and wanting to try new things. Thank you for dreaming bigger than we could ever imagine. Thank you for getting me here. I don’t know what I would have done without you. I am so so so proud of you. I know that if I could tell you that in person you would be so much prouder of who I am now. It’s all good. I am taking it from here.

Dear future me,

Thank you. For not giving up on us. For taking all the skills and pain and lessons and turning them into success. For not letting all the bullshit get us down. For believing, even when no one else did. For making our dreams reality. For saying “fuck you” to the haters. For realizing we are worth it. For understanding that everything that happened to us was for a reason. That no matter what happened we’d always have ourselves at the end of the day and that was good enough. WE are good enough. I am proud of all the things you accomplished for us that you said you would. That we are financially free and finally living the life we’ve always wanted. That you made all your dreams come true for REAL. There is so much more that I could say, but I am excited to finally meet you and enjoy everything that you have. Thank you for doing the damn thing. I hope that I can be as graceful as you were getting to where you are and that I take everything with a grain of salt before I get there. I hope that I can be as powerful and wise and forgiving of myself as you were and I know I will be because you are there and I am here. I can’t can’t wait to be there too. Thank you.