the birthday special 🪩

for a very special girl

I think you can learn a lot from a person, and become a lot of things by being in proximity to them. The gift of friendship is something that I believe is the most beautiful thing in existence due to the many doors one connection can open to you. Even though it’s something tricky to navigate sometimes, some friendships never take that form. They’re so easy to the point where you wonder how complicated friendships exist. And there’s nothing to navigate with them.

Things are just easier, lighter, more beautiful, and just all sunshine with them. Being with them feels like a pillow that is cold on both sides — ready to give you rest when you need it. Even when there’s so much noise out in the world, or when there’s a lot of misfortune, some friendships provide quiet, rest, joy, and some of the best pleasures of life.

I’m lucky enough to have found that in my darling, Elissa ( elissa victoria ).

It’s like one day I just blinked, and when I opened my eyes, Elissa was there — one of my closest friends ever, a true confidante, and one of the best people I’ve ever met. Sharing the same obsessive interests in things like Hamilton, Michael Jackson, Steve Lacy, etc, never made me feel like my unconventional interests were bizzare or unappreciated.

Everything has been all sunshine and rainbows since I met Elissa. She’s truly one of a kind — beautiful inside and out, extremely caring, one of the funniest people I’ve ever met (writing this against my will), and brilliant in debate, intellect, and just everything in general.

I think one of the things I absolutely love about Elissa is just how much she’s willing to go all the way with someone she believes in. While people fear this trait can serve as a ‘kryptonite, she proves that love is never wasted when it’s shared, and I adore that about her. I really do.

Friendship with her has definitely made the thought of not being loved fully or being maltreated by anybody else extremely unthinkable to me. That’s also something I’m grateful to have found in her.

Even on days when I feel like I’ve written absolutely shitty essays, her uplifting comments filled with love make me feel like I’m a modern-day Shakespeare, and I love that too.

I’m grateful to have a friendship as deep, warm, fuzzy, and EVERYTHING as what I have with Elissa. I deeply cherish everything about her, and I cannot wait for what the future holds for her and us.

As TikTok lingo would have it, everyone deserves an Elissa, just not mine.

Happy birthday, Elissa. Thank you for being one of the best I have in my corner, and if it were possible to love you more than this, I think it would physically hurt. ❤️