for our loved ones.

"A lot of people can change you - the first kid who called you a name, the first teacher who said you were smart, the first person who crowned you best friend. It's the change you remember, the firsts and what they meant, not really the people. Ethan changed me, for instance, but the longer we've been apart the more he sort of recedes into the distance as a real person and in his place is a cardboard cutout that says First Boyfriend.

I'm talking about the ones who, for whatever reason, are as much a part of you as your own soul. Their place in your heart is tender; a bruise of longing, a pulse of unfinished business. My mom was right about that. Just hearing their names pushes and pulls at you in a hundred ways, and when you try to define those hundred ways, describe them even to yourself, words are useless. If you had a lifetime to talk, there would still be things left unsaid."

- Sweethearts, by Sara Zarr

hey, you.
hug someone today.
:)