Dear Aaron

by Mariana Zapata

You needed to pick yourself right back up, even if you were bruised and hurt and just wanted to lie on the ground and stay there forever because it wasn’t as uncomfortable as you thought it’d be.

I didn’t have to dread whatever came, or didn’t come, in the future. Sometimes things worked out and other times they didn’t.

“There’s more scary shit in the world out there than in the water, but it’s all about how you face the things that you’re not sure about, understand?”

You’re my Ruby, and you have been for a long time.”

What was love if it wasn’t just a single word people used to try and describe something that wasn’t easily explained or grown in one action or declaration?

“A business isn’t successful overnight. You don’t get promoted in a week. Everything takes time. Everything that is important and good and worthwhile, takes time.