She laughed too loud, believed in promises too quickly, and always kept a suitcase half-packed because she was ready to chase the next bright idea. I can still see her twirling her hair by the window, dreaming about things that had not happened yet, trusting the world more than it probably deserved.

Reading those old letters now, I do not feel embarrassed or regretful. I feel tender. The mistakes do not look like failures anymore. They look like lessons that folded themselves into the shape of who I am today.

I do not write to change the past. I write to remind myself that she was not wrong to hope. She was just learning how to hope better.

If you wrote a letter to the person you used to be, what would you want them to know?

Olga❣️