#esasys

Then 11th grade came. We started talking about graduation, university, and moving out while in the car with mang ujang. We’d joked about our last time going to school in my car and going home in yours with mang ujang, our last time les emi with ko aji, last time our schedules would match like puzzle pieces. But none of it felt real. Not until now. Not until we were walking out on our last UN and UPRAK, not until prom night shimmered past us, not until graduation day. And now, here we are. At the end of the line. 

I don’t know what the future holds. Will you still be the same Kaitlynn I’ve grown up with? What kind of people will fill the spaces around you in America? I hope that even oceans and time zones won’t pull us apart. I hope one day I’ll visit you in California, and you’ll be my tour guide to all things American. We’ll eat In-N-Out like monsters, get stuffed at Raising Cane’s, having an ungodly amount of Nashville mozzarella sticks roam the aisles of Target like it’s an adventure, and stock up at Costco just for fun. Maybe we’ll even eat real NYC pizza in Times Square and stand beneath the Statue of Liberty or eat stale peeps. Maybe texting won’t always work out. But I trust our hearts will still know how to reach for each other.

So is this goodbye? Maybe. But is it the end?