for ina

On one hand, I'm very excited for her. A year and a half in another country, a great opportunity, a new passport, new friends, a great deal of distance between her and our favorite cheerdancing captain--it can't get any better than that. And I'd love nothing more than for her to happy and free from unnecessary distractions.

On the other hand, a year and a half without her 10 minutes away from a text or call for coffee is gonna punch a dent on my days. I'll miss the conversations and rant sessions brought about by our path-dependency and the ever-present characters from our personal histories. I'll miss the way she plays big sister not just to her own siblings, but to us as well. I'll miss the coffee and cheesecake evenings spent making up resolutions about our dysfunctional lovelives. I'll miss the way we would cheer each other on whenever we declare short-lived victories over our said path-dependency, only to veer back to the same path after some time (exactly why we declared ourselves as proof of such theory). I'll miss our character assassinations and laugh trips and sudden impulses to spend a night drinking wine or gataka and watching Mage's korean movies. I'll miss driving her home after a night out with friends and her complaining that I'm playing heart-wrenching songs again. And there's a lot more to miss that simply cannot be articulated.

And so, off she goes to the land of the Kiwis. I wish her well, and hope that in times of loneliness, she'll remember that she has a cup of coffee, a slice of cheesecake, a good conversation, and friends waiting for her back here, and she'll smile.