Dear Dadi, I go to a great school. It has big classrooms and I use new school supplies each year, including the erasers. I love learning new concepts at school; sometimes it feels as though knowledge has no limit, it just keeps expanding into an infinite black hole… except knowledge brings light into our lives, so perhaps it’s a white hole instead, enlightening us with the grace of wisdom. Anyways, I learned a valuable lesson in school a couple days ago. A teacher in one of my classes was sick, so naturally the school system didn’t waste time to find a sub immediately. Before she gave us our daily agenda, she told us the story of her life. When she started talking about her children, she asked us, “How do you spell love?”

In my head I spelled out L.O.V.E, a basic spelling learned in first grade. But she shook her head. “T.I.M.E,” she said. Love = Time because we want to spend our lives with that person. It made me think of you. The reason why I write this letter is not because I want to thank you for all that you’ve done for me. You already know how indebted to you I feel. I’m not writing to you because I want you to feel happy hearing from me. In many ways this letter is more for me than it is for you. I write this letter to tell you that no matter what, I love you. I didn’t spend enough time with you. But I love you. I moved away from you. We are oceans apart. But no matter what, I love you I need to say it again and again.

I need to because I’m scared. The reason why I write this is because I’m terrified. I’m terrified you’ll think that I didn’t love you enough. You’ll think that I didn’t want to be with you. The truth is.. I could have called you. When I went home, oceans away, I could have called you and wrote letters to you. Like this one. We could have been pen pals. But I didn’t. I went to school and made new friends and became adapted to western culture once again. I forgot about my roots. I forgot about you. But I still loved you. Lots of times I feel uneasy because of how I neglected you.

You always were so happy when you heard from me that I thought it’d be okay if I waited a few more days until I called again. Because of you I learned regret. I also learned an important lesson from our relationship: Love = Time. I will not regret future relationships, because I learned how important it is to keep in touch. Because of you I learned to spend more time with my family and my friends. I feel much happier this way because I’m closer with the people I love the most. And for that, I thank you. I said this letter wasn’t a thank you note, but now I change my mind. I love you, Rest in Peace.