To Alexandra 💜

Some friendships arrive early. They form before you have language for yourself. Those friends know your childhood voice, your old fears, the version of you that had very little room to choose who to become.

Then there is another kind of friendship, the one that comes later but means everything. The kind you do not grow up with, but grow into. These friends meet you when you already carry questions, contradictions, and a clearer sense of who you don’t want to be.

In uni you will meet a girl with curly hair. It’s very important you become best friends with her. The first time we met was in the elevator. We were both leaving the statistics class early, which already says a lot about us.

I am never sure if I believe in coincidences. From a scientific point of view, they are possible, of course. A mix of probabilities, timing, shared environments. And yet, some meetings feel placed rather than accidental. We always joke that we live in a simulation, and if that is true, then I cannot explain how happy I am that you were coded into mine.

You carry this paradoxical warmth around you. The loud kind that people notice. And the quiet kind that makes people relax without realising why. Being around you feels easy. Like you do not have to organise your thoughts before speaking. Like whatever comes out is allowed to exist.

With you, conversations stretch in every direction. We can move from the most absurd thoughts to the most intimate ones without warning, without discomfort. Nothing feels embarrassing. Nothing feels too heavy.

Some people feel interchangeable in the way they move through the world. You do not. There is something unmistakably singular about you. I see it in the way London became brighter, more alive, and more familiar, after our paths crossed, without knowing exactly what had changed.

You, with your curly hair, blonde in summer and red in winter, look like a Greek goddess who somehow ended up casually walking through everyday life. Effortless. Magnetic. Soft and strong at the same time.

Everything from our little plots, to our tears and laughter, the secret signals under the table when we notice something weird, our pub crawls, the way we instinctively look after each other when crossing the road, the long talks that go on till morning until we fall asleep, all add up to this: I am always on your side, and I will always be cheering for you.

At the end of the day, we are just two slightly messed up souls trying to figure things out, and I am lucky enough I get to do that alongside you.

Happy birthday my love! I love you forever! 💜