Assalamualaikum. 

Dear Younger Me,

Happy birthday to us. We are 26 years old today. I wish I could tell you that I became everything you dreamed of, but the truth is, life turned out harder than we expected. I’m not the shining version of “success” you imagined, and sometimes it feels like I am becoming nothing at all. Maybe you’d be disappointed. Maybe you’d wonder why we’re still fighting every single day.

But listen, I am trying. I wake up, I breathe, I keep going. Even when the world feels heavy, I hold on for us. I keep your laughter somewhere safe in my chest. I keep your stubborn hope alive, even when it flickers like a dying candle. I am doing the best I can with what we have, and that matters more than anyone will ever see.

If you could reach across time, I hope you’d look at me with the softness we used to reserve for a shy, trembling stray cat. I hope you’d see that even if I’m not everything, I’m still something. I’m still here. And that is enough for today.

We may not have the perfect life you dreamed of, but we still have a heartbeat, a sky to look at, and a chance every single morning to start again. And maybe that’s the bravest thing we’ve ever done.

So here’s my quiet birthday wish for us: may tomorrow be a little kinder, may the world surprise us with tiny joys, and may we never forget that even in silence, we are still worthy of love.