---
date: '2024-12-27'
description: an unexpected turn of events.
id: Chi
layout: letter
modified: 2026-06-05 15:08:08 GMT-04:00
noindex: true
signature: with love and prosperity - Aaron
tags:
  - friend
title: to chi
created: '2024-12-27'
published: '2024-12-27'
pageLayout: letter
slug: posts/24/Chi
permalink: https://aarnphm.xyz/posts/24/Chi.md
generator:
  quartz: v4.6.0
  hostedProvider: Cloudflare
  baseUrl: aarnphm.xyz
full: https://aarnphm.xyz/llms-full.txt
---
![[posts/images/658ADAE0-2B38-417A-93F7-FE642CD6EEEF_1_105_c.webp|from Peanuts]]

Strange how things work. You’re there in Columbus, or Indiana (depending on whether you have already left the farm), probably enjoying your time, while I’m here looking at this Snoopy cartoon about a tree too big for his house. Made me laugh. Made me think of you.

![[posts/images/meet-friendship-wrong-to-write.webp|by Olivia de Recat]]

This year’s been something else, hasn’t it? You went through hell and back. I watched from my phone screen, through those stupid car races we got obsessed with and the dumb reels we kept sending at 2 AM.
Funny how friendship works now. Two people watching tiny screens, separated by miles, but somehow getting closer.
You told me once about feeling like everything was falling apart.
I remember typing back “same.” We never used to talk like this before. Now here we are, sharing
every small disaster, every tiny victory. The kind of stuff that seems meaningless but isn’t.

Maybe one day we’ll be old, sitting on a ranch somewhere, telling our kids stories about this year. About how we found each other again through the dumbest things - Formula 1, social media, late-night texts.
Simone Weil once wrote, “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” That’s what we did, I guess. Paid attention. :smile:

This was not the year either of us planned. We are still here. We are still watching those cars go in circles. We are still sending each other stupid memes. That is a friendship I recognize.

Sometimes new friendship begins with one awkward hello at a bad party. We kept saying yes to those openings. We kept paying attention.

I am glad we stayed close through a hard year.

May the holiday season find you well. And see you in the new year!

\[^sign\]