ateez, i hope you all have the kindest day. cheering for you in everything! i'm really tired, as my health is still slowly recovering, so a short message today. all the same, filled with love and care and wishes for your happiness. i've been reading more books in waves, sometimes a lot at once, sometimes a lull, and sometimes just one, but that one will almost always have a message i need to hear then. it's been healing over the past several years, to read the kinds of stories that were kept from me before. people like me, people who are also healing, people who know the weight of words lingers more heavily than a physical burden and at the same time can be as light as wings in free flight. people who find family beyond the bonds of blood, build homes out from ashes, fill it with the light of genuine love. so many stories like sutures and bandages stitching pieces back together. memories are tricky things, the way whole pieces can just vanish until the soul is ready to sift through it; mend. i remembered recently a vivid scene: a summer, perhaps around this very time of year. i was outside, i remember the sun was gently warm, like a hug, like kindness. the grass was deep green, and speckled with white clover and dandelion fluff. because i was almost entirely homeschooled, there were regular tests to see how i was doing. thinking back to that time, of being told my results, i've been reflecting on all of the times i was made to feel a failure, of how long i genuinely believed it. those tests with their results, in that memory i wasn't older than 12. do you know what i remembered? being told of results that were post-highschool or college level. so many years, those memories were blocked and i didn't even remember my potential. i've been grappling with the growing awareness that no one here has ever really known me. never truly believed in me. the only reason i started college right after i graduated highschool was because i wasn't given a choice; i was fulfilling someone else's dreams before i could figure out how to plan for my own. i wish i could give the me back then the strength that i've gained now. whenever any of you express doubts about yourselves, feel like you're not doing enough, that you need to do and be better, i wish i could tell you just how strong you are, how brave, to have done all you have from such a young age. i wish the younger me could have cheered you on then, could have been your friend, could have told you it doesn't take superpowers or magic to be a hero to someone. all one needs is a kind heart and the courage to keep going, to do what's right, to keep believing; even when it feels like half the world and more is against you. earlier i said i was writing a short message, and i'm not sure what happened. but maybe somewhere in here the universe knew there was something that would help, even if i don't understand it myself. so to wrap this up, from my heart to yours, as equal souls doing their best upon this earth, i believe in you. i'm so proud of you. if not now, then someday soon i hope that you can see just how precious you truly are. i hope that all you do is always what you truly love, that you never feel the need to carve out beautiful parts of yourselves to measure up or make someone else happy. every time i've faced an ending yet was given another chance, i feel it stronger. each life is too precious, too finite, to give to those who won't see the worth. you can't get back the time sacrificed for people who just throw you aside. so please, make sure you never break yourselves; never push to the limits and beyond for anyone who treats you as any less than you are, no matter who it is. don't stop, but don't push forward so quickly that you miss the most priceless little things that make life shine brightest. you are worthy and deserve that too. take care well, stay healthy and stay safe. treat yourselves with love and kindness. we can't go back and be the person we needed for our younger self; but we can be that person for us now. sending all of you all of my love and all of my light, healing and protecting energy, and wishes for your day to wrap you in warmest loving care. cheering, supporting, and encouraging you always. i love you, each and all, so very much. 💚🎶🐦☀️🌕🌟✨️🍀☘️🌻🫶🏻🍵 -ari #ateez #에이티즈 #hongjoong #홍중 #seonghwa #성화 #yunho #윤호 #yeosang #여상 #san #산 #mingi #민기 #wooyoung #우영 #jongho #종호 #larknotes