I suspect you won’t ever read this. I can’t imagine that you even are aware of this journal. Even knowing that…

Happy birthday, dear boyo. I can hardly wrap my head around the fact that you are 38 today. I imagine you are having similar thoughts.

Wondering how you got to this age, when it was only yesterday that you were a carefree college boy, playing pranks and intramural sports with equal abandon. Ruminating on the years you spent working a full time job and studying towards your MBA, with barely enough money to survive, fondly recalling how good the times were you spent with your friends. Remembering the phenomenal successes achieved in your career and revisiting the many cities you’ve experienced. Recalling the losses you’ve suffered so bravely, and all too often, alone in your life.

I hope too that you are able to say, above all else, you have been and are loved. I doubt that you’d pause to remember the years we were together on this, your 38th birthday. But if you do, remember this…then, as now, I wish you only happiness, love, and laughter and a future filled with all three.

Many happy returns, Chris.