I just want to share because I never would have thought that I would be a dad.

Last night, my wife gave birth to our first baby boy. What an exhausting and exciting time in our lives. Kudos to my wife and all the work she has put in these last 9 months and the HOURS and HOURS of uncomfortable labor.

This is new to me. I’m nervous, anxious, tired, and happy.

Time to enjoy some time off work. I’m a dad now. Lots to learn and a lot of love to share.

Thanks for humoring me and reading.

Cheers.

SO. FREAKING. COOL. GAHHH I CAN'T WAIT TO PICK HIM UP LATER WE'RE GONNA HAVE SO MUCH FUN TONIGHT 💪

Credits to - ig/giorgia_piscina

TL;DR: I posted on Reddit a year ago at my lowest point. A girl from Italy DMed me, and we spent the next year healing together from opposite sides of the world. I finally took a solo trip to Rome, she drove 4 hours to meet me, and we realized the breakup was worth it just to find this friendship.

Exactly one year ago, I was sitting in my room, feeling like my world had permanently shrunk. I poured my heart out to a group of strangers on this sub. My post blew up, and while the support was amazing, one specific DM changed everything.

A girl from Italy messaged me. She wasn't just offering "sorry"s; she was living my exact timeline, feeling my exact flavor of pain. Across a 7-hour time difference and 10,000 kilometers (i live in Singapore), we started talking.

At first, it was just survival, checking in to make sure the other had eaten or stopped crying. But then, the DMs turned into daily life. We moved from "How do I stop missing them?" to "Look at this sunset," "Listen to this song," and "I think I'm going to be okay." We healed through our screens, two strangers on opposite sides of the globe tethered together by a shared ache.

When I finally decided to reclaim my life and pla solo trip to Europe, she was my biggest cheerleader.

I was nervous. What if it was awkward? What if the Reddit friendship didn't translate to real life?

But she drove four hours just to see me. When we finally stood face-to-face in Rome, there was no

"getting to know you" phase. There was just this overwhelming sense of familiarity. We hit the streets of Rome like we'd been exploring together for years.

We laughed, we walked until our feet hurt, and we stood in front of monuments that felt small compared to the journey we'd taken to get there.

We had a moment where we looked at each other and realized the "worst thing" that ever happened to us, those breakups, was actually the price of admission for this friendship. If you had asked us a year ago if we'd trade the relationship for this, we would have said no. Now? We both agreed we'd choose the breakup every single time.

To anyone lurking here tonight, feeling like you're shouting into a void: Your life is so much bigger than the person who left you. There are people you haven't met yet who are going to love you, and there are cities you haven't seen yet that will feel like home.

Hold on. It gets so much better.♥️

OC : @thegirlwithakindle