Yeoreum

여름

The word is Korean...it means "summer."

This picture was drawn by Hannah, and it's beautiful...but it wasn't for me. It's for my friend Doyeun. Many of you don't know her...but I do. She's my best friend and someone I genuinely care about. Doyeun and I went to Anderson University together. She was a foreign exchange student from South Korea and I wanted to make her feel at home, so we became friends and spent a lot of time together. She taught me a lot of Korean words and phrases and she's still teaching me to this day.
However...Doyeun had to return to Korea. It was a very sad parting, and things got...complicated. We had established a relationship and we wanted to continue it. But distance was our enemy, and both of us needed to consider our future. It was a bitter pill to swallow, but we both knew that, no matter what happened, we would still be best friends. I've maintained that to this day. This picture is of me and her sitting together on our favorite park bench, just watching summer tick by. 
I still hurt sometimes when I think about her...and what we had. I know she feels the same. She's told me so. These things are never easy. But, we're still the best of friends. I'm proud of her for moving forward with her life, as I needed to as well. But even so, we still care about one another, and that's what's important.