Dear T. A.,

I miss you. Or I miss the real you, rather. The person you used to be before you became a product of your environment. I guess I shouldn't have hoped. I should have known you'd end up another toxic Republican just like your parents and everyone else in this town. But for a while, I believed you could be better. I pray for another universe where you were raised differently. I hope there exists a version of us somewhere that got to be happy while still being friends. Even more so, I hope there's still room for you to change. The fact that you want to pursue science, and go to Cali, makes me believe you could end up different in the future. Maybe I'm delusional. But I just want my friend back, really.