a love letter to FaceTime

• Rashmi Raveendran

For the longest time, I used to get mad at you. Any given day, you made my phone heat up so hot causing the battery to drain in minutes. Eagerly I waited to have real-life conversations because nothing you did for me could amount to a real-life connection I long desired to have.

It was only in 2020, the year of all ends and demise, that I learned to appreciate you.

Maybe even love you.

Each day, because of you, I could talk with my best friends down the streets, without driving

I could laugh with my grandma across a border, without flying

I could even call classmates for school from the safety of my home. Though a pandemic created distance, you built a bridge. Without you, I would have struggled through 2020 alone.

But Facetime, yes you, allowed me to connect and make the world my own.