From the authors to the authors: our own tiny love stories

To Anushka De, from Riya Ravuri

As I write this, there’s a sunflower in my hand and Skittles on my desk — two small gifts that you’ve gotten to uplift me, a tiny gesture that made my day. But I’ve grown not to expect anything less from you.

I would have never imagined that the energetic friend-of-a-friend who I met four years ago would turn into one of the people I trust the most, someone I would miss when you don’t come to school, someone who amazes me every day with your intelligence and humor and outfits and eyeliner — and your humility, because sometimes you don’t understand how much you deserve and the incredible amount you’ve achieved and will continue to achieve. But the thing that defines you the most is your compassion, which anyone who talks to you even for a few minutes is able to recognize.

Thank you for never failing to make me laugh, or being there for me when I’m having a bad day. Thank you for dropping little gifts off at my house, skipping 7th period so we can sit in your car and laughing maniacally at jokes that nobody but us understands, complimenting my outfits, going on drives with me to cafes, buying us rings that are now a staple in our outfit — the tiny ways you show love don’t go unnoticed.

It’s fitting that this Tiny Love Story is dedicated to Tiny Anushka De, who (despite her size) has a heart bigger than anyone I’ve ever met … I love you.

To Riya Ravuri, from Anushka De

The best way to tell you all that you are to me is to tell you what you’ve taught me. 

In freshman year, you showed me the courage it takes to make new friends. Here you were, this new girl from a new school, with a smile that had almost as much power to make everyone fall in love with you as your irresistible charm. You were always so confident, and seemed to me you never cared what people thought: in the wild jungle of high school social circles, you refused to stay confined. Your endless kindness and uncanny knack for reading people perfectly convinced me from when we were 14 years old that if aliens ever dropped out of the sky, Riya Ravuri wold be the one to befriend them. 

In sophomore year, you showed me the resilience it takes keep the old friends. I’ve never met anyone that has stayed so close to so many of the friends they left when they switched schools. You’re the girl who knows to check in, to ask about the hardships that everyone else forgets about and to swipe up on stories with a quip that’s funnier than the post itself. If it’s your fearlessness that attracts people to you, it’s your endless empathy and effort into your relationships that keeps them around. 

But the one lesson that I’ve never stopped learning, from the first time we went on that drive to Sue’s Cafe in junior year to the hour I spent next to you today, is grace. You never let anyone see how hard you work, and yet I’ve never seen you do anything that’s less than exceptional. You’re always there for everyone else — your perfect balance of sympathy and advice the antidote to every malady. But the greatest manifestation of your grace is the way you endlessly put above others above yourself. You fearlessly shoulder other’s burdens but never allow anyone to see your own.

Riya, you have taught me more about what it means to be a good friend more than anyone else I’ve ever known. You have this incredible aura around you — maybe it’s your hilarious quips, our stupid inside jokes, or the way that you can relate to literally anyone — and I don’t think you see it enough. I hope you know that you could never be a burden, that we see the grace with which you handle yourself and are that we are waiting to pay it back in spades. 

Four years later, I’m still convinced that aliens do drop out of the sky, you’ll be the one to befriend them. But rest assured — whether that happens tomorrow or 40 years from now — I’ll be the girl by your side when you do…I love YOU.