Because now, I had built a life where I didn’t need anyone’s validation — I was my own validation.
I closed my laptop and looked at the photo wall in my cozy apartment — faces of smiling graduates, holding their acceptance letters.
The same kind of wall my parents once filled with photos of Chloe — now covered with hundreds of dreams I had helped make real.
I smiled to myself. They might have given all their love to one daughter,
But I had learned to give mine to everyone who needed it.
And that, I finally understood, is the best kind of family there is.
