I have been thinking about how to say this for a while. Every version felt like too much or not enough. So I decided to just say it the way it actually is.

Nora introduced us. That is all it took. One introduction and somehow you ended up being one of the most important people in my life. I don't think you know that. That is actually why I am writing this.

You were General Arts. I was Science. We had no real business being in each other's lives. But we kept ending up there anyway. And honestly, Dugan, I was never looking for a way out of that.

I used to come to choir rehearsals.

I know you know that. What you don't know is that it had nothing to do with choir.

It was your voice, Dugan. I would sit in that room and just listen. Something about the way you sang made everything else go quiet. I didn't know how to explain it then. I am not sure I fully can now. I just know I kept showing up. Week after week. And the choir was never the reason.

I have held that to myself for a long time. It felt right to finally say it.

You used to talk to me. Give me your take on things. The way you see life, clearly and without drama, like the right answer is just obvious and you cannot believe it needs to be said.

You don't know this but those conversations did something to me.

The things I stopped doing, the person I started trying to be, a lot of that traces back to you. Not because you pushed me or even knew what was happening. You were just being yourself. Talking to me the way you always do.

I became better because of you, Dugan. Quietly. Without you knowing. And I have been carrying that without saying it for too long.

So I am saying it now. Thank you. For something you did not even know you were doing.

12 to 6am. WASSCE prep. Just us and the work and whatever was keeping us both going through the night.

You kept me going on the nights I was ready to quit. Not by doing anything big. Just by being there. Saying we were going to be fine. Checking if I was okay.

We passed. And I was happy about that. But I want to be honest with you.

Those mornings were never really about the exams for me. Sitting across from you while everywhere else was asleep, being motivated by you, watching you push through the same exhaustion I was pushing through. That is one of the things I will carry from KASS for the rest of my life.

I did not say that then. I am saying it now.

KASS is behind us now. But the person you were to me there, I have not left that behind.

So here it is. Plainly. The way you always told me to say things.

You are my PP, Dugan. Not casually. Not the way people just throw that around. In the real way. The way that means you are the person I think about. The person whose voice I sat in a choir room for. The person who made me want to be someone worth talking to.

I have wanted to say that out loud for a long time. Today felt like the right day.