Christian

lived a lot of life this april 🫶🏽

celebrating 2️⃣5️⃣0️⃣ with the GOAT! @aminahm.ali says jump, sprint, lift, and we just say yes. 🙂‍↕️👑🫶🏽

a treat and a trick (i’ll let you decide which is which) 👻

a Labor full of love 🫶🏽

mamma mia, here we go again. 🥳🎂

sprinting through 1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ @barrys classes at 15.2mph! 🥳🥵💪🏽 thank you to @benjthornton , @handsome_hansell , & @mgriff011 for beating my ass week after week — and to @leinonme for the surprise brownie delivery! 😋💕 swipe for a surprise (sorry, mom!)

baby’s first bulk! six months later, how did i do? 💪🏽

3️⃣6️⃣5️⃣ days alcohol free, how do you measure a year? 😌

brat and it’s the same but i’m three decades older so it’s not 💚🤍

finally collected my Fire Island boy scout badge 🔥🏝️ big big shoutout to @dannyjbrennan , @iskfactor , @mikewellbrock , @andrewpagonis , and @g.roth for mothering me through my week of firsts 🩷 let’s do it all again in two weeks, shall we? 😅

🚨THIS A REMINDER🚨

Dear Christian, I just rang in 30 the best way you and I know how: in @beyonce ’s VIP! 👑🐝 I’ve been thinking about you as this birthday approached and wanted to say thank you for all you have done to get me here. I know life was hard—whether it was trying to figure out who you were as a first-generation, Dominican-American, queer boy, or worrying about whether you weren’t enough, or that you were too much, too emotional, or that you wouldn’t succeed above and beyond the sacrifices our family made to immigrate here. You were a sensitive little boy who made books your refuge, loved cheesing for the camera, and above all, wanted to make sure that you made other people feel loved. I want you to know that you grow up and you did it. You’re going to be Dr. Adames! You get to spend your days taking care of and advocating for kids and teens like you—y en español también! You have the best family—chosen AND given—who see you and celebrate you. Every day you get to have deep laughter with people who care about you. And guess what: you grow up to be good at sports... if we consider kickball to be a sport. 🤷🏽‍♂️ I know it wasn’t easy, and that there were many times that you felt scared or voiceless. It always felt like you were ~just~ perfect enough & that you had to keep trying harder to make sure that you lived up to other people’s expectations of you. In that exchange, you always sacrificed your own happiness for what you “should” be doing, and almost never what you wanted. But there was a quiet strength that persevered. Whether it was figuring out how to navigate college financial aid on your own, or trying to discover who you were, that strength got me here. You grow up to have an amazing therapist who teaches you that you are inherently worthy—not because of what you do, your relationships, or accomplishments, or by “being perfect,” that is all extra. You are worthy simply because you are. Though words will never be able to describe how thankful I am for you, thank you, thank you. And so I’ll take it from here. I’ll try to live each day reminding myself that we have always been worthy, and trying to be more unapologetically me. Love always, Christian