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if i could've said goodbye

Writer's picture: yannick-robin eike mirkoyannick-robin eike mirko


It’s 3:19 in the morning on December 30th, 2018. Today I turn 21. A lot has happened since we last spoke. I will advise you to take note before I begin that this letter is not an apology or an invitation back into my life, seeing as these last four years now have been some of the most incredible and amazing lessons and moments in my life, and I want to continue to learn about myself in an atmosphere that fosters growth like I have been. The community I surround myself with supports and loves me for exactly the person that I am, and I'm not willing to change that.


I’m sure by now you’ve heard about most things that have happened through other people, and continue to shape me as a negative person in your mind, more than likely adding on what you imagine i’ve been turning out to be as a person without you. I want you to know that I’ve grown to accept that, as hard as that is, given in some ways I have also done the same. But I've also grown to realize how incredibly wrong that is for either party to do. I do not (nor do I ever want to) know if what you said the last few times we spoke years ago about me not being your child anymore and that I was a hated, selfish, greedy person was true for you, but it immediately became my reality once the words came out of your mouth - leading to what was going to be some of the worst nightmares of my entire life - literally and figuratively.


In a lot of ways, life lets you choose your own adventures, and in others, it chooses for you, when you think you’re given a choice. My life chose for me not to have a paternal figure in it, and I’m choosing to keep it that way, although it at first was something I wished would’ve never happened. I am changing and developing into myself and I’m proud of the person that I am, and hope you do not resent me for anything that has happened in the past - regardless of who’s fault anything was. The thought of being resented continues to wake me up at night and I honestly would much rather sleep. I have done a lot in these four years and expect nothing less of myself in the coming ones. Moving on gave me the power to decide where I was going to put my energy, and it isn’t being thrown away on resentment any longer. I hope that in some future, if you haven’t already, you can choose the adventure of moving on and adjust to having lost someone who has and could have loved you the most.


I wish you the best in this coming year - look not in the rear view mirror, but forwards towards whatever is next for you. Cherish the ones in your life without dwelling on the ones who aren’t.




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yannick-robin, is a Manhattan, NYC-based Biawaisa/Yamoká-hu/Maorocoti multidisciplinary artist and activist with a rare disease.
He began working with nonprofits in 2020, most notably working for Imara Jones (one of TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people of 2023), owner of TransLash Media, where trans stories are centered in order to save trans lives. While under her wing, yannick-robin was nominated for a Webby Award as an associate and digital producer for the TransLash Podcast with Imara Jones, worked on The Anti-Trans Hate Machine: A Plot Against Humanity series as a producer and fact checker, and wrote obituaries for their TGNC siblings lost to violence in the United States and its Territories (more on this here). They have since then written for TalkDeath (read Racial Disparities and Discrimination in the Death Care Industry), focusing on Queer and BIPOC end-of-life preparations and equality, as well as making strides as a disability activist within the performance space, being Off-Broadway in the first TGNC Theatre Festival in the professions history, + being the first wheelchair user to perform in several iconic regional theatres of the US while advocating for accessibility for trans and disabled performers and continuing on with activism as a freelance writer and advocate/consultant. They were recently added to the University of Minnesota’s Tretter Transgender Oral History Project for his contributions to the progress for trans rights in death care and theatre. Now offering obituaries, death doulaship, and bereavement counseling for TGNC decedents and their families as well as trans people lost to violence, people with rare diseases, and the disabled. 

for commissions, death care, speaking engagements and more, press the contact button.
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yannick-robin eike mirko is represented by Arise Artists Agency

© 2024 yannick-robin eike mirko

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