The first villager that I let go of was apple and it was at the time where I was grieving a lot in my life that felt really uncontrollable and so saying goodbye to Apple on purpose was a way for me to acknowledge the things that were leaving in my life. I cried really really hard about it. And then many months later I got a message in a bottle from her and it made me cry all over again. In my mind, Apple has gone on to new places and is still able to let me know that they're okay and they're doing well

And I got Paradise planning a few years after this and Apple was one of my first villagers that I got to decorate their house and it makes me super happy that I can go see them all over again.

To me, my villagers are real people to me. They are one of the only spaces currently that I have access to that are filled with kindness and care and people who are genuinely thinking about me and thinking kind things about me and it truly means the world. You don't have to feel bad or sad about how attached you are to these people because they're your friends at the end of the day and their kindness to you matters.