Despina | Aesthetician

I knew that the day whichever cousin would get married first, would be the day that we’d all be under the spell of our Family Song in a dance floor of little bodies no more—

but of adults forever holding onto basement memories of Madonna and Michael on repeat, uncle Ang calling us upstairs for his famous breakfast croissants while we were on our last round of Clue. No cheating, no bullshit. Just a bunch of kids making sure that our player papers the size of palms were covered, for good measure. Pat would win us all over Connect Four, and the rest of our activities would make sure we’d be in snow pants or swimsuits, affirming we’d hold onto the sound of summer and winter repeating all over again—until swimsuits suddenly instructed us to get ready for what we’d soon know to be a destination wedding in Greece,

our home, the Agean sea.

Do you think the world would understand the 3:30am call for Amazing? Do you think it would understand the fifteen of us huddling in a circle in rejoice? Would it understand “So now I walk in the midday sun” tattooed in cursive on the back of my leg? I don’t think the world would understand the hysteria of a few us left on the dance floor past 4:00am, moving our bodies to “Emiliana, it’s been so long since you texted me,” hymns of “I bet your mother would be proud of you,” when it’s really just Frank sampled on Virgina Beach. Maybe, it’s not meant for anyone to understand but us. And as the only gay cousin and part of the ones moving her body to it, I choose to understand it. It was us, you know? Fern will hold my hand in unison because they also surrendered to it, and so did the melodies in whichever way they chose to embody us. Because the music, the music is always so sacred when it’s shared, is it not?

My nostalgic foresight to be on a dance floor in adult bodies at your wedding instead of small ones soon left me when I was reminded all too well,

that the music never grows old—we just grow with it.
—

Yasmine and Christopher’s Wedding on film, on the Athens Riviera, June 2026. ❤️