The following story comes directly from the source:
"I am writing this in response to your request for love stories. I’m not sure if this is what you are looking for or not, as it is far from a traditional love story and it doesn’t have what some may consider to be the happy ending we are all subjected to in the fairy tales we grow up hearing.
*Names have been intentionally withheld.I met the person that would become the love of my life at a business meeting. I walked into his office, we shook hands, and I knew in that instant that he would be important to me and I would know him, if possible, until I left this earth. Looking back, nearly a decade later, I am still surprised how accurate my gut instinct was that day. Even though I had no idea, at the time, just how important a role he would eventually play in my life. Including, but not restricted to, changing the way I view love, as well as myself and the world around me.
We hit it off the first time we met and in the following months talked quite a bit due to business and eventually, months later when business was concluded, we went on a date. Due to a misunderstanding, we ended up not talking for almost a year following that, even though I thought about him almost every day during that time, my stupid pride wouldn’t allow me to break down and get in touch with him. When, by circumstance, I was forced to swallow my pride and get in touch with him, it was as though nothing had ever happened. Even though we were unable to pick up where we had left off in the dating area, he quickly became one of my favorite people to talk to and unbeknownst to him, I had fallen devastatingly in love with him.
I use the word ‘devastating’ because he had acquired a girlfriend during my chosen hiatus from him and I chose to friend zone myself because of it. As a result, our friendship grew over the years and even though at times it has been hard for me to cope with the feelings I had for him, I am glad I did. In those first few years, nearly consumed with my blinding love for him, I set off on a course to change myself in the hopes of becoming someone he could love… silly I know, but I suspect that we all do it at some point. Pretend to be someone else to keep someone or in the hopes that someone in particular will love us back. That little side path lead to a bigger path of self discovery and I continue on that path today. Only now, the changes are for me, not someone that, I have discovered, I never had to change for at all.
Through the years, he has helped me through most of the lowest times of my life and in many ways I came to depend on him to be there, through text, phone calls, or in person, to ‘rescue’ me when I needed him the most. He has become one of the most prominent characters of my story while I have remained a mere footnote in his and I don’t foresee that ever changing in the future.
*I told you this isn’t a traditional love story.
The reason that, for me, ours is an extraordinary love is because it has been so many things through the years. He has become one of my most trusted confidantes and even though we may never be together, as a couple, there is an undeniable bond between us that neither of us has ever understood. As well as a mutual love, respect, and trust between us that continually surprises me… as I have horrible trust issues and tend to run people off when they get too close. I have watched this relationship grow and stuck with it, despite everyone’s warnings and years of hearing how stupid I am to put up with him and his flakiness. There are times I have hated him with the intensity of a thousand suns and other times that I have loved him beyond measure.
I guess it was three years or so ago, that I finally told him in person, that I loved him. Not because I needed to hear anything back from him but simply because the way I felt demanded to be expressed. There are times that I regret refusing to let him say anything in return, but as I have learned from this amazing roller coaster of a ride… everything happens for a reason and we all live with the decisions that we make. Roughly a year and a half later, I fell out of love with him.
This love has been extraordinary because it forced me to look at my life and myself and has set me on a path to be a better person than I was yesterday. I truly believe that a soul mate can be any person that fate throws at us. Someone that stays, even when our own fears may cause us to, repeatedly, try to push them away. Someone, whose very presence in our life gives us a reason to strive to be better. Someone who challenges us, pushes us, tells us the truth, and allows us the freedom to be ourselves and make whatever changes we feel we need to, in our pursuit of happiness. Someone that makes us laugh, renews our faith in people, encourages us to use the wings we have, gives us hope when we need it, and strength to fight another day.
I think the general misconception about ‘true love’ or a ‘soul mate’ is that most people assume that it only counts if it is in a relationship that involves dating or ends in marriage. I disagree. I think a soul mate can be anyone that rattles our cage enough to make us wake up and pay attention to the world around us, if only to be able to share it with them later. Or perhaps they can be important simply because we love them and that in itself makes their opinion matter. Sometimes all it takes is for someone to teach us to have faith in ourselves and for their opinion to be important enough to us that we allow it to override the negative voices in our own heads that, sometimes, make happiness seem impossible.
The love of my life, to this point, came to me in the form of a man whose spirit hit me like a tornado, forced open the windows of my mind, blew away some of the cobwebs and dust of my misguided thinking, and taught me not only how to let the sun shine in but also how to appreciate the rain. I have learned the importance of surrounding myself with people that lift me up.
That is a mere fragment of my love story, as it continues every day. This story has had many ups and downs, good days and bad days. This love story started out as my attempt to change myself to make someone else love me and, at some point, became a quest to love myself and be a better person than I was yesterday. Possibly one day I will be someone else’s ‘tornado’ and be able to inspire others the way my love has inspired me.
The song that reminds me of my love is Super Something by Yuna."
