Soulmate

It's 9:58 pm on this Tuesday night. I'm sitting alone in my dining room. The lights are out, and I feel compelled to get this thought off my chest. Recent events have gotten me to think somewhat introspectively. I'm both a little nervous and a little excited about where I'll be in a year and where my life will take me next. But moreover, I'm interested to know who I'm going to spend my upcoming years with...

When I was a kid, I didn't know too much about how important it was to find your soulmate. I knew that I had Jan and that we would be best friends for the rest of our lives, and that was enough for me. It was a comfort for me just to know that there was one person out there in the world that I could trust - someone that I could share my innermost secrets with, someone that I could confess to, play with, cry on and grow with. But when I became a teenager, I realized that (contrary to some of our friends and family's predictions) we weren't betrothed to be married. So at about 22 I found out who I was and what I wanted. I knew that being RJ meant being a little different and that was ok by me. I still looked towards a dream that has been pretty steadfast since I was a child.

I love going to weddings. It's a pretty amazing thing to see two people commit to each other for the rest of their lives. I also love watching natural disaster movies (E.G., Cloverfield, The Day After Tomorrow, etc.) because inevitably there is a man and a woman who grow close together throughout the movie and they realize that no matter what the world dishes out to them - monsters, tornados, killers - in the end, as long as they have each other, they'll both be at peace. Everytime I watch one of those movies I think about who I'd want to be with in the end. That one person that if I met death, I could face it knowing I had their love and companionship. For many of you, you've found that person and my hats go off to you - don't ever take it for granted. You're truly lucky.

I know who my soulmate is. That person and I will be able to communicate without words. We'll be able to finish each other's sentences. We'll be able to look into each other's eyes and think that we're one in the same person. Yeah, we'll have our differences, but overall, it'll be like we're two pieces of a puzzle that just fit together. There may be disagreements, but there'll be compromise. There won't be drama. There won't be arguments. Bad times will be met together, hand in hand, like at the end of one of those movies. Distance won't be able to draw us apart. I firmly believe once you've met that person, it doesn't matter where they live. You will be drawn back to that person. That person lives inside your heart, and will live there forever, even if days, weeks, months or even years pass apart from one another.

The love that your soulmate brings is stronger than you've ever known, so it becomes very self evident. You wake up in the morning and they're the first person on your mind. When you go to bed at night, you lie in your bed with a smile on your face knowing that someone, perhaps even halfway around the world, is thinking of you. Stress and difficult times throughout the day are met with the comfort of knowing that in a few hours you'll get to talk to him/her and tell them what's been going on in your day - and you'll be just as excited to hear about how they are doing. When they're sick you want to take care of them. When you leave and they're still asleep you stop and just look at them still for a minute and smile. And for that moment you remind yourself about how lucky you are, and how happy you are. When your phone gets a text message you get giddy and excited thinking that it might be them checking in on you. Your soulmate appreciates you, accepts you and is proud of who you are - your faults and all.

So to everyone that has found their soulmate - don't ever take them for granted, and make sure they don't take you for granted either.

Alright, I'm going to bed.