I'll show you mine (If you show me yours)
Love stories can be whatever the hell you want them to be.
Here are some stories by me and by the awesome people in my life. Some of the names are real, some are fake, which you'll just have to deal with. Hopefully these will inspire you to think about how you express love to those around you, or show some new ways it can be done.
CROSSING OCEANS
KIRSTY
The trips my Papa took across the vast Atlantic ocean to visit us always seemed to be during my life’s biggest moments; birthdays, vacations, the time my Dad was in the hospital. Until they weren’t - and I graduated high school without his beaming smile and wide eyes staring at with me pure joy. His love finds me in other ways now. As I pack for college and rummage around the back corner of our basement closet, a Michigan mug with his name on it appears in front of me, and there he is again.
BREAKING UP WITH THE OLD ME
I was the one that decided to break up with him. That phone call was months ago. Remembering the person that I was before is like looking through an outdated photo album-- I can remember what those days of being in love with someone else felt like, but those feelings are just out of reach, unobtainable but taunting. These past days have been filled with remembering what it’s like to be truly myself-- autonomous, dynamic, calm. I am relearning what it means to be in love with myself.
Actually, maybe I’m learning for the first time.
SKYE
TIME AND COOKIES
Senior year of college was tumultuous. A friend I’d made only the year before had become someone I leaned on. After some sleepless nights, I was in a downward spiral - conveniently right in the midst of finals. A particularly unhappy evening, I asked her if she wanted to study for finals with me - a way to get out of the house and have someone force me to focus on school. Her finals were over, but she reserved a study room for us and told me she’d pick me up in a few. She drove to my house, packed me a complete dinner (complete with cookies), and kept me company for hours. A friend you can lean on.
FLICK
AN ODE TO BRITTANY
Throwing it back to the early 2000s, when summer days were care free and my only two friends were my siblings. My parents took me along with them to visit some work friends up the street. Here is where I met my forever friend, Brittany. Together, we survived elementary, middle, and high school. From our crazy adventures to our heartfelt chats, this girl is my forever person. Fast forward 19 years, we are hundreds of miles apart but our friendship sure has not skipped a beat. I can always count on you to answer my calls in the middle of the night, to hear about my boy troubles or help you calm down through yoga before a big speech.
To my other half, my forever soul sister: I love you dearly and do not know where I would be in this life without you or your friendship.
OLIVIA
NOT HAVING A CLOSET
I live in a room with no closet. I hang things in a cheap ikea armoire we built, or in the back of another room. My bedroom is suited only for sleeping or changing clothes, not for work or play. And for that, I thank our landlord. With a room so tiny, none of us can hide away or lock the doors. We are constantly pushed into the light of the family room, simply for the sake of sanity, and that shared space is where I always want to be. Together, even if we are simply doing nothing together. I may not have a closet, but I have a heart filled to (or maybe over) capacity with love, and I'll take wrinkled clothes over losing that any day.
ELLIE
HELPING TO HEAL
It was my first week on the surgery floor. The 4am wake up was brutal and I had spent the day becoming painstakingly aware of my lack of knowledge in anatomy and ability to make up words that sounded like muscles. The “platypus” muscle was next to the thyroid, I was sure of it. And after I failed the first round of anatomy questions, I then failed the musical trivia that followed, not knowing the “classic beats” my attending listened to in the OR. After what seemed like years, I drove home half awake and brain dead, to find that my roommate had cooked me dinner with a note written to motivate the next couple hours of studying. It's the little things that make the biggest difference, and I'm so thankful to have an encouraging roommate to remind me of my passion for healing during tough times.
EMILY
HI, SOUL SISTER
"Hi. I don't have anything to say, but I don't want to stop texting. Has anything changed in the last minute for you?"
​
Our text conversations are rarely long or of substance, but they are constant. Whenever I pull out my phone, the first suggestion it gives is what I feel as well - Find Skylar. Her presence is calming, reassuring, exciting, and crazy all at once. She is the yee to my haw. We share no blood, and just one greek letter between us, but our souls are sisters. We may say "I love you" all the time, but now, I just want to say thank you.
ELLIE
BAKING BANANA BREAD
I was looking for a recipe for banana bread in my mom's phone. Instead, I found a text from her to a friend, “Sorry. One of the girls came home and I’ve been with her all day. Took her to Trader Joe’s and cooked all afternoon. Really nice to spend the day together”. I wasn’t supposed to ever see it, and I’d never tell her I accidentally read through her texts. But knowing she wanted to just hang out with me instead of just raising me made all the difference. We were more than mother and daughter, finally friends.
JULIA
14 HOURS FROM ANYWHERE
I got on the plane to Australia with the flu, and with a heavy heart. I had never felt more alone in life, and was about to add a 14 hour-time-difference sized wall between myself and everything I had known. Eliza sat with me the entire flight, even while I coughed, and forced me to watch every single Ryan Gosling movie the plane had available. We leaned on each other so much that summer I could hardly tell where one ended and the other began. Our first time working, across the world, just us two. Through her inability to ever give up, she never gave up on me, and I finally, slowly, began to heal again.
ELLIE
THE SMELL OF HOME
There is nothing more lovely that a warm cup of tea sitting in front of you. Steam rolling off the top and its sweet aroma, of which there are hundreds, floating up to your face as it soothes your senses. It is everywhere – when I’m with family, at a restaurant, when I’m doing homework, and best of all as I sit alone in my apartment at night, decompressing from a long day.
KIRSTY
TWO TEQUILA LOVERS
We weren't supposed to be friends. We had spoken a handful of times, and I was sure he didn't like me. Then one night we somehow ended up stuck in line at Ricks together, and by the time we paid cover, something had changed. I can't actually remember how we got so close, and I probably owe part of that credit to our shared true love, tequila. Now, he burns into my life so brightly that I cannot picture how dark it would be without him. Like kids, we have our own made up language, mostly consisting of stand-up comedy bits we stole and sounds we made on accident once and never let the other forget. I love you, bestie.
ELLIE
COFFEE AND AN ENGLISH MUFFIN
Bitterness of black coffee paired with the sweetness of banana, peanut butter, and honey lures me out of bed as light fills the room in the early morning. The familiarity of warm coffee offers something soothing, and caffeine shifts me out of my groggy morning state. An english muffin layered with peanut butter, banana slices, and honey complements the bite of coffee and adds substance. The soft morning light paired with Van Morrison’s ‘Veedon Fleece’ create the atmosphere I seek before starting my day. A love for routine that enables me to begin again.
CULLEN
I LOVE YOU, KAYAK
All it took was a simple text: “I’m in Amsterdam, you should join me.” The next minute I’m on Kayak comparing flight information and prices. It would only be for a long weekend, so my mind races trying to justify the costs of a last-minute plane ticket and the danger of hotels and hostels being all booked up. But then I remember why I travel; I was born to see the world and the world was waiting for me to see it. The adrenaline rush hits, and I pushed the “purchase” button for my tickets. There is never regret, no uncertainty about spending my money, and no fear of missing out at home, there is only excitement, passion and a newfound sense of freedom for my adventure that lies ahead.
CHRISTY