Love Story

What is a love story? And what is the love story? What is the difference?

Boy meets girl, girl likes boy, they fall in love, and live happily ever after. Of course, if it always turned out this way, then the world would be a much less complicated place. And then everything would be so predictable. And if you ask me, predictable is boring. Routine.

That vague equation leaves so much room for screw-ups in between. Starry visions gone wrong. What-if's. Maybe. Would-have-been's. Heartbreak. Regret. It's a wonder why anyone even tries. Statistically speaking, the chances are almost null.

Enter... Me. A pretty jaded yet still hopeless romantic. In love with the idea of love. With dampened spirits, yet still searching nonetheless. Afraid to settle, but wanting that someone special in life.

Who would have ever thought that I would have met him in a crowded room, senses tinged with alcohol, ready to pass up that chance encounter as another passerby? To think that this was the turning point of my life as I knew it, and I was hardly even aware. But of course, this is no ordinary story. Even a love story, at that. So of course, I discounted it. It was the only way to go.

And then we meet again. It was the conversations that got me, on a level that touched my deepest core. And from then, I knew that I could never settle for anything less than that explosion of when the minds meet, and the soul raptures.

It was the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginnings. That depends on which way you look at it. Either way, what matters is what happens from then on.

With him, I started to find myself. Through means that I would never have thought of before. Puzzle pieces started fitting. And from then on, I knew that I could start moving forward. I was becoming a better me. And it never had been clearer.

I'd see him. And by see him, I mean I'd understand him. I could see the core of his being. And it is with this, that I am in love. I did not fall in love. Spiral crazily upwards or downwards. I just simply am. As if there never was time that I was not.

The man of my dreams, and then some. You know it's true, when reality starts becoming better than your dreams.

There is a long road ahead of us. Both literally, and figuratively, because we will travel together and then grow together before that happily ever after. Is that the end? There is no end, just that journey together with the yang to my yin. The perfect partner, my twin.

Ananda. Bliss.  I’ve always known I’d name my little daughter that.

-Noelle, Manila