Unlikely Story

by Ali Rosen

But as an individual, it’s just a waste of your own time to keep things from your therapist.

For most adults, when you don’t talk about your feelings a lot, the vocabulary for it atrophies. When we’re kids, we’re taught to identify our emotions. We use color charts or characters or affirmations to help us go from useless blobs to fully formed people. We learn how to say “I feel blank when you blank. I want blank.” We work on expressing ourselves without throwing tantrums. But then as adults we get better at camouflage. We learn how to redirect so we don’t have to always feel so deeply. We comport ourselves so we can live in a world of adult feelings and expectations.

I loved you when I only got to talk to you once a week in different time zones through a work document. I think we can make London to New York work with texting, video calls, and regular phone calls. We’ll talk it through, and we’ll make it work.”

“I previously would’ve said we’ve had enough surprises for a lifetime, but I think this one was pretty great.”

“You feel like home,”

I love London, but this is where I belong. I love you, Nora.” “I love you too,”