The Break-Up Pact

by Emma Lord

I feel a grin spread on my face like butter on a warm scone.

“You’re you. I can’t imagine anyone meeting you and not wanting to get to know you.”

The truth is, it’s almost impossible these days to meet people in a way that gives you time to be friends first, to feel each other out. Most people expect to know whether you’re attracted to them on the first or second date. But it’s never been like that for me. I’ve always had this strange feeling of not being able to keep up. I can’t run headfirst toward something without knowing there’s a solid foundation under my feet, and judging from all my friends’ stories about the dating out in the wild, I worry there aren’t a lot of people willing to wait for me to find it.

It made me appreciate that life is both too short and too long for being something you’re not.

And there it is again, the word want, the double-edged sword. Because wanting something isn’t the same as committing to it. To understanding the reality of it.

“Neither of you wants to change the other one or tell the other what to do. You just want each other to be happy. And that’s what love is supposed to look like.”