The Sun Is Also a Star

by Nicola Yoon

Names are powerful things. They act as an identity marker and a kind of map, locating you in time and geography. More than that, they can be a compass.

As our eyes meet, I get a kind of déjà vu, but instead of feeling like I’m repeating something in the past, it feels like I’m experiencing something that will happen in my future. I see us in old age.

My type is girls. All of them. Why would I limit my dating pool?

There’s a Japanese phrase that I like: koi no yokan. It doesn’t mean love at first sight. It’s closer to love at second sight. It’s the feeling when you meet someone that you’re going to fall in love with them. Maybe you don’t love them right away, but it’s inevitable that you will.

“Broke with money but rich with words,”

“That’s not what I mean. I don’t want to get stuck doing something that doesn’t mean anything to me.

There’s a mug that says PARALEGALS DO IT CHEAPER.

Maybe part of falling in love with someone else is also falling in love with yourself.

“It’s not up to you to help other people fit you into a box,”

“Sure, but why not more poems about the sun? The sun is also a star, and it’s our most important one. That alone should be worth a poem or two.”

People in love want everyone else to be in love. I hope their relationship lasts forever.