As the World Turns
Isn't it wondrous how easily people appear in our lives, and how much more easily some of the same people disappear from our lives? I've been thinking about this a great deal lately.
Let's say you've just started dating someone new. One month in, you introduce him/her to your friends. They might think, "Oh, where did s/he come from?" but they wouldn't actually ask; rather, they accept that someone new has entered your life, and subsequently someone new is entering their lives. Months or years later, you separate, and your former SO is no longer S, just O. It's as though s/he has been erased from the pages of history, never to be mentioned or seen again amongst you and your friends.
Alternatively, you're on a dating app. You match with somebody (yay!), you go through the obligatory initial conversation, you meet up, and you dig one another. With as little as a few hours of (virtual and face-to-face) conversation, you've let somebody new into your life--somebody who as little as a few hours prior was a complete stranger. Then after another date, you decide to ghost him/her. Never to be seen or mentioned again, unless in entertaining anecdotes to your closest of friends or the most unfamiliar of strangers.
Isn't it crazy? Sometimes it feels as though the relationships in life are like a revolving door--around and around, people go in and out. Some come to stay for good, others go as quickly as they come. But I think either way, people leave. I believe that there is a balance in the world, and for everybody who enters your life, the same person or another person exits it, whether because you choose to spend more time with one person or the other, or because someone else has simply chosen to depart.
It isn't all bad, though. Someone(s) leaving allows for more units of time to dedicate to other(s). Not everybody is meant to stay in your life, and like I wrote about in the previous post, not every relationship needs to stay a relationship. We have to be willing to let go of those who want to go, as well as let go of those who we need to go.
So yes, it is wondrous--to me, at least--how easily people appear in our lives and how much more easily some of the same people disappear from our lives. From time to time, it's saddening, but more often than not, it's also necessary. But it's okay. Because while for every person who enters, someone exits, for every person who exits, someone new enters.
Let's say you've just started dating someone new. One month in, you introduce him/her to your friends. They might think, "Oh, where did s/he come from?" but they wouldn't actually ask; rather, they accept that someone new has entered your life, and subsequently someone new is entering their lives. Months or years later, you separate, and your former SO is no longer S, just O. It's as though s/he has been erased from the pages of history, never to be mentioned or seen again amongst you and your friends.
Alternatively, you're on a dating app. You match with somebody (yay!), you go through the obligatory initial conversation, you meet up, and you dig one another. With as little as a few hours of (virtual and face-to-face) conversation, you've let somebody new into your life--somebody who as little as a few hours prior was a complete stranger. Then after another date, you decide to ghost him/her. Never to be seen or mentioned again, unless in entertaining anecdotes to your closest of friends or the most unfamiliar of strangers.
Isn't it crazy? Sometimes it feels as though the relationships in life are like a revolving door--around and around, people go in and out. Some come to stay for good, others go as quickly as they come. But I think either way, people leave. I believe that there is a balance in the world, and for everybody who enters your life, the same person or another person exits it, whether because you choose to spend more time with one person or the other, or because someone else has simply chosen to depart.
It isn't all bad, though. Someone(s) leaving allows for more units of time to dedicate to other(s). Not everybody is meant to stay in your life, and like I wrote about in the previous post, not every relationship needs to stay a relationship. We have to be willing to let go of those who want to go, as well as let go of those who we need to go.
So yes, it is wondrous--to me, at least--how easily people appear in our lives and how much more easily some of the same people disappear from our lives. From time to time, it's saddening, but more often than not, it's also necessary. But it's okay. Because while for every person who enters, someone exits, for every person who exits, someone new enters.
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