Someone asked me about you

Someone asked me about you a few days ago. They asked me who was the girl that made me grin like a lunatic. It made me stop and think how to tell them about you. I looked up the sky in hope to find inspiration.

I could have said “She looks like Aphrodite.”

But then that wouldn’t do you justice. So I searched again for the right words, trying to think about you. I thought about your hair, the way it curled at the end. I thought about your lips, how they perfectly melted into mine. I thought about your eyes. Damn your eyes. They would entrance me every time I saw it, and I never wanted to look away.

My friends looked at me expectantly, waiting for an answer. I searched for words again. They laughed at me and told me I was whipped, and I never denied it. The breeze coming from the trees stirred my hair, as we walked back to our office. Then after awhile, I turned to them and said:

“Have you ever been to the beach?”

They all nodded looking curiously at me, and I continued:

“Well she’s like that. Close. When you’re around her you feel a certain breeze float through. You feel relaxed, and the deeper you dig into the sand, the more happier and carefree you would feel. You feel like you could just run all the way to the other side of an island.

Like water she reflects. She can reflect someone’s happiness as if it were her own. At night when everything’s dark, she glows. Every indent a person makes in the sand she takes and she keeps it in her memory. Every wave gentle and she washes up treasures from her own self.

She can make you listen to everything she says, just like how you’d want to listen to the sounds of the ocean. Sure she sometimes turns into storms and wreaks havoc, but she does everything she could to make it up to you. You know what I mean?”

I looked at the three of them, each had a different expression. After awhile they smiled at me, and patted my back. We each went in the building’s elevator, and we pressed our different floors.

“We hope to meet her soon okay man?” One of them said when he reached his floor.

 After a while I was alone as the elevator continued to make my stomach drop. As I heard a familiar ding I walked out and proceeded to walk towards my cubicle. My neighbor smiled at me, her gaze kind. I then sit down on my computer and log in. I smile as I see you face, smiling brightly into the camera. You were showing off your engagement ring, a blush on your cheeks. My eyes then look further below the picture, with the text:

My beloved angel,
1988-2010

Red String of Fate

“An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet,
regardless of time, place, or circumstance.
The thread may stretch or tangle,
but it will never break.”
– an ancient Chinese belief

Beautiful isn’t it? The way we could imagine that somewhere out there, we are meant for someone. Contrary to what people may usually think, being destined to be with someone doesn’t automatically mean romantically. And this old Chinese belief proves that. It simply means that someone out there is meant to be your friend, to be your companion. It means that no matter the distance or the things you do, you will meet at a certain time when fate decides it. It’s nice to think that everything you do has a reason. That the people you meet, the things that have happened to you whether good or bad, the experiences you went through is part of some thought of plan. It makes you think of the butterfly effect. That one thing you do could affect so many things. A smile could make someone’s day, or a spiteful conversation could send someone into a depression. Come to think of it, we really are connected to each other for some reason. This makes you think about what you do. It makes you feel conscious about what you say or do to people because one mistake could ruin someone’s life. 


Going over to the romantic side of this belief (as I am a hopeless romantic), this belief is the Chinese version of “soul mates”. Nowadays, people rarely do believe in it. Especially with all the overuse of the word “love” in the wrong way. The problem with us humans is that we settle on what is given and we make the abnormal things normal. For example the fact that more and more marriages fail- people nowadays think its a norm. No one ever looks outside the box and sees two people who were afraid to try harder. Another example is that most people settle for what is there. Call me a sappy romantic, but why do you settle for sparks when you can have fireworks? Why settle for someone you can live with rather than a person you can’t live without? These two problems can be solved by one thing: take a chance. Despite what movies and books tell you, no one really dares to take a chance unless life threatens you to. 

That’s the main problem of humanity. Everyone is afraid of being rejected, of being humiliated  of being seen as an outcast. Well you know what? I’ve lived my whole life taking chances. I take things as they go, following my gut the whole way. I’ve been bruised too many times and I’ve got the scars to show it. But no matter what, you’ve just got to keep going. Like Dory said in Finding Nemo, you’ve got to keep swimming. The world is vast ocean. And if the Chinese knew their beliefs, no matter how far you go, the person you’re bound to be with will turn up sooner or later. 

Do you know the cute little story behind the “Red String of Fate”? There was a kid who saw an old man. The old man said that there was a red string that connected people who were meant to be. The kid, as naive as he was, said that he was never getting married. The old man brought the kid to a small village and pointed towards a girl whom the kid was destined to be with. The boy threw a rock at the poor girl and ran away. A few years later, the boy was going to get into an arranged marriage. The night before the marriage, he asked to see the woman’s face. He saw that she was beautiful, but she was hiding something. She then revealed that she had a scar on her face because a rock hit her face when she was a kid. 

Fate can be a real troublemaker  It can make or break a person. But like a parent, it knows your best interests. Sooner or later you’d see your life unfold, and piece by piece you’d see that everything happened for a reason. Not everything may be explained now, but someday it will be. Till then learn to take a chance. You’ll never know where you’d find yourself. 🙂