Falling in love is very real, but I used to shake my head when people talked about soul mates, poor deluded individuals grasping at some supernatural ideal not intended for mortals, but sounded pretty in a poetry book.

Then, we met,

and everything changed.

I could not tell you if I loved you the first moment I saw you, or if it was the second or third or fourth. But I remember the first moment I looked at you walking toward me and realized that somehow the rest of the world seemed to vanish when I was around you.

I remember how you told me your pretty name. "Daphne", and how I imagined the beautiful ring of saying my surname following it. We met for a mere moment but it felt like an endless euphoria of intense excitement that lasted for what seemed like hours.

It is an absolute human certainty that no one can know her own beauty or perceive a sense of her own worth until it has been reflected back to her in the mirror of another loving, caring human being. I intended with all my heart that I be that person for you, Daphne.