He can't possibly live up to the person you've built him to be

She left for Juilliard the day after Labor Day. I drove her to the airport. She kissed me good-bye. She told me that she loved me more than life itself. Then she stepped through security. She never came back.

Okay, maybe this was the meant to be: the universe I knew, loved nothing more than balance.

Sometimes we meet people and are so symbiotic with them, it's as if we are one person, with one mind, one destiny

And that's when I understand that I have been stained. Whether I'm still in love with him, whether he was ever in love with me, and no matter who he's in love with now, Willem changed my life. He showed me how to get lost, and then I showed myself how to get found.

He gives me a little shrug, like, of course, why else? And at this point, I really have no right to be surprised by people's capacity for kindness and generosity, but still, I am. I'm floored every time.

All relationships are tough. Just like with music, sometimes you have harmony and other times you have cacophony.