The Meet Cute

 

Sometimes, life places you somewhere for a dream you’ve been holding close to your chest for years. You arrive with your mental checklist: goals to chase, projects to nail, deadlines to meet. You tell yourself you’re here for this one thing. But people have a funny way of sneaking into your plans.

It starts small, a random conversation at the coffee counter, a shared umbrella on a stormy day, a stranger laughing at the same oddly specific joke you thought only you found funny. And then your mind whispers: Could this be… the meet-cute?

You half-pray it is. But also half-pray it isn’t.

Because the real meet-cute, the kind that messes with your heart’s GPS, might come with warning labels. Sometimes it’s the “it could cost you a leg or an arm” kind. Not literally (hopefully), but in the way it demands sacrifices you’re not ready to make. The dream you came for? It might not survive the detour.

And so you learn. You don’t chase every “cute” you meet.

You smile at it, pocket the memory, and keep walking.

Still, you try to score some extra brownie points from the universe by staying true to what you love. By doing your thing, but doing it with new people, ones who feel like they could fit into your life’s playlist. And sometimes, these people, even if they aren’t the meet cute, become part of something bigger: your tribe, your anchor, your “remember when?” stories.

Life, at its core, is made of the people you get to meet. The ones you’re with now, and the ones who are still waiting just around the corner. There’s magic in letting people introduce new things to your life; fresh perspectives that tilt the way you see the world, thoughts that challenge and excite you, energies that recharge you, interests that align in ways you didn’t expect. They bring with them a version of you that feels… new. Brighter. More in tune with where you’re going. And honestly, I think people should live for that too; the joy of being reshaped, even a little, by someone’s presence.

Maybe, the real magic isn’t in the cute you meet, but in the "you" you become while meeting them.