All The Details

written from Lauren's perspective... Picture this scene: It was an early spring evening in 2019, with a slight chill still in the air, but that time of year when winter is finally breaking, and everything feels fresh and new. On this evening two strangers both individually decide to go to the climbing gym by themselves. She was the first to arrive and lacking a climbing partner she ventures to the veranda for auto belayed climb routes. He arrives later, checking in and preparing for his own climbing adventure, but he spots her from the floor below, and knows that this is the girl he wants to talk to. He makes his way to the veranda where she instantly notices him too, but he takes his time and eventually approaches her. "Hey, what is the most difficult route you've climbed up here so far?" *She points* "I'm just doing the auto belays" "Well, I can be your climbing partner tonight, if you want me to belay you", he says. "Yeah okay, that sounds fun, I'm Lauren", she replies. "I'm Sean", he says through a confident and charming smile. The rest of that night, they talked and laughed and challenged each other. He taught her climbing techniques she hadn't learned yet. She climbed harder and better than she had before, not to impress per say, but because she felt sure that he was there, safe and steady, he wouldn't let her quit or fail. They didn't exchange phone numbers that night but would later discover that once they both left each of them had put the name of the other in their phone, as to not forget that night and the person they had met. They both hoped they would see each other again... and two weeks later, they did. Lauren: Meeting Sean that night could have easily never happened for so many different micro-decisions. I almost didn't go that night, but something pulled me there. I didn't have the slightest clue what awaited me, but I knew that night that I was so happy I met Sean. As I drove home that night, with what I'm sure was a silly smile on my face, I remember laughing at the randomness of it all. I felt our instant chemistry, so sure that he must have felt that too. It was as if we had met so many times before. It is said that you can be sure you've experienced multiple lifetimes with someone if they feel instantly familiar to you, like a spark of recognition right in your heart. The more we adventure this life together, the more I know for certain that we have a love deeper than this one lifetime can contain.