Juliette Kopp

I fall in love with cities the way some fall in love with people.

At 21, I ended a five year relationship with my first real love. I watched helplessly as all the plans we had made disintegrated in front of me. There went any house-buying-child-rearing-dreams I had naively been counting on. As a life-saving effort to start anew, I quickly wrote down “Move to a major city (12-13-2009).” And in parenthesis next to it, “(for a new beginning)”.

We just think we’re private and introverted. It’s not that we necessarily mean to appear so detached; we’re just hoping that others understand it’s unintentional.

I’ve found new meaning in the term my ‘other half’ and I no longer have a sense of urgency to find a soul mate. I already have, in a form I didn’t expect.

You will hurt people. Maybe even crush them. You are going to live in a dark place of imbalance where you can’t quite afford the rent and the job market has turned its back on you.

You met him months earlier. A meeting not significant enough to remember every detail, but enough to recall you had briefly spoken about a new album coming out by a band you both adored. You fall for him cautiously, maintaining your cold exterior for a couple days, maybe even a few weeks, before you start to crack.