Katie Ray

They waste time, setting the ideal scene and finding the perfect meaning in their exchanges with you, preferring to take the time to examine things closely, to find the unspoken beauty between the lines.

You pulled my strings and made me dance because you were afraid to let yourself lose control.

Losing love leads to capacities realized. The emptiness of this year since has been filled with new spirit, and I am ready with open arms, like you always were.

Come into my life, a breath of seemingly fresh air. Teach me that different does not always mean better. Hook me, reel me in. String me along, find that arm’s length that will keep me just within reach for you, but will keep you just out of my own fingers’ grasp.

“True love is like bacon, except you can’t taste it.”

There were hundreds of thousands of casualties that the news never honored – the fallen trees. Snarled, upturned roots clawed at people as we struggled to pick up our yards and our lives.

“Miss, you are so pretty! You remind me so much of my sister. She’s in fourth grade!”

Teenagers connect famous love poems and stories to their own lives because they feel things that grandly. They do not belittle their emotions.

My insatiable thirst for you, the undrinkable sea, was all-consuming. I was surrounded by your endless water, without a drop to drink.

I knew when you left and my shoulders relaxed; I could breathe again. When the once cursed miles apart became much-welcomed space.

You click through the limited privacy allowed Facebook profile pictures, refrain from looking at LinkedIn because, dang it, it’ll tell them if you looked, and you read any other little tidbits that Google decides to offer up. Usually it’s funny quotes from a college newspaper or random websites they’re linked to.

My college roommate and I just took the trip of a lifetime: 20 cities, 10 countries, 1 backpack (each) in 23 days. Here are some things we learned.