The Girl Who Gave Up Her Dream for Love

Well over a year ago, a girl had a dream of sparkling city lights, late night celeb-schmoozing, and a glamorous career in journalism. This girl couldn't wait for it. It was her DESTINY, and then Destiny slapped her in the face and said "WHOA, girl, sit your pretty little butt down. You're not going to that Big Apple, it's just not in the cards."

So the girl came home defeated but determined. She would wait, save, work a job she hated to get a job she loved in the city she was meant to. She would make it happen, and Destiny couldn't tell her no.

Ah, but Destiny is tricky. One night a month after her failed city-scursion, Destiny took off the blinders she'd been secretly holding in the girl's peripheral. The girl suddenly saw him, a man who had been on the borders of her life for years, a dashing man whose smile was so inexplicably intoxicating. The girl couldn't help saying "WHOA, Destiny, WHO IS THAT?"

Destiny giggled and pushed them into a room together. She pushed the girl forward, and the guy forward even further. She wrapped her arms around them both and kept inching them closer and closer over hours at first, then days, then weeks, then months before the girl was like "Destiny, what are you trying to tell me?" Destiny laughed again before pushing the man up to the girl's ear where he whispered, "I think... I love you."

The girl was overwhelmed, so much so that she didn't say it back, but her return kiss was enough for the man to know. Destiny danced a wild jig and watched over months and days and even a full year as these two loved each other and laughed, cried and sometimes fought, made it work and then it didn't.

The girl, sobbing through another night, screamed "Destiny, why did you do this?! I had everything I'd ever wanted, but you threw him in the gears and KNEW I would love him. Now I have nothing! How could you do this to me? You took away my dream!"

Destiny stared at the girl. She gazed and gazed until the flicker of light shimmered across the girl's eyes. Destiny smiled and put her arm around the girl as she began to cry again.

"I didn't have what I wanted, did I?" the girl asked

Destiny shook her head, maintaining her calming smirk.

"Because my dream, Destiny, wasn't a city or a job or a lifestyle, my dream was him. My dream was love."

Destiny smiled and embraced the girl. The girl who had given up her dream for love, only to find that love was her dream all along. Because she could write anywhere. She could live big and dream big no matter what city she was in. But here, here... this was the only place she could love. Love him, the man Destiny chose for her.

The girl was heartbroken, but knew that she was exactly where she wanted to be. She had always picked love, and this one, the greatest love of all, was her dream. Her love, him, the man was her destiny. And Destiny has a plan for them, even if the girl and the man don't quite know what it is yet. They'll figure it out. Together or alone, they'll figure it out.

Maybe Destiny is waiting just around the corner to nudge them together again. Maybe not. But Destiny is the only girl who knows for sure.