I wish you could’ve met my grandfather. He was an amazing man who was effortlessly cool like James Dean or Kerouac’s Moriarty. He worked tirelessly in the oil fields for over thirty years, and did so with a proud but quiet dignity. He wasn’t a complainer, nor was he lazy. My grandpa was a man I can proudly call “hero”. He gave continuously to his job, his church, his family, and—especially—his wife; doting on her and loving her with everything he was as a man and a provider. When I sit and consider the true love every one of us hopes to experience, the way my grandfather loved my grandmother is what comes to my mind. If there ever were soulmates, they were it.

And that’s why I feel torn. The intellectual side of me realizes that there are over 6 billion people in the world, so the belief that there is exactly one person for me and exactly one person for you seems almost impossible. The numbers do not support the theory. It’s all too random. But then, I turn romantic and deeply want to believe that only one woman can complete me the way I desire; only one woman can give me all that I need, and I to her in return. That seems lovely and rather perfect, I suppose. That true love exists for me and only her, is something which sparks the imagination and heightens the senses of the soul.

And yet, what of those who never marry? Was their disappointment in never being married simply their own fault for not being in the right place at the right time? Are those people really punished and destined to lead a less-than-happy existence simply because they never happened to meet the one person who could bring the happiness of true, everlasting love? I can’t bring myself to accept that either.

Perhaps love is a gamble we take. Perhaps soulmates don’t really exist, but the closest thing to it can be the connection you feel with the one person who “gets” you. Maybe our choosing to be with that person, to be theirs and only theirs for as long as either of us is breathing, is as close to having a soulmate as we’ll ever get. Perhaps love is a choice we make. Perhaps love is not found in a person, but rather a journey we take with another.

Do soulmates exist? Honestly, I don’t know. But love does.

And maybe that’s enough.

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