I recently became single, and I'm trying to get back into the dating scene. I've been on 3 dates with 3 different girls over the last 3 days. I feel like each one offered a glimpse into a different future.
Today's date was at the Museum of Natural History, but we really wanted to see the planetarium. The show (Dark Universe), focused on dark matter and energy and how it comprised 95% of the universe. The visuals were amazing, but there was one part in particular that stood out to me. The narrator was discussing how when we look up at the sky, we're looking into the past and no matter where you are, it looks like the center of the universe. It didn't seem like much at the time... I'll get to that part later.
Thursday's date was an example of everything from my past I've tried to leave behind. This girl was just a mess, but it only lasted an hour and no harm done.
Last night I went to a fancy steakhouse with my girlfriend from high school. We were the stereotypical upper crust Long Island couple. As a kicker, we were seated next to Billy Joel and Andrew Cuomo (governor of NY). All through dinner I was thinking if this is really the life I want for myself. This scene is everything I thought I wanted in life, but it just felt so empty.
Today I had a great time, girl was beautiful and extremely intelligent. As we're setting up a second date, she tells me she's going to be leaving for the military in August.
As I was walking home, I looked up at the stars and my mind wandered back to that quote. I felt like I was looking into the past, and every star represented something from my life that shaped me into who I am today. Some stars are brighter than others, and some are long gone... Somehow these stars that died a billion years ago are still shining from our vantage point.
You can't turn off a star, like you can't turn off a memory. It can be good, it can be bad, but there's no way to turn it off.