A Very Lucky Girl

If you see me at any point on Sunday, chances are I've been crying, am crying, or will be crying. You see, my other half leaves me to start her journey to Alberta, Canada, the land of maple syrup and moose. I would not have made it through this semester without her. We've essentially been inseparable since January 4th, when I first met her. I had flown in from America just that morning and was taking a much-needed nap. I woke up to the sound of someone moving around next door and I flew to the door and poked my lovely bed-head out, "HEY! My name is Taylor! What's yours? Where are you from?" I'm 99% sure she thought I was psycho. She introduced herself and we made plans to attend an introductory meeting at the university the following evening. After the meeting we went to braes and got our first drinks together. There have been many more. We grocery shopped together from the very beginning, making meals for two every night. You could say we're dating, we d...

This is Conner on the night that I met him. See that grin? That's the joy of a guy who just found his future BFF (me). It was the first Tuesday night of the 2011 Fall semester at OU. My neighbor, Rachel, and I ventured to a party we heard about. We found fun guys and punch. It was basically a winning combination. Conner and I compared class schedules as we watched an intense game of King's Cup. Discovering we had Communications together on Mondays and Wednesdays, he suggested we exchange numbers. Smooth, right? Points for Cons. I was ecstatic to discover he was from Dallas, Texas and fumbled to enter his digits in my phone under "Conner Texas." He later became Conner Texas/Golden. Why change a good thing? Despite the time that I threw a stack of post-it notes at his face (leaving a substantial mark), we have been friends ever since. He lived 2 minutes away from me during my Freshman year and we would study at the library until all hours, me listening to him dro...

I like to fly solo. When I hang out by myself, I have a great time. I love my friends, truly, but there's something perfect about being alone. There are zero expectations. You can be as ridiculous as you want. Lately I've been thinking that I have found two different types of relationships in my friendships. There are the people that I have to make an effort to be around them. They aren't my first choice when I have some free time, they are the last resort (only being honest, not deliberately hateful). We just don't click in a way that makes time whip by. They tend to typically be more self-absorbed and don't respect my priorities. And then I have the friends that I could spend the rest of my life with (I think that's called marriage so I should probably look into that. Kidding: I like guys). I have been blessed with phenomenal companions. They make me laugh and they encourage me to make good decisions (but stay with me through the bad ones). They call me out wh...

I'm not into shallow relationships. I've always been the kind of girl that has two or three close friends at a time. It's exclusive, there are tryouts and everything for this valued position!  I can count on one hand, mayyyybe two, the people that are always there for me. And the people I wouldn't hesitate to help with anything. For this reason I have the hardest time talking to strangers. (Which, in retrospect, was an excellent thing when I was younger. I was never in danger of getting lured by candy to the sketchy van.) But now, I'm going to have to talk to strangers for the rest of my life in order for them to stop being strangers. I envy people that can comfortably waltz up to someone they have never talked to in their life and have an enjoyable conversation. I usually stand by awkwardly in awe, watching these social butterflies work their magic, wondering when I'll emerge from that socially awkward cocoon. (did I stretch that metaphor too far? Long ha...