Right person, wrong time.
This phrase I could never really understand, up until these few weeks.
If you like someone enough, shouldn’t that be a reason to be with them? How can timing influence something so much that you’re willing to give up what you like? I just didn’t understand.
This summer I told myself not to get involved with guys. I wanted to focus on myself, the relationships I had with friends and family, and develop a stronger curriculum vitae. My mind kept telling me that it wasn’t a good idea to get involved with a guy. I told myself no guys. Why did a guy happen then, Casey?
Flashback a month and a half ago, I started talking again with a guy who I had met in a club. No, not one of those clubs with alcohol – I mean just like a typical extracurricular club that we both decided to join during our undergrad. Before this, our relationship was purely professional. He was/still is two years older than me, and the conversation topics we had were pretty simple: school, club confirmations, and the occasional “help me with my research please”. I thought he was kind of cute when I first met him, but I never cared to start anything with him and just did not have the time or energy to approach him during the academic year – plus it would lead to awkward conversations about school….and what would I even have to say to him?
We saw each other one day while I was in summer school, and we walked and talked for a bit. Typical ‘I don’t want to end this awkwardly but this is really awkward’ kind of conversations happened, at least that’s what it felt like on my end. I didn’t think much of it. Still thought he was sort of attractive, sort of my ‘type’. He initiated conversation by ‘poking me’ on Facebook a week later. My friend said he was flirting. I didn’t think so. We started talking, coincidentally saw each other during lunch, ate together. He messaged me to meet when I was free, uh oh. I remember not knowing whether this was just a friendly hangout, or a date (re: my confusion from a previous guy). I told myself it was a date that day, dressed presentable, went out with him.
Long story short, I probably had the best first date I had ever been on. We went to a board game café (last minute change of plans), a fun taco restaurant, a walk, and an unexpected movie at his place. Definitely not the most romantic places that I’ve been taken on, but it wasn’t the places we went that made it so amazing, it was my date (him). I didn’t have to constantly search for conversations, I didn’t have to try to think of something to say. We didn’t have to agree on everything. The conversations were fluid, we connected. I remember thinking “Wow. This guy is actually really great.”
Flashforward to a few dates later, we were hitting road bumps. Things were starting to get serious and I was starting to really like him (as I’m hoping he was, me). We started having serious conversations about the future. He is leaving for medical school in a little less than two months. We were and are still worried.
Consequences of this:
- Will not be living in the same city (1 hour away)
- He will be starting an intense schooling process, and does not want to go into medical school with a relationship because he does not know about how the workload will be, environment etc.
- He is worried we will only be able to see each other once a month (which is not enough in both of our eyes)
He brought these points up to me early on in our ‘serious talks’. I countered him with
- 1 hour isn’t even considered long distance
- I told him I understood this point, and that I would be willing to continue what we had up until his schooling starts, and give him around two months after to figure himself out (sort of like a hold off period), and rekindle things after.
- I go home relatively often (almost every weekend), which allows us to spend more time together.
Throughout this process, his friends have been pushing for him to end things with me. They tell him that even committed relationships that have been going on for years in medical school, end in the first few months when someone goes to med. Whenever he decides to end it in his mind, we meet up and he can’t put himself to doing it. I like him too much right now to end things with him, instead. I’ve gone on so many dates with guys this year, yet I always end up not sticking it through after a max of 2 dates because I just don’t end up connecting with them. He is honestly one of the only guys I have truly wanted to care about. He tells me that I make things hard. He likes me too much to end things when we meet up.
“I don’t know wtf I’m doing.” 8 words I’ve come to despise (especially coming out of his mouth, yet he says this so often now).
I’ve questioned myself on why I like him: he is definitely my type, the way he doesn’t know how to smile in photos and gives this really awkward lip up smile thing, the way my head perfectly lies on his chest when we stand together and I can hear his heartbeat, HIS SMELL (>>>???? I DON’T KNOW WHY HE SMELLS THIS GOOD!! HOW IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE), the way he looks at me in silence, his blue (i think they’re kind of green) eyes, HIS WITTY WITTY TEXTS that often make me laugh and make my bad days good, the way he cuddles with me, how safe he makes me feel when we’re together, how big his hands are when they’re interlaced with mine, when he bearhugs me and wraps his legs around mine, the way he bends to kiss me because he’s way too tall, the way he wraps his arms around me, how brilliant he is and how he doesn’t even know of it, when I call him up last minute because I get lonely and he always makes time for me, how you can tell through his actions and words that he actually really cares about me, his patience, his really big arms (although I always make fun of how ‘tiny’ they are) and how my fingers can’t fully surround them, the way my clothes and bed sheets smell after he lies on them for a few hours, our little movie dates (even the movies end up being pretty bad), his way of building things from nothing ft. home movie theatre printer set up (he should be an engineer), how much he cares for his aunt (it’s actually really cute), when he calls me cute, his white detectable shoes that he literally wears everywhere, how his feet are almost double the size of mine, how he’s actually really really really shy on the inside (TIS SO CUTE) but does not give off that vibe in social situations AHHHH
Caption that I was going to post on Instagram with a picture (but decided not to), created one day after a dinner date where we made pasta and he chopped up the brocolli and said that “it looks like gnomes live in here” and made me die laughing, and then proceeded to dance with me in the kitchen, while waiting for the pasta to cook:
You held my hand and spontaneously decided to dance with me. In that moment, I knew I couldn’t let you go. ✨
F this. yeah I think I really like him. What do I do?
Right person, wrong time.
f0rgotten 