Bumping into the ex

Definitely something I'm never prepared for. Especially when it's just around the corner from where you used to live together -- and when I'm accompanied by my partner who I live with now. It seems like there's so much to say about the years that have passed, but it equally feels that little has changed. And none of it is worth trying to get into on a street corner in the Annex.

Had me wondering for a while, "Has my life really not changed that much?" But, in the end, it was just the weird juxtaposition of being in an "old place" with an "old face" that made me feel that way. Of course life has got more complicated, I've grown up a lot, and I'm in a much better place now.

I've got my studies/career on track (despite the incessant moaning). My creative life has taken an upturn I never could have expected. Most important, though, I'm actually the partner I want to be -- rather than the one I thought I was being.

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't any less a "good guy" back then than I am now. But I was just that kind of selfish only those in their early to mid 20's can be (and none of them know it). Just getting into the world, figuring out how it works, starting to carve a little hole in it to call your own, and still just a little too green to realise how little of it you'll ever really figure out -- makes you world-weary enough without being world-wise enough yet, and it's too scary just thinking about yourself that even when thinking about others it doesn't always work out 100% right.

I'm happier now. Much. And that's all that matters.