He Flew Across the Country for Her

I got a call from a friend the other night. He had a falling out with his girl and long story short - they broke up.

He was almost 2000 miles away from her for the last few weeks and felt hopeless in his situation. As a friend being 500 miles away, I did what I could to make him feel better. As we all know, broken hearts are not easily mended (no matter how badly we want them to be).

Last night he asked me to call him. I feared that he was having a break down so I grabbed his number and dialed away! He answered and I asked if he was doing okay.

"I am really good, Shay!" he responded.

... What? What did he mean? What changed to make him feel so much better so quickly?

Turns out, he booked a plane ticket to fly across the country to win his girl back.

THIS IS NO MOVIE. THIS IS REAL. He knew he had to try something and he couldn't lose her.

(You can awe. I did. A lot. I even cried out of happiness! This is every girls dream!)

So he flew out to get her. Anxious, scared, and excited were the emotions I was feeling FOR him. I have no idea to what degree of these emotions he was feeling.

Now let me introduce you to this friend of mine. He is a great human being. Very happy, positive, genuine, generous, and we love to eat pizza together. He is shy. He runs away when things get this heavy and he never sees a point to chase after people that walk out of his life. Him flying out to win this girl back was a huge, HUGE move on his part.

I can't say I have ever been so proud of him.

But like I mentioned before, this is not a movie. He did not end up winning his girl back, but that does not mean he failed.

Hell no! I think he won a lot more today. He found courage to be vulnerable. Found strength to pick himself back up and has the knowledge that he has friends who have his back no matter what.

In all honesty, I have never been so grateful for this friend of mine. He showed me that romance is not dead. Showed me that if someone really cares about you and wants you in their life, they will fight for you to stay there. They will do whatever it takes not to lose you.

I want to be more like this friend of mine. I want to have the courage to be vulnerable and be able to express my every emotion to the one I want to be with. To be impulsive and fly across the country to win the person I want back EVEN IF THAT MEANS I FAIL. At least I will have the satisfaction of knowing I did everything I could. I also want someone to care for me the way he cared for his girl. Enough to fly across the country or even walk a minutes to my door to say "I need you."

Frankly, I do not think that is asking too much at all.

Many things in life are mediocre and this friend of mine showed me that love, if it is mediocre, is not worth it.

Stay gold, friends. Love is alive -- but it takes a leap of faith and fist full of courage.

Shay