I don't believe in soul mates

I love Billy beyond words. I couldn't imagine doing life without him. He is my rock and my best friend. We make a team that is unbreakable, even in the toughest of times. However, he is not my soul mate.

Interestingly enough, I do believe in soul mates--Billy just isn't mine yet. 

I read a blog recently that detailed almost the same emotions that I have always used to describe my take on relationships, marriage, and soul mates that inspired this post..

Hannah, the blog writer, and I both agree that we think there is no one person out there for everyone. There are probably a lot of qualified men to take the role of "person whom I will soon drive crazy." Of course, timing is everything as well as a mutual desire to make things work--we all know what I mean by those things.

Our first picture together as an official couple

Billy and I were lucky enough to cross paths at a great time in our lives. We had had time to find ourselves in college, and become comfortable with who we were as individuals, thus making us finally ready to settle down into a serious relationship that had potential of working without all the petty drama that most couples our age were going through. We were close enough to starting our big people lives, yet still close enough to being kids that we still were able to relax and not have the stresses of the real world that came after college. He was the first to graduate, and since we had such a solid foundation started in our relationship, we were able to make long distance work well. Baseball prepared me well for that. I graduated a year later and was so beyond blessed to find a job in Atlanta near Billy. We are still going strong after 3 and a half years of him being my main squeeze.

I really hope he pops the question any day now. I am so ready to start a marriage and share my life more with him. I have realized that, at this point in my life, he is the right one for me. Life makes perfect sense him, and I want to make many memories with him and little Miss Casey Michelle.

At the cabin our first Christmas together

I know you're thinking, if Billy's not my soul mate, then why am I wanting to run to the little white church and become Mrs. Henley?! Well, I believe soul mates are made, not born. I really established my firm feelings towards this in high school so this isn't a sudden idea that has popped up in to the danger zone known as my brain. I even believe I mentioned it as one of my random Liebster facts somewhere along the road. I decided that I felt this way many moons ago, because I saw that many people are able to have more than one happy, successful marriage, therefore I don't believe that that magic can only exists with one person.

I believe that soul mates are created after years of love, experience, hard work, and companionship. Soul mates are those two people that are able to sit in silence for hours, and walk away feeling like they have had the best conversation of their life. Soul mates are two people that can read each others thoughts and finish their sentences. They know each other inside and out. They know all of their best stories, because they lived it with them.
Whenever an older person would pass away, my wise grandma would say, their spouse would follow soon, because the other would die of heartache. The closest of those couples would always follow that prediction. Those are soul mates.. people who have developed such a deep, loving, overwhelming love for each other that life was not worth living without the other half of their being.

I hope that when I am older, wiser, and more worn, that I am still holding Billy's calloused, tender hand. He is my world. I hope that we continue to grow more in love with each other with each passing day. I hope that we become each other's soul mate. In time, work, laughter, tears, pain, and endless joy, I know it will be possible.