https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwR2bmhj0S0

As a small child, I always wondered what those lines were. I always thought it was weird. One day, I would see a line nice and straight, but the next day it would be tangled and messy. It wouldn't always straighten back. One day, I decided to follow a string and see where it ends up. I followed and followed, and where it led me conflicted me. A pinky. A person's pinky. How I had never realized this before confused me, and made me wonder all the more. Why did everyone have strings attached to their pinkies? I would look around, all I'd ever see is red. Red here, red there. Some strings tight, and some strings loose. Some tangled, and some not. Occasionally I would see a cut string. Those intrigued me the most. I would wonder, why are they cut? Of course, as a small child, I didn't know what those strings meant at all, so I didn't know the answer.

But, others did.

As a teen, I heard of the myth concerning these red strings. But I never heard of people who were able to see them. That conflicted me. Why as I able to see these strings? As a teen, I still didn't understand why some strings were tight, and why some were loose, and why others were tangled while others weren't. Of course, my biggest mystery was the cut strings. At that age, I didn't understand them.

But time came and went, and I became a young adult.

As a young adult, I began to think of things. I began to think of things such as work, life, but mostly love. Everywhere I went, I would see couples. Couples with the same string wrapped around their pinkies, couples with tangled strings, couples with strings leading in different directions. And it was during those moments that I understood. I understood why some strings were tight and why some strings were loose. I understood why other strings were tangled and why others weren't. And I regret to say, I understood why many strings remained cut.

It's unfortunate.

I could see the strings, and I could interpret the strings. But, I couldn't touch the strings. No matter how much I reached down, no matter how many times I tried to wrap my fingers around the strings, I simply could not move or grab them. I didn't think of it as too much of a loss. I didn't think of it as much of a loss compared to the one fact that still holds me high and dry. All my life, as I held my hand up in the sky, there was only one thing I wondered the most.

Why didn't I have a string?

I could see them, and I could interpret them. But why didn't I have one?

Did that mean I could never find love?