My thoughts during a rainy night in Rome

The rain calms me as it always has, tapping gently against my window. As a child, I would spend many nights listening to the rain as I lay in bed, wondering of the mysteries of life which still lay before me at such a young age. Now, still young and still as naive in many ways, I still listen to the rain and ponder the mysteries of life. I think about the people who have shaped me over the years and their lives, how we have all become so intricately intertwined over time, forming a great weave of a master plan for us all. And then I begin to think about destiny. I wonder if things are fated to be one way or another and where my inevitable place may be in this world someday. I think we all have a path in life meant to be taken and free will is the ability to take that path or go on another. I pray that I follow the path fate has laid before me, knowing that it will lead me to the best place in life. I've seen the result of destinies fulfilled, for these people always come to be remembered fondly throughout history. I do not necessarily want fame or fortune, but instead I'd prefer to have a love that surpassed all the great love stories we are told as children. The stories that made us believe in love and long to have it someday for ourselves. I want a timeless love. A love my children can look upon fondly and tell their children of. I want my heart to be consumed with true love unmatched by any other. I fear many reading this may not understand such love, or see it as a fantasy reserved for the pages of fairy tales, but I urge such readers to look out into the world and find an example of such love, because it surrounds them each day. It is ever present in the hearts of both the young and old. It can be seen in the patient stares couples often give one another. A look of understanding and compassion. A look that ceases to change despite the number of decades that pass. It is these looks couples give each other that makes the heart grow fonder and reminds the witness of such things that true love is not merely a story told to children; but a living, breathing gift to the world. I wish you all to find such a love, to grasp it tight and never let go, because it's a gift worth holding onto forever.