Those boys...

The one with the weird sense of humor and the glasses and the sixth grade crush.

The one with the dark hair and the best friends since fourth grade and the "I'll never let you fall."

The one with the "I'm about to hold your hand" and the confusion and the spying from across the street.

The one with the voice and the eyes and the smell and the late summer nights in the bed of that truck.

The one with the curls and the cigarette smoke and the snowy walk around the city all night long.

The one with the goodbye and the 6'4" and the complicated and the "Someday" by John Legend.

The one with the freckles and the v-neck and the stories and the Radiohead fogging the windows.

The one with the secrets and the plaid and the Skinny Love and the "you're still a good person."

The one with the Beatles and the bridge and the potential love and the let down.

The one with the park and the best kind of kissing and the "babe" and the tears.

Ten.
Those are my ten. My favorite ten. My top ten.
The best ten.

Ten of my favorite stories.

Ten bridges I burned.
Ten bridges I wish I could rebuild.

Ten boys men that put me one step closer to figuring myself out.

And even though I've disliked each of them at one point or another,
and even though some of them seemed to have done unforgivable things,
I love them. Really and truly, I love them all.
Some, like a brother. Some, like a best friend. Some, like a significant other. Some, like a memory.
And some, like a complete stranger.

Ten different kinds of love. Ten strong kinds of love. Ten important kinds of love.

I sometimes wish I could hate some of them.
Because, thinking back, maybe some of them deserve to be hated by me.
But then I remember that if it weren't for them, I wouldn't be me.
I wouldn't have learned something extremely important.
So I have no choice but to love them.


Ten lessons.
Ten opportunities.
Ten thousand laughs.
Ten reminiscent smiles.

And ten cheers.

For having made it this far.

I feel like writing ten thank-you cards.