What is something you are slowly changing your mind about?
June 21, 2026 — 3:19 p.m.
“A Sky Full of Stars” plays in my ears.
The headphones don’t even matter.
The music feels like me talking to her.
Elizabeth.
The girl with the red lipstick glasses.
Slim.
5’9”.
Pale skin, quite not Kindle gray.
Curly brown hair, disheveled.
The bluest eyes.
A smudge of paint on her cheek.
I fell for the shell that her being moved around in.
Fellow space woman.
“I want to say hello.”
We met at Cerritos College in the summer of 2018.
“Wow, I didn’t think. I felt.”
We became classmates.
Art friends.
We would speak before, during, and even after class for hours.
“I have a boyfriend,” she once mentioned.
Oh.
This spaceman needs to move away.
I’d distance myself into my art.
Avoid at all costs.
She would eventually walk back to me.
Red lipstick glasses.
I’ve always been Cinderella, lol.
Great to talk to.
Great depth, some would say.
But only a piece of entertainment I would always be.
The last time I would see her:
Summer of 2019.
Accepted to CSULB.
On a night of deliveries, parked outside a bakery, golden street lights cutting through the cool darkness, I’d make a decision.
Confess through Instagram.
Lol.
Let’s just say I laid it on thick.
Too much.
Lol.
She read it but never replied.
So, what did I do?
Well, I felt shitty.
Now?
I’m so happy I laid it on thick.
I didn’t make a mistake.
If I could say it now, I would say:
“I stopped at you, the outer you.
But I wanted to stay after I met you.
I wish you the best on your own journey, fellow space woman.”
Don’t feel bad for feeling and expressing.
Keep traveling.
💬 Reader Question
Have you ever looked back on something that once felt embarrassing and realized it wasn’t a mistake at all?
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