Relationships with strings attached

Picture this: 5-year-old me, sitting outside on my favorite spot on my mom's front stoep (porch), surrounded by the warmth and love only a childhood home can provide. I was naively and eagerly excited about trying something I saw in a movie we watched the previous night. With a handful of wildflowers, I had gathered from the garden, I played out my tender dream. I didn’t know the name of the flowers but they were not roses as in the movie, haha! One by one, I plucked each petal, whispering, “He loves me, He loves me not”. As the kid I was, my young heart swelled with joy whenever the answer was “He loves me”.

I yearned for that love and wanted more "love me’s" so I kept trying whenever I saw the next petal would get me the “he loves me not,” I wouldn't continue or would pull out both petals so that I could get the answer I wanted, "He loves me!". There was no particular boy in mind or a deep understanding of what I was doing, but I was determined that as I grew older, I would pick the right " flower" (man) who would truly LOVE ME. Little did I know, I was in for a crazy surprise of -Relationships with Strings Attached.