Image from Flickr user Creative Tools (CC BY 2.0)
I’ll admit it. I’m a bit of a control freak. I like to do things my way. I like to be around my own things and around people who make me comfortable. I like to know what to expect from situations. Sure, I like variety and surprises as well. They keep life interesting and keep me growing as a person. But I’m used to these things happening as a slow pace. A little bit here, a little bit there, in between the comfortable box I’ve always inhabited when given the choice. I have usually been quite happy to live inside my little box most of the time, venturing out for new experiences, safely retreating back to re-center myself and feel at home.
Enter Rory. He lives in a very different box from mine. He has pulled me out of my box so often and for so many different reasons that my box has expanded. Perhaps with every pull, the walls stretch a little bit. He has also shown me some of his box, trusting me like he’s trusted almost no one else. And sometimes he hangs out with me in my box, gladly inhabiting the world that is familiar to me, and he is learning to be comfortable there. We all need time to process new experiences.
Our boxes are gradually overlapping more, as we make our life together. Taking on each others’ interests, forming new ones together, and adjusting ourselves ever so slightly to accommodate the other.
Rory has taught me about so much that was entirely outside my realm of experience. My family and upbringing are so different from his. And those of my friends are/were much more like mine. A lot of what I’ve seen and learned has been new to me.
My world is larger now. Thanks, Rory, for being my benevolent guide and for not giving me more than I could handle.