the people you meet.

Sometimes you meet someone, and you know in an instant they will change your life.
He is meant to be Someone to you, that he will alter your course from that moment on. It becomes a game of "before him" and "since him." Maybe not even in the romantic sense - you just know, the second you say hi or begin talking or even the moment your gaze trips over him: he'll mean something to you. It's so undeniable, that it's easy to let it fall into place - because that's just how he's meant to be.

Sometimes you meet someone, and it takes a few months for them to finally come into focus.
They hovered, they shimmered there in the background. They were a glimpse behind you, a quick passing in the hallway without ever seeing them. And one day, you find yourself looking for that trick of light, wondering if it was real. You start to look more often, repeatedly -- until finally, one day, you catch it. And you realize he was there the entire time, that he was constant and more real than a lot of the things you saw daily. And the more you find him every day, the more you realize how much you've come to depend upon him. Maybe not for anything, but just for his presence, his sturdiness, his solidity. And it's hard, because how do you take your background into the forefront without changing anything? How do you bring that look over your shoulder to be right in front of you, when he never was before?