on relationships and the like

As I sit in my desk chair at what will soon be 2am, I find myself reflecting on the idea of relationships. I say "idea" because we all have this mental picture of what our relationships should look like or will look like - whether they be friendships, romantic relationships or even friendly acquaintances at work - and in reality, they are rarely what we had pictured them to be.

To be quite frank and personal, I myself have been "looking" for a Mr. Right and have an image of what this relationship might look like. I've met some Mr. Close's, Mr. Maybe's and quite a handful of Mr. Hell-No's - all of whose classifications have been derived from their approximation to my own mental model. Which begs the question: how realistic am I being and what is it that I really want? Does my mental model exist within the world of "Hi, I'm ____, it's nice to meet you"s?

I've had the privilege of re-connecting with an old friend recently and it is really a testament to how relationships can surprise you and change, meet, or completely blow your expectations out of the water. And as complicated as they can be sometimes, I remember being told that your best investment is in people - even if some days you're wondering where the hell your return went to.

This summer has been, for me, full of opportunity to re-connect and re-build some relationships that I had once thought lost a long time ago. And I feel I need to mention how important that is to me because everyone develops bonds for one reason or another and for me, what was initially curiousity has brought me some of the people I hold dearest to my heart. The same can be said for every relationship, new or old, as they all started the same way and are rarely what you expect them to be.