Diamond and dust

Diamond and dust

The right pressure can turn us into diamonds but the wrong pressure can turn us into dust. This is so true specially when we deal with relationships. When I was in middle school, in high school relationships were so complicated because it was never just about the two people involved, there was always the opinions of friends, the rumours floating around school that influenced how we live our lives and the matters of the heart. No matter who was involved, there was something good and bad to say; to discourage a relationship that is going well or to encourage one that is never meant to be. Either way, pressure from the people around us can be knife to heart. Riley has had a crush on Lucas for the longest time and when they kissed on the metro at the last day of school they both didn’t know what it meant for them. When they got back to school after summer all that everyone could talk about was their relationship, that they should be together, that they shouldn’t, that it will hurt Farkle’s heart, that some girls are jealous of Riley, that some guys want to be Lucas. We have all been in this situation and if you haven’t you will. You would think that all this stops when we get more mature, more grown up and to a point it does, but by being in university I can see that things like this happen regardless of our age. 

We sometimes have too much of an interest in the lives of others and can negatively impact them, in matters of the heart this is often the case. As expected, all this talk about their relationship forces Riley and Lucas to go out on a date even though they are not sure that this is what they want. Their date is one of the most awkward situations they have been in, it usually so easy for them to talk to each other, to go out for a drink but now they are forced to be together when neither of them is ready to accept what they feel. They sit in silence, holding hands but feeling bad about it. Clearly, they are not happy and is all because they didn’t allow themselves to decide on what terms they would move forward but on everybody else’s. Sometimes friends do prevent us from making mistakes, from entering toxic relationships, from falling in love with someone that doesn’t fell the same way. They can also encourage us to follow our heart and try to be happy when we may not have thought about it or done it ourselves. They can help our relationship be a diamond. When helping the people we care about in love and relationships sometimes not giving our opinions is the best way to help at least at the beginning, let them find out what they want and what makes them comfortable.

Riley has always thought that what she wanted was to be with Lucas but when she really thinks about it she loves Lucas as a brother and not in the way she once thought. Because of the pressure of everyone telling them to be together, to make her feelings for Lucas be romantic she took this fraternal love for Lucas and expressed in this way which is why she wasn’t happy when they went out together. We are not able to think by ourselves on such important decisions, to discover what it is that we feel, love is a complicated thing and made even more so when we let other people influence our decisions with rumours, jealousy and agendas. It is your life and happiness ahead of you so make it count, don’t always believe what people say about you or others.