Pick it Up Already: The Little Prince Wake Up Call

Five years ago, I studied abroad in China and met a guy who sat at the entry of the dormitory and practiced his English on me while I sat on the cold marble floor and watched my classmates outside jump rope in the dusk. I stole his hat to show my childish affection, thinking it was clear enough to flatter him but innocent enough that I wouldn’t have anything to lie to my boyfriend back home about. It was the first time I ever thought, “If only I were single.”

The last night before I flew back home, he caught me on the stairs between the boys floor and the girls floor before they were separated by a locked door for the night. He held out his hand in a fist. I held my flat hand out below his, and he dropped the necklace I’d seen him wear every day. I had stolen that necklace on the Great Wall and worn it as a bracelet when I conquered my fear of heights and climbed up in a watch tower. I flew across the ocean wearing it, and called him on calling cards I bought with what money I had as a student.

Five years later, I am in his home country and on the phone with him and he tells me,

“I have two girlfriends.”

After five years of growing close, and of carrying a torch, and of finally arriving in a place where I am only an hour bus ride away, he tells me that he can’t be trusted and I am just too late.

You sometimes come to a point in your life when you realize that the people you love aren’t always the same as the people who go around in their bodies and continue living. You realize that you’ve been loving the spirits of people torn from their bodies and nurtured in your heart.

The Little Prince understands. (So does the snake.)

And that’s why you need to take ten minutes out of your day to start reading this PDF.

Come back on Saturday to talk some more and tell your own stories.