Right Person, Wrong Time

by Kirsten Buenafe

Something I believe in is right person, wrong timing. Everyone may not believe it is true but in my scenario it is.

I have made many long-distance friends due to the course of the impact from the covid-19 pandemic. It was hard not seeing my irl friends in person due to quarantine. Throughout quarantine I met wonderful people through social media who I had never thought of being friends with. Three months ago, I met this boy named Willow, but for short Willo, who I did not realize would make an impact in my life. He was tall, dark-haired, athletic, and Filipino. He is the same age as me and goes to a community college in his area. We had met through social media through mutual friends, it was bound to happen where we’d get introduced to one another.

In the beginning, nothing much really happened between us. Since it was still summer, we were both separately enjoying it in our lives. Later throughout the month, I messaged him first and had a small conversation with him. Then suddenly, we started messaging one another frequently and got to know each other throughout the days. We had a lot in common and learned many different things about one another.

Although there was only one problem and that was a wall between us which was time difference. He stayed in Guam while I stayed in Virginia. Trust me, getting to know someone with a 12-hour difference was quite challenging. Then, a one-time conversation turned into a daily conversation, where we would talk everyday 24/7 till the end of the summer. Messaging everyday turned into video calls with one another. He was the type of person I had a good relationship with, someone I could talk to and come to when I was feeling down. Even though he was across the world, his personality could not compare to those around me. To be completely honest, we joked about many things with each other, but I think that we both took a liking to one another and ended up regretting not confessing our feelings.

All was well until work and school started up again. I started working which gave us little time to communicate with one another. Although we would talk during my lunch break, he’d text me before work and left some encouraging messages for me to read when I had the chance to. But it wasn’t until the next day we would talk again. Then he started school, so finding ways to even have a small conversation with one another was impossible. We were so occupied with our lives that we did not text as much as we used to.

Although, we still talked from time to time, it was not the same. Days went by and our conversations turned into ash. Miscommunication made both of us realize that what we thought we would hope to have was not an option anymore. Recently, he messaged me to check up how I was doing. I was surprised and filled with excitement that we could communicate again. But that one small conversation was nothing like I had hoped for. As we were messaging one another, he told me that he had been depressed. This broke my heart, seeing someone who was once a blooming flower slowly withering away without my notice.

I had asked him what happened, and the reason was no other than college. He was lacking sleep and energy for his classes. I felt like I just had to buy a plane ticket and fly to him, and to cheer him up not as a significant other but as a friend he needed. But after that one small conversation our messages went back to ash, and nothing more has happened.

Up till this very day, I would still message him, leaving positive messages for him to read, but as always it ended up with no response. I realized after this that anything can go downhill with someone and even to ones you least expected. That is when I realized that “right person wrong timing” belief was true.

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(Read all the pieces in This I Believe; featured image from Rosiee33333)