“I think my ex boyfriend was my soul mate.” A close married friend told a very confused me. “Well, why didn’t you marry him?” I asked still very confused. “I don’t believe I was supposed to. I believe that he was there to serve a purpose in my life. He knew everything about me and he taught me so much about myself. He opened my eyes to things about me that I didn’t even know, or refused to acknowledge about myself. But we simply were not good together. I believe that sometimes a soul mate may not be the person that you are supposed to marry, but instead the person that is supposed to help you learn and grow in life. Sometimes you just aren’t able to grow together.” She completely blew my mind. Most of my life I believed that there was supposed to be this one person that was assigned to each and every person. A soul mate that we were meant to love, marry and grow old with. Every thing I had ever thought wanted to reject what she was saying but I couldn’t. It made me question my thoughts of what a soul mate truly is while going against everything I had previously thought to be true.

Then I started thinking deeper. What if your soul mate dies before you meet them? What if they live in another country and your never cross paths? Those are both pretty sad scenarios but logically the world does not have an equal amount of people for every single person to have 1 person made exclusively for them, so what truly is a soul mate?  I think its one of those things that maybe you know instantly and maybe it takes you years to realize.

I’ve heard stories from people who say they instantly knew they were supposed to marry someone and ended up building a beautiful foundation with them and ultimately marrying them. I’ve also heard stories from people who in no way thought they would ever end up marrying their spouse but also formed beautiful unions.

I feel, love is one of those things that is so unique and personal to each individual. I do know one thing is for sure. If you feel you have found your soul mate and you know that is the person you want to be with for the rest of your life, hold on to them. You never know if they’ll come back a second time around.

Ashley Renee is a soul food enthusiast, sometimes vegetarian, spoken word poet, who doesn’t trust boxed macaroni or cats. keep up with her @ashleyreneepoet on twitter & instagram also check out her website. www.ashleyreneepoet.com