THE BEST BITS
Today I had some time to myself. I opened Netflix, hoping to find a light, silly romantic comedy to watch. I stumbled upon My Oxford Year, starring Sofia Carson, it had been showing up on my feed a lot lately. So I gave it a try. I had no idea what I was walking into.
What I found was a love story between a beautiful American girl, Anna De La Vega, and a charming, unforgettable British man, Jamie Mylchrest.
Jamie suffers from a rare genetic cancer condition. Through poetry, he leaves her with gentle signs about living, not by planning every step of the future, but by embracing the present. Living deliberately. To him, living deliberately wasn’t about controlling everything, but about being intentional with each moment. Because in the end, life is just that: a succession of moments. And those moments are all we truly have.
This touched me deeply, because it’s exactly how my love and I lived our time together. I feel so incredibly lucky to have shared more than an Oxford year with Sean. I won’t say how many years, because every anniversary I used to feel a tinge of disappointment at how small the number seemed compared to how vast it truly felt. I’m still struggling with putting that number into words.
When Sean and I met, we fell instantly, completely in love. He used to say it was love at first sight, and it was, for both of us. But honestly, I knew I loved him even before we met in person. From the very first text, from the moment I saw his profile picture, how could I resist that handsome man? (He was a client, and I was his broker… but that’s a story for another blog.)
On our very first official date, after already seeing each other every day, non-stop, since we met, we found ourselves on a rooftop overlooking the sparkling lights of Panama City. That night, he told me about his rare genetic condition. I remember looking at him, and firmly telling him that I didn’t care one bit. I wasn’t going to let a disease scare me away from the extraordinary man sitting in front of me. I was all in. I was ready to live every single bit of life that we could share together.
And oh, how we did. We enjoyed every single bit of it.
Because in the end, life is just that — full of the best bits.
