Mary-Kathryn

When I was a kid my mother was going through a Nora Ephron phase, naturally I was raised on “You’ve got mail” and “Sleepless in Seattle.” And even though I was only six, I really absorbed what I saw. I imagined myself growing up to be the quirky Meg Ryan, but with brown hair, and meeting a charming Tom Hanks look-a-like who will love each and every one of my idiosyncrasies. Even though I’m only 18, I know now that it’s much more complicated than that. But one smidge of my childhood has stuck with me. In “Sleepless in Seattle” Tom Hanks delivers a monologue about his dead wife, something that has always touched me. “I knew it the very first time I touched her. It was like coming home... only to no home I'd ever known... I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car and I knew. It was like... magic,” he says. I cry every time. I always felt like this is what love would be like, and when I encountered my first love this is how I felt. When you love someone there’s a sense of comfort. You feel like you’re home when you’re around them. And with him, I really felt that. It was long distance, but when he was here…those were the happiest days I’ve had. That person and I ran our course but that doesn’t make me bitter or cynical about love. Some things aren’t built to last. Even now, when I’m with someone new that sense of comfort and safety that I felt wit him is the standard. It’s kind of nice to know that Tom Hanks was right. Love is like coming home.