Do You Believe In Love?

A few weeks ago, I pulled up into the parking lot to a friend’s office to drop off some belongings after being a part of a photoshoot

As I got out of the car, a random man, with his dog started yelling at me from stairwell about 50 yards out. 

“Can you read the sign?”

“What sign?” I asked. I thought I was getting in trouble because I just had parked in the reserved spot.

“This. Right below me.”

It read LIFE IS NOW.

It was one of the murals that my friend had in front of his office.

This man with the dog, introduced himself to me and asked me if I believe in it, pointing at the “O” in NOW, which read "LOVE"

“That sign?”

“Yeah man,” the man still pointing at the mural. “Do you believe in love?”

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Love is hard, isn’t it? Well, at least for me it is.

Growing up in a Japanese household, we didn’t really show any affection, like giving hugs when we haven’t seen each other. Also my parent’s didn’t meet eye to eye, got a divorce when I was in high school. And now, they don’t talk to each other at all.

When my parents first separated, I was in middle school. I had just come back from a baseball tournament in Hawai’i. Talk about being on Cloud 9 to being kicked to the ground. I asked my mom, “Where’s dad?” Then in disappointment, she told me that he had left her.

Couple months later, and now looking back, I think my parents agreed to live together again for the sake of my sisters and I. Then one morning before school, I heard my mom begging in tears to my dad not to leave as he was walking out the door to leave my mom for the last time. 

I rushed to the front door and I said, “Dad?”

He paused for about 3 seconds at the steps of the door, and proceeded to walk to his car and drive off out of the driveway and rarely saw him after that.

I still remember every second of that moment until this day. 

That moment you can say scarred me and I never wanted to be in the situation that my mom or dad was in.

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Fast forward to today, the journey still continues to share life long moments with. Sure, I went on a few dates, some that I dove in harder that others and got heart broken. 

But I sit here in the woods of Yosemite, where I was going to take a trip by myself to reset, but then ended up going with a friend, and his girlfriend, and thankfully they came since it gave me a sense of hope. Hope that there is something special between two people, whether if that special connection takes a while to build or even if it’s long distance. 

So love hard whenever you can. And when times get tough, love harder. Never give up. It’ll be impossible for someone to forget that.

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So, as the man with the dog points to sign and asks me, "Do you believe in love?"

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Jun