Dear Tyler,
I remember you in Perth like it was yesterday.
I remember the first time my family met you. You were so nervous, your hand was shaking, and I tried to calm your hand by holding your hand in my hand, but I was also so nervous and my hand was also shaking and we were a mess. We were standing there at the airport, where my family would pick us, and we were both just silent, wrapped up in our own thoughts.
Well, for me it was just a thought. One singular thought: You.
I didn't know why you were nervous. You had met my family over Skype before, and you all got along, so it wasn't like you were going into this blind. But you still were more nervous than I had ever seen you before. I could practically feel your heart beating out of your chest. The noise was all I could hear. You told me that you were scared that when they actually met you, you wouldn't live up to their expectations. That somehow, you would let me and my family down. I tried to tell you that would be impossible.
But then my family pulled up and they hugged you and squeezed you just like I hugged you and squeezed you and suddenly all the tension just faded. It's funny, isn't it? How a hug can do that? Your hugs always did that for me: took away all the bad things. All the tension and pain and uncertainty.
And of course my family absolutely adored you. They adored you as much as I adored you. They could see the way we looked at each other as if the other person was the most amazing person in the entire world. And you were.
They watched me lead you around the house on your little tour, they watched us giggling like lovesick idiots, they watched me pull you down the hallway, they watched us cuddle on the sofa, they watched us love each other. They witnessed all of it. And I'm so gald they did.
"You're soulmates," they told us.
And as the days wore on, I watched you settle down like my home was your home. And it was, wasn't it? I was your home, so wherever I was, was home for you. You didn't need anything else. And I felt so lucky to have that.
You helped me so much with my music there, Tyler. It's been a long time, but I can still remember the two of us, sitting in that conference room in Perth, discussing marketing strategies and random things about the album like what color scheme to use and whether or not this song should be before or after this song, and you helped me to the point where that album turned into a piece of us. And now when I listen to it, or even just see it on my wall, I think of you and me and all the passion and dedication it took us. We gave that album everything we had.
I love Perth. It's my home, no matter where I move. During those few days, though, it was our home. When we went for a walk in the park, suddenly it was no longer that park that I once played soccer in, it was that park that you once kissed me in. And when we went to see my own friends, you fit in as though you had been there forever. Because you kind of had. You were always a piece of me, even then.
And then, as quickly as you came, you were gone. But Perth never recovered from that one time Tyler Oakley graced it with his presence. Other people may have forgotten those days and it may just be another diary entry, another letter, but I'll never forget all the love that existed then.
"You're my soulmate," we told each other.
