"I love those moments! I like to wave at them as they pass by!"

Hither (my bestie) and I were talking the other day... she'd just watched "My Best Friend's Wedding" (one of her all-time favorite movies), which is one of the few movies, let alone chick flicks, that ends realistically. The girl doesn't always get the guy, and vice versa, and many times it's because of the missed moments and opportunities that slip past us. Unaware at the time, these life-changing moments haunt us later on, regrets eating away, "what if's" plaguing our thoughts, keeping us awake at night.



It's these moments, though, that make us who we are, and are responsible for our current whereabouts in life. They're not always about relationships, either. They can be work-related, or family, or anything, really. Maybe you didn't win the lottery because you didn't play. One example:

BOY and GIRL are lying side-by-side on her bed, in the dark, fully clothed, on top of the covers. They are barely touching.

BOY
What are you thinking about?

GIRL (what she wants to say)
You.

GIRL (what she does say)
I've been awake for 21 hours.

LATER, after an impromptu back massage

GIRL
You owe me.

BOY
What do you want?

GIRL (what she wants to say)
For you to kiss me.

GIRL (what she does say)
I'll have to get back to you.

Missed moments. The night ended, the couple's shyness winning out over their desires.

But missed moments can work the other way around, when you take advantage of that moment, and later wish you hadn't. If I'd never told a lost friend I loved him, would we still be friends?

It's a difficult thing, living in the moment, and deciding which ones are supposed to be missed, and which ones you're supposed to take that risk. But no matter what, it'll alter you in a way you won't even realize until much later. Julia Roberts had the precise moment to declare her feelings, but let it pass her by, knowingly or not. And it opened up a new chapter of her life, with an ending of new beginnings.