Do you ever wonder how often you think of the ones you love the most? Certainly, anyone you’re living with—a partner, a child, a parent, a friend—you think of every day, at least once a day, because they’re right in front of you as a reminder.
What about the parent or friend who died months or years ago? The old friends who promised to stay in touch? Or the person you were once romantically involved with, and your relationship dissolved in difficult fashion? Early on, you think of them often, maybe even constantly, and eventually the frequency lessens, and at some point a day passes and you haven’t thought about that person at all. Although you won’t know you haven’t thought of them.
What about the adult child who no longer lives with you? Moved from the family home and forging their own life, of which you’re no longer center? I’d like to believe that both of my adult children enter my mind every day.
With Owen, I’m confident I think of him a number of times a day, even on days we don’t talk or text. I wonder how his day was, did he hear about this news, he got a piece of mail delivered here, what’s the name of that tree, how about that game we’ve got coming up . . . on and on, an on and off flow, thoughts that involve him.
Same thing with Julia. Except in her case, I have documented evidence that I’ve thought of her at least once a day for the past 2500 days, which amounts to approximately 6.849 years.
That’s because we have an honored tradition of sending each other a Snapchat every day. Snapchat is a social media app where users send temporary photos and videos, called “Snaps,” to friends. It’s designed for quick, creative, and fun visual communication.
I don’t know how we got started with Snapchat. I don’t use it with anyone else, only Julia. Ninety percent of the time we send an unfiltered, unadorned self-portrait to each other. Other times we play with goofy filters or turn the lens around to whatever we’re looking at.
The important thing is we think of each other, we find a daily moment of connection. It gives me a boost every time, every day.
Someday our streak will be broken. It happened once before, when we were flying back from California, and the time zone difference messed up our timing. But right now we’re at twenty-five hundred days and counting, and I’m savoring every Snap of it.
