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What I’d Say to My Future Partner, if I Knew Who He Was

Sending my undeliverable love letter

Janna Barrett
Beloved
Published in
14 min readFeb 6, 2023

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Hand lettering by Janna Barrett

I don’t believe there’s one person out there, designed just for me. Rather than subscribing to the notions of fate or destiny, I believe in preparedness and recognizing opportunity. So when it comes to partnership, I don’t consider myself a hopeless romantic. I’m a realistic one.

I believe in varying levels of compatibility across multiple realms — intellectual, emotional, physical; values, aspirations, lifestyle, etc. There’s definitely an elusive sweet spot in the romantic Venn diagram, but anyone with a considerable degree of overlap is a good match.

Finding someone with whom most, or all, the components overlap, though? That’s what I’d call a great match.

It seems akin to finding a needle in a haystack—but that’s part of what makes it so special. I’m fortunate in having found it before, and in getting to savor it for a while. I will find it again someday.

My certainty of this future relationship should not be conflated with credulity. It’s an eventuality. As long as I keep dating, I’ll find someone I’m both attracted to and deeply compatible with—and who feels the same way about me. Someday, we’ll mutually agree that we don’t want to be…

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Beloved
Beloved

Published in Beloved

Welcome to Beloved, a publication where love matters. We stand for LGBTQ+ rights and strive to explore the depths of human relations. Our mission is to foster a diverse, fair-minded, and kind-hearted community for restless souls seeking wisdom, inspiration, and understanding.

Janna Barrett
Janna Barrett

Written by Janna Barrett

Hi! I'm an Artist and Flight Attendant based in DC. I write and draw about travel, music, and emotional experiences.

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