The backdrop for this photo is hundreds of tiny paper cranes that my sweet boyfriend made for me.
If any of you have followed me on Flickr for a few years, you'll probably remember me obsessing over someone I referred to as "Rubick's Cube Boy". I don't write about him online much anymore because I've become a bit more private as the years have passed. This, however personal, was worth sharing.

We've known each other since we were 12. It seems like forever. I feel that the distance has a lot to do with that "forever" feeling. We've been in a long distance relationship for a year and a half. It's been a struggle. When 500 miles are between you and someone, you start to realize all the little things you miss out on. Things as simple as going on a movie date or falling asleep watching TV are out of reach.
The romantic idea of long-distance wears off and everything stagnates. I have to admit that I get frustrated and irrationally take it out on him sometimes. The distance is unfair and it's difficult to wake up every day unhappy. I'm lucky he is so forgiving with me when I take my frustration and sadness out on him.
That being said, small gestures mean a lot when you have so little. For Christmas of 2015, he gifted me a small box of tiny paper cranes in every color of the rainbow. He told me he would make me a thousand in total. And last December, a year after the first small box of cranes, he gifted me the rest of the one thousand. In total, he made over a thousand as he lost count and just continued making them. I strung them up and they hang in my room now.

Every morning when I wake up, I see the rows of colorful cranes hanging from my closet door. When I doubt our relationship because of the distance, when I'm feeling frustrated with our situation, or even when I'm just feeling insecure about myself or my work, I take a moment to admire the cranes. I think of the work he put into them all for me. I think of how he had to fold each one individually and how he was determined to finish a thousand. The love he poured into those cranes is what reminds me that the distance is temporary. It reminds me that you need bad times to appreciate the good, which are on their way. It reminds me that I am so lucky to be loved so much, and it's that love that keeps me going, even on my worst days. It's the cranes that help me recognize the blessings in my life, and I am forever thankful for the biggest one I have right now- the sweet "Rubick's Cube Boy" who, even from 500 miles away, turns my world upside down with his kindess.

I'm sharing this now because things are hard at the moment. I'm feeling stressed, and sad, and strained, and most days I don't want to get out of bed. I have a tendency to isolate myself and sort of hibernate in these times which only makes things worse. But looking at the cranes today, I was reminded that in the year he was working on folding them all, he surely had days like these. So, even though it was difficult, I got up and got motivated because of these cranes. And I thought I should include them in a photo because of this.