I was talking to a friend recently about what’s the point of being with someone if there’s not an end goal in sight. We talked for about 30 minutes on the subject with me coming to this conclusion; no matter the end destination the journey, if you allow, can be worth all the lessons you’ll learn.

It’s probably not a coincidence that I recently read “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho and the overall message of the book was about finding your treasure through your own journey, ups and downs.

The idea of journey and treasure in the book forced me to think of those same ideas in real life. When do we know when we have finally found our treasure? Not all but most people would consider that treasure being a specific career, lifestyle or person.

The first two seem easy to identify. You dreamed of that job your whole life now you got it. You wanted to live healthier than ever before, now you’re exercising more and eating bettter, but the last treasure, the treasure you find in people isn’t so simple.

We normally don’t call finding the right person in our life a treasure, probably use words such as soulmates. What exactly is a soulmate though, what if our soulmate is a person we never get to spend the rest of our lives with? What if the idea of a soulmate is nothing like what we’ve considered before.

A soulmate in my mind has always been related to a romantic partner. Finding the right or perfect match as a soulmate is why we go through all the hiccups that comes along with dating and romance.

Well I was wrong and quite wrong at that. I’ve come to the conclusion that this isn’t the case and probably never was. Your soulmate doesn’t or rather shouldn’t be limited to those you deem romantically compatible. Finding a soulmate is much simpler, it’s finding the person who completes your existence.

So why does that person have to be the love of your life? Are our perceptions of self only validated when confirmed by a romantic partner? What if our soulmate was the lady you met on the train who talked to you for 30 minutes but felt like two hours because not only did she understand you completely in that moment she had all the right things to say. What if our soulmate was our best friend, knowing when and what to say so nothing ever seemed to big of a burden to handle.

I’m still not too sure whether soulmates actually do or don’t exist. If they do though, I hope we’re open to those souls. In whatever form they present themselves to us.