I believe in soul mates. Honestly, I believe that there is someone out there for each of us who we are destined to be with, someone designed for us.

A soul mate may not be a lover, it could be a friend- it doesn’t matter who they are or how you meet. That isn’t the point, the point is that sometimes you meet someone and your soul connects with their soul and you have found your soul mate.

There’s been several studies into soul mates and if they exist or not. If it’s possible or if it’s all in our heads. They look into the difference between destiny beliefs and growth beliefs. The difference being that destiny means you are designed for one person whereas growth beliefs means that you will meet someone and they will grow to be your person. Ultimately though, it’s not something science can prove, it’s something you know.

In my mind, the idea and belief of soul mates stems from the thought that we’re all made of the same stuff, star stuff, as some call it. And our soul mates have the remnants of the same star in their soul as we do in ours. With that belief in mind, we all have one ultimate soul mate, the person who is destined to be in our lives forever.

The belief that they will be in our lives forever would be ideal, but it’s not always realistic. Sometimes we meet our soul mates and things don’t work out the way we expected. We’re too young, too old, too brash, too timid, what have you.

On top of soul mates, I also believe we have kindred spirits with people. A kindred spirit is someone who connects with you, they’re not your soul mate though. In other words, a kindred spirit may be a friend or a companion but a soul mate could be your best friend.

So how do you separate between a kindred spirit and a soul mate? Sometimes it’s easy and sometimes it’s not.

Because we connect with our kindred spirits so well, it’s easy to mistake them for a soul mate. If they come around at the right time, especially when we need someone in our lives, a kindred spirit may seem like the one. They get you, they connect with you but they maybe don’t understand you fully. This is where it gets complicated, and you begin to doubt if this person is a kindred spirit or a soul mate.

Ultimately, your soul will know, you will know. You will know your soul mate, even if you don’t recognize them as such right away there will be something about them and about you, that draws you both to each other. There will be signs and idiosyncrasies and it will make sense. It is your souls aligning and connecting with each other after all this time apart.

I believe in soul mates, and maybe you don’t, but deep down I think we can all acknowledge when you meet the person who’s destined to be a character and not a chapter, in your story and you in theirs you’ll know you’ve met your match.