The One That Got Away: Katy Perry

In another life

I would make you stay

So I don't have to say you were

The one that got away

What a sad lyric, full of deep meaning for someone who has gone through this kind of heartbreak. When I saw the lyrics, I suddenly thought of my friend’s love story.

My friend was never the girl who dreamed of weddings or white dresses. She was firm with her decision. Always said “I’m not getting married.” Her heart was guarded, her principles unshakable. Until someone unexpected changed all of that.

It started so casually via online game, a Facebook friend request, and mutual connections. She was more friendly with the younger brother. But it was the older one who unknowingly captured her heart. Now I know people fall in love in mysterious way and sometimes not with somebody that we close.

“Someone said you had your tattoo removed.

Saw you downtown singing the blues.”

He wasn't flashy. He wasn’t trying. But he was kind. And real. They started talking on the phone. His words felt like medicine. Every sentence he said comforted her in ways no one ever had. It was like he knew the exact things she had been longing to hear.

“Talk about our future like we had a clue.

Never planned that one day, I'd be losing you.”

She, the girl who had sworn off love, started to believe again. She imagined a future for the first time. But just when her heart started to hope, everything changed. He had someone else. He left, but he didn’t fully go. He came back not with commitment, but with confusion. Acting like he wanted to make peace. To be friends again. But how do you go back to normal when your heart has been rewired?

Now, she finds herself stuck, emotionally attached, unable to move on, unable to open up to anyone else. Because she said she only loved once.

“In another life, I would be your girl.

We'd keep all our promises, be us against the world…”

That lyric is her story. Because this wasn’t just a crush. He was the one who changed her belief system. The one who made her want what she never wanted before.

“In another life, I would make you stay.

So I don’t have to say you were the one that got away.”

And now she left holding onto a love that never had its chance, haunted by "what ifs" and “maybes” that will never be answered and he already married to someone else. Some people come into our lives not to stay, but to awaken something within us. And when they leave, they take a part of us with them. He was the one that got away not her.