Tender Ballads 05: To A Brokenhearted Friend

This somber post is dedicated to someone I've known for many, many years, who, despite our longterm acquaintance, I'm still only just getting to know well. This friend has spent the past few years looking for that missing something, and eventually realized it was really a missing someone they were seeking out. After a number of encounters, they finally met someone who excited them, a person with passion that matched their own and a certain spark that they had never witnessed in anyone else. Alas, the timing wasn't meant to be, and nothing came of their friendship. Undeterred, my ever-hopeful friend waited and waited, holding on to the distant possibility of anything happening between them. Falling into a dangerous trap, they fervently pursued a friendship with their emotionally-unavailable crush, tricking their otherwise highly pragmatic heart and mind into believing in a potential reciprocation. After months of genuine bonding and countless mixed signals, they went out on a limb, but found that their feelings were in fact not mutual. The perfect world they had pictured as just out of reach was no more. Devastated, both by the rejection and the cruel irony of the situation, my friend isn't the same person anymore. They may never recapture the bright, idealistic flame of that first real sentiment, and the pain of that first true disappointment may never fully leave. With every day comes a new beginning, though, and I sincerely hope my friend can have the perspective and strength to recover from the unenviable trajectory of their recent past.

Now that I've been enough of a downer to last at least a few days, here are some tender ballads to soundtrack some personal reflection time, which we all know we need every now and then.

Coldplay, "Fix You" [YSI] (from the album X&Y)
The Fugees, "Killing Me Softly" [YSI] (from the album The Score)
Jewel, "Foolish Games" (Single Version) [YSI] (original version on the album Pieces of You)
Sia, "Breathe Me" [YSI] (from the album Colour The Small One)

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