My QPR part 2

I’ve been rewatching Twin Peaks (even when it’s floundering for direction in season two, it’s still great) and it got me thinking about high school sweethearts. I tried to think of anyone I dated in high school (there weren’t many) that I could imagine reconnecting with and dating now. And then I realized that I do have a high school sweetheart, someone I never lost touch with but have recently experienced a renewal of our old relationship. Except…it’s not a romantic relationship, and we like it that way.

Margaret and I were in a math class together. I was a senior, she was a junior. We had a great first date and a very sweet romance that didn’t last long because of TEEN DRAMA. A couple of months later we tried dating again. It lasted a weekend. And that’s how we learned that as romantic partners, we don’t work, but as friends, we’re the best. When I went off to college, we started writing letters to each other. I sent her poems and stories I’d written. She sent me pictures of paintings and other art she’d done. Even when I was madly in love with someone, even when I was in an intense long-term romantic relationship with someone, Margaret was the person I knew I could talk to about anything, the person I missed the most when we were apart. At the time, we didn’t have the language or concepts to really express it this way, but she was my first queerplatonic relationship.

We’ve talked about it recently and realized it was there all along. It feels good now to have better ways to express it and explain it than just “men and women can be platonic friends, and we’re the proof of it.” Especially when our platonic has always felt more intense than the usual platonic. Talking that out has brought us closer and we’ve been experiencing something of a “frienaissance.” It’s brought more light and comfort to my life.