Unlike most, I measure my life in periods: periods of euphoria, periods of grief, periods where I'm lost in the same monotonous consistency of the same routine day after day. Every period - every chapter of my life - is separated by moments. They start with a moment, and end with another. Moments of great significance that drop into my life, like a stone in a lake, creating a ripple effect that eventually change my entire being. Sometimes, I don't recognize the start of a movement. They catch me off guard, slither into my body and latch onto my bones. I don't even realize the change in my thoughts until the moment consumes me. That's when I snap out of my routine. The ripples force me to change my ways. They alter my reality like a drug.

The moment that marked the pivotal turning point of my life creeped upon me quietly like mist seeping into a forest.

It was a quiet day at the University of Portland. I was working at the Grind in Monument Square when I heard their shouts. I sauntered over to the window that overlooks the statue of Monument Square, where the noise seemed to have originated.

That's when it all started: the moment I looked out the window and saw her for the first time. That's when the seed planted itself in my body, waiting to flourish like flower buds when the season starts to teeter between winter and spring. I was blissfully unaware of the force growing inside me - the force that will eventually overtake my senses and be responsible for the change that will mark the beginning of the most important chapter of my life.

She couldn't have been more than twenty meters away from where I was standing, running circles around the statue with her friend, jumping up to high five its weather-worn, stone-cold hand, completely oblivious of the strange boy watching her with curiosity from the window.

My lips slowly curled up in an unexpected grin. Something about her careless composure stirred something deep within me. I didn't think much of it at first, but the rumbling in my chest grew, like a great beast awoken from a deep slumber after lying dormant for a long, long time.

She came back almost every day. Every time, I would watch from the window. Tendrils of sunlight bounced off of her hair, illuminating subtle blonde tones that set her hair ablaze with a thousand different hues. She tossed her head back every time she laughed, her wavy hair cascading down her back like water tumbling over a cliff into the river below.

It was beautiful.

She was radiating with life in a city that has long been sucked dry of its vigor; a city full of people who are merely existing, rather than living. Before I knew it, I was sucked into her world. I found myself drawn to her like polar opposites of a magnet. I have to know who she is.

Finally, I had the good sense to write her a note.

"Hi (:
- Alex"

I've seen her rummaging around the statue's empty fist a couple of times, probably looking for hidden trinkets left by other students. I hid my note there, hoping she will find it and, I don't know, introduce herself. We will start chatting like old acquaintances, wasting away the day talking about anything and everything.

And I will get to hear her laugh all the time.

Maybe.

Hopefully.

She never found my note.

In fact, she never came back to Monument Square again.

Some nights, when I'm lying in bed, my thoughts would wander as if they had legs of their own. Time and time again, they would drag my memory of her out from the depth of my mind, and I always found myself desperately wanting to rewind the clocks to watch her do her little dance around the statue. She moved with the same grace and sense of liberty as a bird taking flight.

One day, she really did grow wings. They carried her out of my life and left me here alone to wonder about her: that girl with wavy brown hair, not much younger than I am, born in a dormant city, but more awake than anyone I've ever seen.

Wherever her wings have taken her, I will find her again.

I have no idea if I'm going to continue this story...I probably will, just because I love this book so much (mostly because my name is also Lena).

For the time being, criticise, give me your input, comment, etc.

Thanks for reading this; I hope you liked it (: