People often say that to be loved is to be seen. I would add that to be loved is to be seen, known, and considered. This kind of love does not belong only to romantic relationships; it exists just as deeply in friendship. I got to experience this type of love a couple of months ago.
Last December, my friends and I went to look at Christmas lights around TCU. As we walked through the neighborhoods, the conversation somehow turned into a joke about what we would do if we got arrested. They all concluded they would use my name and information, which annoyed me at first. But as the jokes continued, I realized something unexpected.
They began mentioning details I had told them weeks ago, recalling that my sister had moved and my brother was in basic training in South Carolina. They aren’t Formula 1 fans, yet they remembered the names of my favorite drivers. They even tried to say them, getting some wrong but trying anyway. And in that moment, something shifted for me.
When I came home that night, I reflected on everything. I realized I felt more seen and known by them than I had in months. The quiet loneliness I had been carrying in our friendship seemed to dissolve. They had been listening. They had been remembering. They had been considering me.
A couple of weeks later, one of my friends texted me to say she had seen that Lando Norris had won the F1 Drivers’ Championship. The first person she thought of was me. That small act filled me with an overwhelming sense of joy. It reminded me that to be considered, to be carried in someone’s mind, even when you are not there, is one of the purest forms of love.
As we celebrate this season of love, I want to remind you that love is already around you. It is more than romance. It is found in the people who listen, who remember, and who consider you every day of the year.