What Makes a Soulmate?

If there is such a thing as a soulmate, I believe it must be something like this.

The birthday coincidence

My husband and I were born on the same day. And when I tell you the same day I mean it! December 13th, 1991. At the same maternity. With about two hours’ difference.

We shared the maternity in our first hours living in this world, but even though we spent our whole lives in the same city, we only met again 26 years later.

New beginning

It was October 2018, and after big changes in my life, I was starting a new job. 2018 was the year I got divorced and decided to shut my Digital Marketing Agency.

I was tired and desperate for a new beginning. I needed some comfort, I needed to meet new people, I was excited about going to work every day in a big office, with lots of folks, and most importantly, side by side with one of my best friends in life.

I could imagine that all this would represent a huge new beginning for me, but even on top of my creativity, I could never imagine that life would bring me such a surprise as was to get to know Fabio.

First — or actually second — encounter

I started working in the same company as Fabio, but by that time he was traveling for work and spending the whole week far from the office, so we didn’t meet right away.

When he came back to the office, soon he caught my attention. In a way I couldn’t explain by the time, and I can’t explain now. What I can tell you is that I felt an instant attraction to him, followed by a crazy curiosity about this guy who made such an impact on me with almost no personal interaction.

The first time we spoke was during a photo shooting that was happening in the company. As I worked with marketing and the photos would be used on the company’s website, I was around to have a look at the material. I have a shit memory, but I can remember exactly what I was wearing that day, cause Fabio started a quick conversation with me about my outfit.

I was wearing simple denim pants with a white and gray stripes blouse, but the main piece of the outfit was a light peach cape blazer. Fabio passed through me when I was going down the stairs and said something like:

“You look like a superhero, with your cape”.

I joked about it a little bit but headed to my desk to get some work done.

A spark at the touch

After that, we had some more quick chats around the office, but only got the chance to have a proper conversation some weeks later, during a happy hour with some other folks from the office, it was late November.

At some point in the night, I manage to change seats to be side by side with Fabio, because I was curious, I was attracted to him, and I wanted to know more about him. We started to talk about lots of things, and after some time he asked me about my tattoos. I had five by that time, and I explained to him about the meaning of two of them, in my arms. After that I bent down a little to show him one tattoo I have on my leg, talking about that one too.

He bent down a little with me and touched my tattoo with the outside of his fingers, in a very smooth way. I know it will seem like a romance book cliché, but I really felt like a jolt of electricity running through us with that touch. I knew by that moment that there was something special about that guy, I just didn’t have a clue about what it would be, yet.

The coincidence revealed

After that little interaction of ours, I was already sold. I was interested in knowing Fabio better and was decided to let him know that.

So, with my birthday getting closer, I decided to organize some celebration. The only problem was that December 13 would be a Thursday, and the next day would happen the company’s holiday party. I put some thought into this subject and decided to call my friends and coworkers to an after-party on Friday, with the objective to celebrate my 27th birthday.

Of course, I invited Fabio for the celebration, and our conversation happened something like this:

“Fabio, I will be celebrating my birthday with an after-party on December 14th, would you like to come?”

“Oh, were you born December 14th? That’s nice”

“No, actually I was born December 13th, but I decided to celebrate the day after”.

“Really? I was also born on December 13th, what a coincidence! But I will not be able to attend the after-party, I already have plans.”

“Oh, so nice that we were born on the same day! How old are you?”

He got this amusing look on his face when he replied:

“Hmmm, this is a little too personal of a question, but I will tell you this: I was born on a Friday the 13th.”

He was laughing a little when I replied:

“So does I!”

“I was born in 1991”. he told me.

“And also I!”

That was my response, and after that, we stayed silent for some seconds. At that point, all I could think was how crazy was that. All the curiosity, the attraction I felt for this guy, and now I discover that we were born on the same day. What such a coincidence like that could possibly mean?

“Let’s celebrate together”. He told me. “We are going to the pub on the 13th, come join us!”

And of course, I would go.

Until the day of our little celebration we discovered that even though our city got four different hospitals, we were born at the same maternity.

Our birthday

I never liked my birthday very much. Being born in December has its challenges. It’s hard to put some folks together to celebrate because the holidays are close and at the end of the year people got all types of parties and reunions.

But in 2018 all this started to change. Partially because I was getting older and wiser, learning to value the love of the people who really matter to me. But also, because I got such a perfect and special day!

My teammates were the best, they decorate my desk and made me feel appreciated. The day was busy and at lunchtime, I headed to my parents’ home to have a family meal. Fabio and I had just a small chat at the office, and he got me some chocolate for a present. I loved his sweet gesture, and I was excited about our celebration night.

After work, I went to the pub with a teammate that was also friends with Fabio, and there we met some other friends from work and life.

It was such a nice night. Full of people having fun and celebrating us. But the best part of this was the fact that we started our story as a couple at that moment.

On our day, 27 years after sharing the maternity, we started dating. We started a story that got us to live together, to travel together, to commit ourselves in marriage, and after some time, to start a new life abroad, always together.

Far beyond the coincidence

We believe that we are soulmates, but not just because of our amazing birth coincidence. It’s really nice to have this in common, we love to celebrate our birthday together and to know that our love story started mostly because we felt like it was supposed to be! It felt like fate.

But that was just the beginning. Just a short first chapter of our lives together. What makes us feel deep inside that we are living the best version of our lives, together, is the other discoveries that we learn about each other with time. The fact that we share the same dreams, we are pursuing the same lifestyle, we have the same goals in life.

We are more when we are together. We became our better selves. And far beyond any coincidence, it’s deep love, respect, partnership, and friendship that makes a couple feel like soulmates.