Wishes Come True (Even if They Don’t Last Forever)

I’ve been thinking about wishes lately. About the things we long for and how sometimes, in the middle of living them, we forget the most beautiful part: the wish already came true.

I guess this has been on my mind because I’ve decided my time in my flat is ending. Not because anything bad happened. I’m completely in love with this home. I wake up, walk into the living room, and feel this overwhelming warmth and love as I step in.

I’ve laughed here, cried here, fallen apart and healed here. Some of the best times… and some of the worst. This was the space where I poured my heart and soul into, held myself through hard-to-get-out-of-bed mornings, and danced in the kitchen after crying or just out of plain happiness and excitement. It’s not just a flat… It’s a living, breathing memory of who I’ve been and who I became. And even though I still love it, I know: it’s time for a clean slate.

But in making that decision, I remembered something I hadn’t thought about in a while, something I never forgot…

Years ago, when I lived in a tiny flat in Notting Hill, I would often walk by this street. One summer afternoon, I remember I looked up and saw a group of friends drinking wine on the terrace. I remember thinking, I would love to have that. A home here, at the heart of it all, with a terrace, a space to host the people I love.

A year or two later, I moved into a flat on that very street. And even though it didn’t look exactly how I imagined, and the people around me weren’t the ones I thought they’d be back then, I truly got my wish.

Last weekend, sitting on my terrace at 2 a.m. with a few friends, music playing, drinks in hand, I had a moment of looking up to the sky and losing myself in the stars, something I always love to do and something you don’t get to often in London. As I sat there, I suddenly realised once again… Wow, my wish really did come true. This flat. This moment. I had been living it all along. Even though I hadn’t truly forgotten, I think I’d lost sight of it briefly… especially after the year I’ve had.

That’s the thing, isn’t it? We get so focused on what’s next, so consumed by what ends or hurts us, we forget that what we’re living now is something we once wanted with our whole heart.

We forget that even if it doesn’t last, it still came true. And it not lasting does not make it a bad wish or the wrong wish it just means it did its job for being everything we needed at the time.

And then it moves us along to the next… Even if it takes a while.

When I was 12, I visited New York for the first time with my parents and made a wish in the middle of Times Square. I wanted that city to be home someday. At 21, I was living there. And yet, I was so focused on staying, on not failing, that I forgot to notice: I had made it. That the ending or the fact that it ends doesn’t matter. All that matters is I got my wish and that I lived it.

And maybe that’s why I feel peace when I look back on my New York chapter now. It ended, yes, and it was hard. But I got what I asked for. It mattered and it changed me. Plus, it prepared me for what is next.

Even before that, before New York, there was another wish… one I made even younger.

At the age of maybe 11, after watching the film Notting Hill for the first time, I visited London with my family. I remember walking into the bookshop it was based on, and instantly knew I was going to live here one day. And I did. Since moving to London, I haven’t left Notting Hill.

Does that mean I never will? No. Maybe this next chapter, this decision to move, is leading me elsewhere… whether within London or somewhere entirely new. But I’m open to it. Because I’ve learned I can trust the unknown. I can trust that whatever place comes next might be something I wished for once, without even realising it, or maybe it’s a wish that’s already growing inside me now, quietly, as I write this.

And when it happens, I’ll remember it.

Even love followed this pattern.

Two summers ago, I was deep in wedding season… best friends getting married, bachelorette trips, so much joy to celebrate. And while I was so happy and full of love for everyone, I remember saying: I’d love someone to share this with.

That night, I met my ex… the one from The Blindsided Breakup articles, as some of you may know.

It still gives me goosebumps. To add to this, months earlier, when a friend and I were talking about her wedding, I told her, ‘Save me a plus-one.’ I have a feeling that if I have someone special, he’ll be there. And he was. That one wedding. The one I somehow knew.

We didn’t last. He broke my heart… and I broke my own, forgetting myself in the process. But for a while, I had exactly what I wished for. Someone to pour my love into. Someone who was mine. That wish did come true.

And it reminded me of another wish I had for myself.

A deeper wish… one I didn’t even know fully when I’d made. A wish to finally know and love myself fully. To stop abandoning myself for love or for anyone. To figure out what I want while being okay with not having it all figured out.

Even if they are painful, wishes have their reasons for coming true when you need them to.

There was someone I needed to see clearly. I needed to know if he’d changed. And just before I nearly texted something that might have hurt me more, the universe stepped in. I got the clarity I needed without even asking. And while the truth hurt, it freed me. The wish I made to just know… it came true in a heart-saving kind of way.

We believe wishes only count if they last forever or if they bring happiness. But what if some of the wishes’ purpose was to arrive, not to stay? To show us something. To free us from something. To push us towards another thing. To shift us. Most importantly, to prepare us. And maybe to lead us to a blank page, where we can make a new wish.

The everyday small wishes that come true matter too, they matter because they can truly convince us to continue believing in their power.

Like wanting to skip the crowd at a concert and finding a perfect little hill that only a few people were allowed on. Or dreaming of a sushi buffet for my future wedding, and checking into a hotel that had one. Or walking into a shop thinking I hope they have it in my size… and finding the last one left, just for me. Or that one time, they only took cash, and I had just enough to get what I needed.

It’s not about what that minor upgrade in life is. It is the powerful energy of the universe, combined with your wishes and wants, that leads you forward. And when we let go, really let go, knowing we’ll be okay either way… some magic finds its way to you.

Sometimes even for the things you unintentionally wish, only to realise that is what you wanted all along, after you get it. When you trust that things work out precisely as they are meant to, if you just have the patience to let it unfold in due time, whether it’s a day, a month, or a year, the reason is always there.

You just have to let go of the timeline. Of the outcome. Of the idea that a wish only matters if it’s forever.

Some wishes are only here for a reason. Some teach us something. Some prepare us for even bigger dreams. But in the end, they all come true in their own way.

So next time something ends… don’t just grieve the ending. Think back and remember the moment you asked for it. Remember why. Remember the person you were. And smile… because it happened.