Yesterday I wanted to surprise my girlfriend with a handwritten note using romantic quotes. Couldn’t remember any good ones though, so started digging around. First grabbed my phone and typed “love quotes” into the search bar. Got flooded with cheesy stuff from random sites. Seriously, most were like “roses are red” level bad.
Checked Instagram next since she’s always tagging me in relationship memes. Scrolled through #LoveQuotes for 20 minutes. Found three decent ones but nothing felt personal enough. Plus all the perfect-looking couples in the posts made me feel weird about my messy handwriting on scrap paper.
Goldmine in Old Stuff
Then I remembered the shoebox under my bed full of her old notes. Dumped everything out on the carpet – birthday cards, movie tickets, even her grocery lists. Bingo! Found one where she’d scribbled “thanks for fixing my laptop charger ♡”. That became my opening line. Realized our own memories beat generic internet quotes anytime.
- Dusty paperbacks: Found my grandma’s poetry book with underlined sections
- Text message archive: Scrolled to our first year dating texts
- Playlists: Lyrics from songs we slow-danced to at weddings
Ended up combining her grocery-list “thank you” with a Dylan Thomas line grandma loved. Wrote it on the back of a ramen coupon since I’d wasted so much time searching that I missed the stationery store closing.
Why Bother Hunting?
She cried reading it at breakfast. Not pretty crying either – full ugly-sobbed into her oatmeal. Later texted me that no fancy gifts topped finding our inside jokes mixed with her childhood book memories. Made me realize searching for quotes ain’t about perfection. It’s about digging through your own junk to find what already matters.
Still keeping that ramen coupon note on our fridge. Whenever I see it now, reminds me that last Tuesday’s leftovers scribbles beat Shakespeare when they’re real. Probably gonna raid my mom’s attic next weekend for more old love letters – just have to dodge the spiderwebs.
