One Direction’s Liam Payne is in love and expecting a child with his girlfriend, Cheryl. They seem pretty smitten with one another. It’s cute. I’m happy for them. Here’s another fun fact: Cheryl is 10 years older than him. It’s not an outrageous age difference. It actually seems pretty normal in the celeb world. Cheryl and Liam actually met nearly a decade ago under circumstances that would have never hinted at their current relationship. And seeing them meet for the first time has me rethinking my entire life.
Think I'm being dramatic? Perhaps. But check out the video for yourself and then we can talk about this.
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The baby-faced Liam was 14-years-old when he auditioned for X-Factor. Cheryl, one of the judges alongside Simon Cowell, was 24 and married. That flirty wink thing he did felt like a performance stunt that he would never try on the local girls. Cheryl seemed completely uninterested in anything other than Liam’s vocal ability, which is good because you know, he was a teenager. I don’t get creepy vibes from this video at all.
What freaks me out is all of the existential questions that a scene like this raises. The fact that neither of them could have possibly known that 8 years later they would be a couple, let alone have a baby is honestly mind-blowing. What if my soulmate is applying for college and creating a vision board for her prom right now? What if I’m destined to marry the manager of the department store I worked at in high school? I thought I hated him!
Passing moments like the one Cheryl and Liam shared in 2008 are a reminder that we literally never know where our lives are going to take us. We like to feel like we’re in total control, but we’re not and it’s super trippy.
Now if you don’t mind, I’m making of list of everyone I’ve ever met to figure out which one of them I could 'ship with. I think I’ll start with the baristas.
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