Updated by: June 4, 2026

Birds

Experiences & Activities

My daughter has a best friend. The real kind.

Her best friend is moving to Singapore.

She doesn’t fully understand yet. She knows her friend is going somewhere far away. She knows things will be different. She doesn’t know the word for what she’s feeling, but I do.

I’ve been feeling it too.

My wife left France for Australia years ago. She doesn’t talk about it much but I see it. At Christmas, on her Mum’s birthday, in the small moments when she goes quiet. She carries France with her every day. That’s the price of a life lived across two places.

I want to move to Singapore. And then I think about my parents. My friends. The people I would be leaving behind. And something in me hesitates.

There is a concept in physics called quantum entanglement. Two particles, once connected, remain connected regardless of the distance between them. You can separate them by the width of the universe and they still move together. Scientists call it spooky action at a distance.

My favorite band is Imagine Dragons. My favorite song is Birds. The lyric that stays with me is: “everything is temporary, everything will slide, but love will never die.”

When it is time to leave the nest, you have to let people go. You have to trust that the connection survives the distance. That the particle on the other side of the world still moves when you move.

Birds fly in different directions.

Paul Mercuri
Wake Up Here Founder

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