In The Time Traveler’s Wife, the future husband of the female protagonist jumps through time and visits her throughout her life, from childhood and on. When she finally meets him as a young man in linear time, she’s happy to finally meet him so she can be with him, but she also recognizes he’s not the man he will be yet. He’s not the man who will one day be the great love of her lifetime. As she perceives him, he’s more rough around the edges. He’s more selfish. He’s not yet him. And then she has to wait while he becomes him.
A lot of times, people will ask psychics about who will come into their lives romantically, and the psychic will say that it will be someone they don’t know; someone new. It is because the energy will appear new. But I also happen to know that when people change enough, they will appear “new” to the person reading, therefore, it’s not necessarily a completely new person, but possibly someone they already know who has journeyed into the next level of their existence as to appear to be a new person when perceived from a fix point in time and space, looking forward. Sometimes people find the right person before they’re the right person. But the thing is, it doesn’t change the fact that in this moment, they are not the right person.
To find the right person at the right time and place so they are exactly the right person. It’s a difficult task. Most people give up and settle. But if you are successful in finding this, I imagine, it makes a lifetime of guessing suddenly make sense.