You don't know much about my past, but I promise you, the day will come when I tell you (almost) everything. When I do, please don't run. We promised each other no running, remember?

Now, you need to know the past that you know so little about is quite tumultuous. I've been hurt more times than any good girl like me should. I have spent far too much time trying to piece myself back together, and just when I began to put my all into my future, into all the success I wanted to see on my own, you came along and made me start to think that maybe I won't have to be alone after all.

There's so much value to be seen in sharing the same goals and dreams. I didn't realize just how important that was until I talked to you while resting in your arms and being happier than I had been in a very long time. In those moments, as we spoke, I realized that this was the change I needed.

I needed to be close to someone and have a split-second thought of our successes pulling us in different directions versus my successes pulling me away from you as you stood still.

I needed to be close to someone who had seen me at my absolute worst, and most embarrassing, and still chose to take a chance on me.

I needed to be close to someone who fit seamlessly into the new, better life I have built for myself.

I needed to be close to someone who understood my drive. Someone who could make sense of just how much I will always want more for myself because I know I'm capable of more.

You can understand my surprise when, suddenly, there you were, making me feel a surge of happiness, joy, excitement, and contentment that I hadn't felt in what seemed like forever.

"Not to be 'That Girl'," I told you that night, at the ready to start my spiel about how I don't fall easily, about how I am the most complicated of all the complicated messes.

"You aren't being 'That Girl'," you replied before I could speak.

I think it was then that I made the choice to let myself be okay with this, to allow myself to fall, however deeply, or not fall at all, for the first time in a long time.

If there was a word for this, I would say that it's freedom.

I was so numb for such a long time, accustomed to being hurt, not believing that anything good would stay. But it only takes one person, one smile, one kiss, and one night to change all of that.

So here's to you, the boy who proved my once-numb heart oh-so wrong, the boy who makes me laugh and kisses my forehead, the boy who would willingly listen to my dreams, and the boy that brings out a side of me that I don't recognize yet, but I have grown to adore.

Thank you, from the girl who promises not to run, as long as you don't.