One year. That's all it took to learn what it means to love myself.

I started off the year reeling from a broken heart, and in the end I gained back the parts of myself I lost in the process of giving my everything to someone who didn't deserve it.

Step one was forgiving myself for letting my heart get broken in the first place. Step two was finding all I didn't realize I had even lost.

My poems started flowing again; my words could finally meet paper. I realized forgot how much music meant to me. I began to spend time with myself.

I learned how to make myself happy instead of relying on someone else to do it for me.

Being alone with my thoughts allowed me to build a relationship with myself, something I didn't realize I used to have.

Step three was realizing that this was the time to be selfish. I was single for the first time in two years and it was time to make myself my biggest priority. I think that if I didn't I would have caved in on myself.

In the time I was single, there were days where I felt completely alone. There were days where I just craved to be loved again. There were times where I was tempted to let just anyone "love" me, but I knew better than to accept someone who doesn't value all of me.

I had to wait because there was more about myself that I needed to learn. The puzzle wasn't quite complete yet.

An entire year devoted to just myself taught me the lessons necessary to survive on my own. It showed me that I am all I need, that if I don't love myself I can't love anyone else the way they deserve to be.

I recognized that being with someone doesn't define me, because I am my own definition. I learned how to put all the pieces of myself back together. The next time I love, I won't lose any of myself if it ends.

Now that I am no longer single, I still take the time to check in on myself and make sure not to forget how to make myself happy while someone else makes me just as happy.