My girlfriend - she’s gorgeous. She’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever known. I love the way her hair looks when she wakes up, I am in love with a particular freckle she has on her nose, I love her heart-shaped birthmark that she sometimes think looks like an orange slice, and I love how I could go on about her forever. I’ve never been more in love with a person, and that is a really scary thing, knowing somebody has your heart. However, you cannot be afraid in a relationship. It’s okay if you get worried sometimes, and it’s okay to question certain aspects of things, but if you are afraid to love, you will miss out on some of the most important experiences of your life.

Let me get it out of the way and say that it’s hard to not be scared, especially when you’ve been hurt before. I know, it’s difficult out there and one person can really ruin your view of relationships and people, potentially forever. How can you learn to love again? How can you learn to trust again? My best answer for you, is to simply let go. You may have loved that person with everything you had, and they may have destroyed you, broken you down, and taken parts of you with them, or so you think. However, it is so important for you to remember you are still very much your own person. You have carried yourself this far and you will continue your life without them. You have done more than you even realize and you need to really congratulate yourself for it. Whatever may have happened in the past is exactly that, in the past. That doesn’t make it hurt any less, but you cannot change what happened and you cannot forget where you come from. It is best to forgive them and truly mean it within yourself to feel at peace with the situation. It’s much easier said than done. The past cannot be altered and you should only move forward and realize not everybody is another bad experience waiting to happen. As a matter of fact, there are thousands of others that have been hurt just as you have, who would never wish it on anybody else.

To find love is a tricky thing. It’s very elusive and many people feel it doesn’t actually exist. I’m here to tell you that’s not true. I know love exists for sure. I see it every time I look into my lover’s eyes, I feel it every time I’m embraced by her in an attempt to steal my warmth, and I hear it every time she sleepily says she loves me too. Love is a pretty undeniable feeling and a lot of people unfortunately haven’t truly experienced it. People like to brush love off when they’ve been hurt, when things didn’t go as planned or when they’re just scorned. It’s a good way to hide from the situation and cope, which I understand because I’ve definitely been in that position. Yet, there comes a time when you will accidentally fall in love all over again. You’ll say it’s not love for the fear of getting hurt another time, which only ends up hurting you more. This creates a barrier which prevents you from being close to someone, and overall, you will miss out on things if you don’t open up. It can be hard, but the risk can really be worth the reward. I promise that if you know you’re strong enough to handle the outcome of the situation, you can love more fully and be more loved in return. You cannot be afraid, or you might miss out on something great.

Opening up can be one of the hardest things for a person to do, but I am so glad that I have. I found somebody who supports me, makes me laugh and

smile like nobody else does, encourages me to be the best person I can be and helps me feel more self-assured every day. There is nobody like her, and I honestly believe that I am the luckiest man alive. I really think that’s something that everybody deserves. Please, just don’t be afraid to love, because you never know when it will find you. Love found me in a 1970 Volkswagen Beetle, dressed in black, shying away a smile that could kill, with a heart that felt like warm sun on my face and a soul that I’m sure every poet throughout history has tried to capture on paper. You cannot be afraid to let others in, because you may miss out on the greatest thing that could’ve ever happened to you.