I've had my heart broken more times I can count.

With every heartbreak, I learn more and more about myself and what I want out of life and relationships. Yeah, these heartbreaks are no walk in the park. Many times they've sent me into the corner of my bed, curled up in my blanket at all hours of the day and night wondering what I did to deserve such a pain. True heartbreak is something I wouldn't wish upon anyone, but I do feel sorry for anyone who has made it through college without getting their heart broken.

You learn the most about yourself in your darkest moments. College is a time of self-discovery, after all, and self-discovery isn't an easy process. If you go through your four years of college either avoiding relationships completely or in a relationship that keeps you on cloud nine 24/7, you aren't truly experiencing love. You don't know what it's like to not feel like you're good enough for the person you want to be with. You don't understand the true pain of giving someone your all only for them to choose someone else. And if you don't experience this during college, life is going to hit you like a brick once you graduate.

You're still growing in college. Once you've entered the world with your degree and your first "real" job, you're going to think you know it all. You'll think every guy you encounter will be so much more mature, since they're graduated too, but that's far from the case. If you go in with that mindset, you'll be destroyed for the first time and you won't know what to do. It's hard to balance your first heartbreak with a 9-to-5 and studio apartment rent due on Friday.

College heartbreaks teach you how love really is. They teach you that love is not always a happy pop song with a year or so of dating then a ring by spring. These college boys are tough, man, and they'll leave you hanging high and dry even when you think you're exactly what they wanted. But these are the lessons you truly needed. Now that you've had your heart broken, you will enter your more mature adult relationships with the mindset that you need. You'll understand all that love requires. You won't be as naive. You'll remember that you're not promised forever with anyone, and with that in the back of your mind, you'll approach any new relationships, much, much better.

If you've never had your heart broken in college, proceed with caution. Love isn't always a walk in the park.