To the girl who gave up on fairy tales,

As a little girl growing up, I think myself and many other girls can agree that when we watched princess movies and observed tails of handsome princes saving girls on fiery steeds we began to shape an idea of what love was based on that narrative. So, as I grew up and had actual interactions with boys, I quickly began to realize that the image of the kind, charming, and devoted prince that I had molded as a kid was just that -- an image and not a reality like I had hoped.

I met my first serious boyfriend at work my senior year. Things went fast and now seem a mere flash in the timeline of my life.

It was an unconventional kind of love, but one that was filled with lots of laughter and happiness. But, then there came a time when the laughter and happiness was replaced with fights and tears. I fought hard though, for I was not one to ever give up on what I thought was good. And for a while, things got better once I went to college. Things were better than they ever had been... until the day he told me that he had cheated on me.

If this were an article on anger, hate, and hurt, I would tell you how my heart broke and how I stayed in bed for days crying when I should have been studying. But this isn’t about that, and I sure won’t let him have the satisfaction of knowing how badly he broke me. Instead, this is about how I lost hope on not only love but in happiness and how I put myself back together.

I scheduled an appointment with a therapist the very next day and surrounded myself with protective barriers so that I would not let myself slip into a depression I was all too familiar with. I went to the gym, I read, and I devoted my life to myself and what made me happy. To write about my climb out of a hole on here is easy, but the actual experience itself was not such an easy feat. And I am writing about it now because I am proud.

I am fortunate because I did not struggle through this alone. I had my mother who had been there for me through so much already, and I also had my best friends. One of whom I had only met at the beginning of college. He was always there for me when I needed it, and before I had broken up with my ex he would always take me somewhere when my ex canceled on me to hang out with his friends (which was often).

I tried to find him a girlfriend because I was convinced he was the best human being to walk the earth and was prime boyfriend material. This led me to setting him up on a number of dates, but for one reason or another they all led to him getting hurt. So, it was him who helped me remind myself of my strength and who held my hand as I rediscovered myself.

In the five months we had known each other, I felt I knew him better than I knew some of my friends who I had known since my childhood. I knew him so well, and he knew me even better. After some time, he showed signs that he liked me more than a friend. And after some time, I began to reciprocate them. And then we started to date.

I remember after my break up, amidst all my hurt and scars, I asked him one day, “do you think I will ever be able to love again?” He told me that I would. Little did I realize that he was right and that he was the one who would be able to break down my walls and open me back up again.

From him, I have realized that if I had given up on love like I wanted to after my breakup, then I would not be how I am now — mentally in the best place of my life.

He holds an umbrella over me in the rain, holds me when I cry, and loves me like no one ever has before. He is the closest I have ever come to believing my childhood dream of princes and fairy tales.

That is why every girl out there who is experiencing any kind of heartbreak or loss of faith in love should never give up because no matter how long it takes, everything happens for a reason, and fairy tales do exist.