I used to believe that each person had only one soulmate. One person who you were destined to be with and who was the perfect match for you. While I still believe in soulmates, I have since come to realize that believing in them does not have to mean that you are only able to truly love one person. Instead, you can love any number of people in different ways.

To the first person I ever loved,

I met you when I still believed in the concept of having only one soulmate. Though we were young, I did not (and still don't) think much of people who said that those young as us cannot possibly be in love. As human beings, we thrive on the feeling of being loved from the moment we are born to the moment we die. Without being able to feel love, we would not be the passionate beings we are today. When I found you to be slipping just out of my reach I was absolutely terrified. At the time I still thought that I was only destined to have one soul mate, and for a long time I believed that person to be you. Because of this I felt the sinking feeling set in that I would never experience that type of love again in my life, which was a very scary thing to imagine. Looking back now, I know that experience of having a first love will forever hold a special place in my heart, even if I have to keep it boxed up and sealed with a tiny gold ribbon for nobody's eyes but my own. But, having experienced my first love, it will surely not be my last.

To the person who broke my heart,

You taught me that no matter how much I thought I had come to understand how relationships work, you can never truly know what another person is feeling. For a very long time I blamed you for changing your mind about loving me. I felt that my self worth was entirely reliant on whether or not you found me desirable enough to be with. But you did help me to realize that there is no one way to love someone. I began to discover that you can love people in so many different ways, and even love one person in more than one way. I spent a lot of time comparing this love to my first, and wondering if it lived up to how I had felt then. It was only after it came to an end that I determined it was not about which one was better upon comparison, because they were each a love so entirely their own and could not possibly be compared.

To the person I love now,

This one is possibly the toughest to explain, because I know that you still have so much left to teach me. Even in our time that has passed, you have taught me about how I deserve to be loved, but that my self worth also should never be dependent on your love for me (Or anyone else, for that matter). Thanks to you I know that if I ever feel like I am a burden to someone, then they are not the one for me because you are never a burden on those who love you. You have taught me a greater level of compassion, empathy, and kindness than I ever thought anyone could be capable of possessing. Who knows where the future will lead us, but wherever we end up I will always remember how you have showed me what it feels like to be truly cared for and supported. For that, I am forever grateful.

To my future love,

I guess a part of me does still hope that one day I will end up with my true 'soulmate', whatever that comes to mean to me in the future. Maybe you are already a part of my life, or maybe your fate will intertwine with mine somewhere down the line. However our story begins, I hope that it is filled with many different kinds of love. I like to think that the closest I can get to finding my soulmate will feel like a whirlwind romance in even the simplest of situations. It may sound like a fairy tale fantasy to some, but for me feeling that amount of love for another person is the closest thing to a real life fairy tale I can imagine. I hope to experience the kind of love where no two days are the same, because together we make each one feel new and exciting. I hope we can support one another during more difficult times, but also that we can create our happiness when the world is looking a little grayer than we would like. I hope that together we can create a potion made up of different bits of the loves that we have experienced before, mixing it together to create something comfortable and familiar but also entirely new and unique to just us.

With Love,

The girl who loves you in the past, present, and future.