I have been through some less than favorable relationships in my life. I have been called names, been belittled, brought up with fake compliments and kindness, and then thrown back down with ugly, hate-filled words and empty promises. I have spent nights crying, wondering what I was doing wrong, what I could do to make things that were being done to me go away. I've had things stolen from me that I will never get back, things that the hands can't touch and the eyes can't see. I have been abused and hurt.

And now I have you.

Thank you.

Thank you for seeing past all of the sarcastic comments I made before I really let you in. Thank you for understanding that I needed time and space to heal from previous relationships. Thank you for being a friend when I needed one, and when the time came, accepting me as your one and only. You have kept me afloat when my boat had 1,000 holes in it, and for this, I will always be grateful.

When I first met you, I didn't think that I could ever see us having a friendship, much less a relationship. I was attracted to you, but at the time, I was with someone else. There was no way I would have ever cheated, no way I even wanted to imagine myself with someone else besides the person I was with back then. It's so crazy to think that I am so in love with you now, and back then, there was never even an idea of us.

You keep me stable. You keep me happy. I will never depend on anyone else for my happiness again, but with you, that isn't even an issue. You don't ever give me a reason to doubt what we have, to doubt your feelings or my own. You are supportive, you are uplifting, you ask me about my day and are genuinely concerned about my health: whether I've had enough to eat, if I slept well, if I've had an anxiety attack during the day.

You love me like my best friend loves me, and that is all I have ever wanted. All I could ever ask for. Some people think that love is romanticizing the horrors of a bad relationship. They think that you have to angrily fight with someone to make your relationship stronger. This isn't true at all and I rue the day I was taught to believe such a thing. Yes, you and I have snapped at each other before, but never out of hatred or true anger. You've never laid a hand on me out of anger, and I've never (and will never) do such a thing to you. I feel that when we disagree, we know how to talk through it like adults, like people who truly value each other and the relationship more than their pride. More than they need to be right.

I catch you looking at me the way I have always, always wanted to be looked at. The way I look at you. I look at you and I see stars. I see my present and my future. I see love. I see a miracle, I see happiness, I see the person from my wildest dreams. Because you are so good to me, because you treat me like a queen, I promise to always be here for you.

I promise to hold you when you've had a horrible day, as you have done for me. I promise never to make you feel bad for your feelings or things that you come up short in. I promise to always make sure you've had enough to eat, enough time to sleep, that you are always secure in your health and mental state. I promise to stand up for you when you are not around to do it for yourself. I promise to tell you every day that I love you, that you are special to me, that you are loved by many more than just me. I promise to always treat you like the gift that you are.

Because maybe, you haven't experienced the pain and the hurt that I have, two things inflicted by a monster of a person...but I don't ever want you to experience these things.

I want you to always have a beautiful idea of love in your mind, I want you to understand what it feels like to be loved, always, by me.

Thank you for showing me what it feels like to find true love.