I am someone who loves, love. When I see young couples walking and holding hands it makes me smile. When I see cute old couples eating together, I tear up. I jump up and down when people ask me for relationship advice. Everything about the whole idea of love, I love. Love to me is like the absolute best thing that this world has to offer.
However, oftentimes I feel as though I get caught up only in the love that comes from being in a relationship with someone. As my friends and family could tell you, I am very pro-relationship. I love everything about relationships and more importantly, I love being in them. Through these past years, I have been in and out of various relationships. The problem I started to realize with myself, was not with the relationships I was in, but rather it was that I was starting to focus my self-worth on whether I was in a relationship or not. When I was in a relationship, I was on the top of the world and thought I was worth a million bucks. When I was not in a relationship, I felt as though I was unloved or needed to seek belonging by entering a new relationship. In the end, I realized that I was never going to be fulfilled if this was the way I was living my life. I learned that love and self-worth do not simply come from being in a relationship and getting reassurance from a guy. Instead, I found true, unconditional love from the people who surrounded me every day.
Over this past year, I have been completely overwhelmed by the love and affection I have received from the girls who surround me in my sorority. At my weakest moments, there was always a shoulder to cry on. When I needed to talk, someone was always ready to go get Taco Mama with me or sit in my room for hours on end. When I was overwhelmed by my commitments, there were girls willing to drop whatever they were doing to help me out. When I was sick, there were multiple girls dropping off little goodies or letters for me. When I was going through a break-up, there were girls writing me encouraging notes or bringing me my favorite Ben & Jerry’s. I could not believe what I had been overlooking this whole time. Had I really had all this community of support this whole time? When I had time to truly focus on the girls who were in my life and who loved me unconditionally, I realized how blessed I was. These ladies helped show me that I was worth so much more than I had ever imagined. They brought out the best sides of me and helped me realize my own potential. They taught me more about myself than I had learned in my past 20 years of living. I found a never-ending supply of love that had been there this whole time.
