When you fall in love for the first time everything is magical. You truly start to share your life with someone on a level you've never done before.
You open up and become vulnerable. You may expose layers of yourself you've never paid much attention to. You see another person in an entirely different light. You get to know a person on such a deep level. Hopefully, over the course of your relationship, you will help each other grow and support one another. Love when done healthily is amazing.
Yet, eventually, that person you got to know will change. You will change. This is natural and it happens over the progression of our lives. This change will either make or break your relationship.
This leaves you with three options.
1. Break it off and try to find love in someone else.
2. Try to make it work with the person you fell in love with once before.
3. Or my personal favorite option, fall in love with the new person your partner has become. Again.
Now the latter two options only really work out if your partner didn't change into an asshole. Which unfortunately can and does happen but it's not common.
The second option, in particular, can lead to some stress in a continued relationship because it can lead to unmet expectations. The person you originally fell in love with won't exist in the upcoming years, it's just human nature. It's unfair to hold them to the same expectations as before because of their differences. This goes two ways as they are expecting the same things from you also would be outrageous. You've both engaged in personal growth and simply become different.
You can't hold onto people's one face forever.
People are a multitude of different facets and are constantly evolving. Expecting someone to stay the same will lead to disappointments.
Yet, when you recognize that your partner has changed, you can fall in love with them for who they are now.
Yes, you will probably fall in love with them for different reasons. But that doesn't mean they love you any less or they don't deserve your love now.
Love is dynamic and constantly evolving just as humans are constantly changing.
It's up to us on whether we live in the romantic past or present.
