When I first met you, you meant the world to me. You were a shining star at which I had used to guide me through life. You held my hand and we wandered through the world together in this blissful state of bliss. Promises of I love you's and forever rang through my head at the same velocity of the butterflies that whirled around my stomach and chest.

The shapes you traced on my wrist and palm of my hand seemed to be maps to places I haven't gone and places you promised to take me. Songs were written on post-it notes and stories swapped in journals that I will never get back. But I can write more stories, tell more tales, and blaze trails on my own instead of following the path we once walked together.

Your promises of I love you’s and forever are meaningless to me now and just seem like words that were tossed in my direction to keep me held down like chains that I have now broken free from, they no longer cause butterflies to flutter or fireworks to go off in my head because we are not a Nicholas Sparks book.

I will not wait for you.

I am not a second choice, or a runner up.

I am a champion and if you can’t see that then it’s your loss, I refuse to be seen as the girl who waits for a boy who will only ever see her as an option and not a priority.

I am no longer on the sidelines cheering you on because you see I have entered my own race and I don’t need you to cheer me on because you never did and I don’t need you to start now.

This is not "The Notebook." I am not Rachel McAdams standing outside in the pouring rain, and you are not Ryan Gosling writing me letters everyday for a year. I have learned to love myself as a whole because you only loving part of me wasn't enough.