"And suddenly you know -- it's time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings." Meister Eckhart

A year of time really changes things; it puts things into perspective. A year gives you enough time to cope with the way things are now and allows you to let go of how things used to be. A year is the perfect amount of time to start anew and truly find yourself. And well, that's exactly what it did for me.

I'm sure we've all been there -- heartbreak. Heartbreak so brutal that it feels you'll never be the same again. Even though life and theory tell us that things will bounce back and what is broken now will one day be fixed, for that moment in time, brokenness is all we feel. It's natural, human nature really. But, what's not natural is to remain in that same mindset for too long.

Like I said, it took me a year to realize that that once gut-wrenching heartbreak that sent tears streaming down my face like rivers was exactly what I needed in my life.

I was engaged to my boyfriend of four years at the time of my breakup and trust me, I thought my entire life was over. I felt like everything that I had planned for was now for nothing. But in that year after we broke-up, I noticed something important. Obvious, but important. I learned that ...

My life wasn't over. It was just beginning.

After my breakup I honestly had to find myself again. I was that girl who had spent so much time focusing on her boyfriend that she lost sight of who she was. I didn't know what I really wanted to do with my life or even what direction to take a step towards. It was like learning to walk again -- balancing one foot in front of the other, struggling a lot and falling even more -- but eventually, I got it right.

I started with working out with my friends. I began going out even when I really didn't want to be around anyone. I spent my birthday with the people who meant the most to me. I put makeup on and loved what I saw in the mirror. I took on tasks that I once thought I could never accomplish. I began running and loving what I saw in the mirror. I began laughing without fear that someone might tell me to be quiet. I stopped thinking about how to impress boys and started preparing myself to be the best woman I could be for the man of my dreams. Instead of falling in love with someone else the first chance I got, I ended up falling in love with myself first.

The truth of the matter is, this journey to loving myself was hard. A full year of questioning my self-worth and thinking that my situation just wasn't fair. I struggled with trying to figure out what the next move should be because, for the first time in four years, I had only myself to think about. But, what I found was that with one relationship ending, another one was just beginning. I had the opportunity to really love myself and better yet, I had the opportunity to fall in love with me.

So, no my love story didn't have a typical "happily ever after" but, I rewrote love for myself and that's a much better story anyway. The best part is, I'm still writing it.