It's happened to all of us at one time or another: falling for someone who won't end up loving us back. I mean, usually it's just a celebrity that we'll never meet – I'm still holding out hope, Paul Rudd! But sometimes it's the boy next door or the bad boy who dad won't approve of. And we sit in our rooms with ice cream and Netflix and Adele's 21 album on repeat and have a good cry and slowly we start to forget the bastard ever existed. Then we move on to the next schmuck and buy more ice cream (just in case).

Obviously, this has happened to me and quite recently. I met and fell in love with a person who I thought hung the moon and the sun and Saturn's rings.

And I'm not one to tell anyone of my feelings. I keep it all bottled up inside and then one day, I'll die. But this was different: He had to know – and he had to know right then. So, I called him up and said, "Hey, I think I'm in love with you."

Silence.

"Oh, boy."

And he told me he didn't feel the same way. I wasn't expecting him to confess his love for me that night. In a way, I didn't really want him to. I just wanted to be in love and be in pain and eat my comfort food and never see him again.

I was clearly upset. He was one of my very best friends and I knew I had ruined one of the only good things in my life. Not only would I be rejected romantically, but in my friendship with him. I was about to lose him forever.

But it didn't happen that way. We're still good friends and we still talk. I'm slowly letting go of my feelings and moving on with my life. Ben and Jerry have become two of my best friends and I watch Love, Actually at least twice a week, but I am recovering. I will learn to love again.

What he taught me through this is something for which I can't thank him enough. I learned that it's okay to be vulnerable. The people who truly care about you will allow you to be and not judge you. And they'll hold you when you cry and not judge you for crying over them. What I also learned is that you have to be open and honest with your feelings, even when it hurts you and may hurt someone else. Your feelings are your feelings. They are valid and need to be expressed.

Mostly I saw in myself the power to start again. I got knocked down. Hard. And the landing was not soft. But with the help of a few friends and the wisdom of Dr. Frasier Crane, I picked myself up and I'm learning to walk again.

So, this Thanksgiving I'm thankful for unrequited love. I'm thankful because he did love me; he loved me enough not to love me back.