Everyone has friends they hang out with and family they visit, but does everyone have a Person they tell everything to, free of feeling judged? A Person they can tell their deepest, darkest secrets to and still feel loved by?

I believe everyone should have one.

Your Person can be a family member, a best friend, a mentor from school, or your romantic partner, but everyone needs one.

Why?

Because, as human beings, we feel the need to be understood. We crave acceptance, unconditional love, and seek to share ourselves with others, but the world is scary and cold (just look at the news, I guarantee there's more bad than good in the headlines), so we can't share our full selves with everyone. That's stupid and dangerous, and we'll absolutely get hurt.

We're only human, so of course we'll do that anyway. We'll open our souls to anyone we think may be good to us, but we need someone to always be there at the end of the day to tend to our wounds. Whoever you go to for that is your Person.

You don't really "find" your Person, either. It happens over time. One day you'll wake up and text someone about how annoyed you are that you can never remember your nightmares, but are certain they're the same thing over and over again, and they'll respond with their bizarre dream about a giant rubber ducky threatening them with a spoon, and you'll know they're your Person.

While your Person is important because they make you feel wanted and safe, they're super important in times of trouble. They're the one who knows how to comfort you, even if that means you ranting and crying to them about the same thing they've heard a dozen times before.

Then they'll tell you to get some sleep because it's late and a school night and you both have to wake up at an inhumane time because high school. They'll make sure you're eating, drinking and taking care of yourself, and they'll make stupid jokes at you because you'll laugh anyway and it'll make the world seem less horrible.

They take care of you in your worst of times, and you take care of them during theirs.

Your Person can also change as you go through life. That's totally normal and should be expected. We change and grow, and our Person changes and grows.

For example, my first Person was the best friend I made in fifth grade.

I've cried to her more times than I've cried to my parents, and she was always brutally honest about the stupid boys I would get heartbroken over. She's in a totally different state now, and we're lucky if we get to have a full conversation once a week because college keeps us busy, but she's still my best friend. She's just too far (and way too busy) to be my Person because I'm too needy and clingy for that to work.

My current Person is my boyfriend, who actually gave me the idea to write this article when I was laying on the couch with him because of how exhausted this week has me (and it's only Monday!). He keeps my anger issues in check and reminds me that feeling emotions, while oftentimes unpleasant, is good. He also makes it easier to feed myself because he doesn't eat unless I cook, and I don't eat unless I cook for him. We both suck at food like that.

TL;DR: find you a Person that will be there at your lowest and raise you above your highest (and that you will happily do the same for).