We can all sit here and say that we’ve experienced true love before. But what do we really have to compare it to? Love’s not always what you see in a fairytale or a storybook. Love is one of the biggest challenges in life and a challenge not everyone is willing to accept.

Two years ago if you asked me I would have answered, that I have never experienced or even seen true love before. What I do know is that love is hard work and people work all their lives to try and find it. Without love, what do we really have to wake up to everyday? We as human beings need love to survive. But what can I compare this connection to? My divorced parents, my family’s disapproval, or the fact that I never learned to truly loved myself. I have never seen love first hand. Until I met him.

I fell in love with the way he made me feel about myself. He made me realize that it’s okay not to be perfect all the time. People are always going to have something to say about you, and that’s when you need to learn to love yourself.

I fell in love with how he accepted every flaw I had and still made me feel like the most beautiful girl in the world. I don’t find myself or anything about me to be beautiful. I’ve had so many people, all my life, tell me how ugly I am inside and out. But not him, he was honest when needed but at the end of the day he never failed to make sure I knew how beautiful I was INSIDE AND OUT. Those words are what I held onto during some of the hardest times in my life. Knowing that he thought I was beautiful, was enough to get me through my hardest stories.

I fell in love with his comfort. When you’re having a bad day you want to run to the one thing that means the most to you. To me, it was him. It was always him. When I was having a bad day I ran to him to fix my broken smile. When someone made me feel like I wasn’t good enough, he was the first person to replace the negatives with positives. When I was sick, he was there. When I needed a hug, he was there. He was always right there.

I fell in love with everything about him. His flaws weren’t flaws to me. The way people looked at him, wasn’t how I looked at him. He was my best friend. I never thought I would be able to love anyone after all the hurt I’ve seen in my life, but he made it possible. He always made the impossible, possible with me. So all I have let to say to him is thank you. Thank you for loving me even when I didn’t love myself. Thank you for being my “him.”