Falling in love is one of the most beautiful experiences a human can have. People try to capture love through music, literature, and sappy Instagram posts. Some do not believe love is real, yet wars have been fought over it. One of the most common sayings concerning love is, "you can't love anyone else until you love yourself." In most ways, this is true. How can you know the love you deserve if you don't even love yourself? You must understand how to cherish someone, and that should start with yourself.

However, like everything else, it isn't that simple.

To the girl that loves someone else, but not herself:

I know you think you're different. You don't have to love yourself to know that you would do absolutely anything for your significant other. You don't need to love yourself to understand what "real love" feels like. You don't need to love yourself because they do it for you.

You and I both know that isn't true.

Until you love yourself, you will never be able to love as deeply as you could.

You will still wake up every morning and see all the horrible things about yourself. you will still read their sweet texts or hear their kind words and think, "I don't believe you, but thanks."

Until you love yourself, you won't give your partner the love that they deserve. You can understand that others love you, but you won't let yourself see why they do. You will love them with all that you can, but it won't be as much as you could love them if you loved yourself. You will always feel like you're coming up short... because you will be.

Loving yourself doesn't mean you have to think you are perfect.

Rather, loving yourself means you see why you aren't perfect, and embracing it anyway. You can still have those bad days where you need some help seeing why you are loved, but you should always try and treat yourself the way you deserve to be treated.

So, to the girl that loves someone else, but not herself:

You are different, but that's because you should be. You should wake up every morning and believe your partner's kind words, rather than just hearing them. You should love yourself because you are worthy of it.

You should love yourself because sometimes, you might be the only one who will. While you can love someone else without loving yourself, you deserve to love both. The way you love others is the way you should love yourself because that is what they would all want for you.

From,

A girl that had to learn to love herself, to love someone else.