Yes, I do believe in great loves. I don’t however have unrealistic expectations of love. I’m not waiting for a love that makes me feel like I am floating on a cloud. I don’t expect to find someone that will stay forever or keep all their promises. Yet, I do believe in great loves because I’ve had one.

I had that type of love that consumes you whole. The type of love you didn’t know could exist in this world. The type of love that starts like a wildfire and then turns so hot it becomes silent, comfortable through time. The type of love that is written about in books and songs. It was the type of love that taught more than ever thought possible, and return a million times as much as you give.

It’s the type of “love of my life”.

I believe it works in such way that if you are lucky you’ll meet the love of your life. You’ll be with them, learn with them, give your all to them and allow that they influence you in certain ways that change you forever. It’s an experience like no other.

But here’s the thing they don’t talk about in fairytales; sometimes you find the love of your life but they don’t stay in our lives. We don’t marry them, spend year after year with them or hold their hands in their deathbeds. We don’t always end up with the love of our lives because in the real world love doesn’t conquer all. Love doesn’t solve the differences in opinions, win over illnesses, or save us from ourselves when we are lost. We don’t always end up with the love of our lives because sometimes love is not the only thing that exists for us. Sometimes you want to live in a tropical place, be successful in your career and have at max one kid and they want to live in a colder place and have three kids and just do what they love. Sometimes one of you has a whole world to explore and they have already done that and just want the safety of their home. Sometimes your dreams are much bigger than theirs.

Sometimes, the biggest act of love you can perform is letting them go. Other times it’s not your choice.

Here’s another thing that fairytales don’t teach you about love; just because you don’t live happily ever after with them you shouldn’t think it has any less meaning. There are certain people that will be able to love you more in a year than other would in 50 years. There are certain people that will teach you more in a day than others will in a lifetime. Certain people enter our lives for just a short period of time but cause such an impact that no one else is able to match or substitute.

Who are we to call these people anything but “the love of our life”?

Maybe we should simply be grateful for meeting these people. For being able to love them. For being able to learn from them. For our lives having expanded and blossomed as a result of meeting them.

Finding and leaving the love of your life doesn’t have to be the tragedy of your life. Leaving them might even be a blessing sometimes. After all some people don’t even get the chance to meet the love of their lives.