Most would think that being overly caring is one of the main things that constitutes someone as an amazing person, and who doesn’t want to be an amazing person? Caring too much does not only place someone in the great person file, but the file of people who get hurt easily, the file of people who are taken advantage of, and the file of people who put out way more than they will ever get back in return.

No, overly caring people do not surround themselves with selfish a**holes, but they do tend to expect more out of people than what they are capable of. For example, a person who cares too much will expect someone they just met to want to take them out on a date or buy them coffee, when in reality, this won’t happen. A person who cares too much will develop deep feelings for someone, before they actually know them that well because they are hopeful that this person will think they are wonderful and want to like them, too.

Those of us who care too much are almost always fairly emotional. Seeing as the adjective caring is an emotion, it makes sense as to why we are emotional (according to the definition, we just can’t help it). Those of us who care too much simply want to be cared about back. We want someone to smile back at us when we smile at them. We want everyone else to understand why we’re so bothered by the homeless man standing on the side of the road begging for money. We want everyone else to care as much about equal rights and racism as we do. We just want people to care as much as we do.

Caring too much is exhausting. Someone gives you a dirty look and your day is nearly ruined. A person doesn’t remember your name and you’re practically in tears. The person you’re crushing on posts a Snapchat Story but doesn’t text you back and you find yourself in bed with a box of Oreos for eight hours. You want to not care as much, but no matter how hard you try, you can’t stop. When you try to stop, you’re mean and lonely and don’t feel like yourself. You beg yourself not to care as much because caring as much as you do only seem to hurt you in the long run, but to you, caring too much is better than not caring at all. At the end of the day, the person you liked may have stopped talking to you, but at least you were your caring self in the process, right? Honestly, caring too much seems to do more harm than good.

That is until you find someone who cares about you more than you could ever imagine. This person could be your cat, your best friend, your lover or your sibling. You still won’t stop caring too much about anything and everything else, but you’ll know that there is always a light at the end of this tunnel. You care for a reason and that reason is greater than you could ever imagine. So, you live your life each day with a full heart and a hopeful mindset, praying that one day you will meet someone who cares about you as much as you care about anything and everything else. And in the end when you find said person, it will be all worth it.