After becoming numbed by my hopeless romantic nature for the past 10 years of my teenage life, it has become most soothing to act as if the romantic gestures I began to receive were but a figment of my imagination. Everything just becomes easier that way. Love: some may find it easily, in the blink of an eye, and for others it may take their entire life to find the love they are after. For those hopeless romantics, waiting or not, once you begin to make sense of your next or current relationship (due to lack of interest in wishing for fantasies to come true or your partner finally fulfilling everything on your imagined list of romantic, "perfect partner" material), it becomes hard to learn what feelings are right.

Continuously out of your comfort zone. In the event that your newfound love knocks all of your imaginary gestures off your list in the first month, you won't know what to make of it all. You first begin to fill with overwhelming gratitude because you feel that your future should only get better from here. But as times goes by you begin to understand that the hopeless romantic character you play has stopped adding to the list of outrageous expectations because they have already been fulfilled. After a time of continuous surprises, love notes and more, it begins to become familiar and anticipated as you've learned when it's coming. Although this brings a sense of comfort to your life, it can also open room for the most uncomfortable times when the level of intimacy in the relationship raises.

All of your fantasies come to life. From the flowers every time your previous ones die, the late night Ben&Jerry ice cream pickups, to the good-night and good-morning texts, and the long hugs goodbye -- everything that was once all in your head or on paper has now come to life. There remains little room for your once ever growing list to keep growing.

You stop fantasizing about romantic gestures. Because all of the romantic gestures you have ever wanted have been done, maybe even twice, your fantasies begin to subside, and the once hopeless you has become hopeful and expectant. They become less of a romantic gestures and more of an expectation of maintaining a "good relationship" when in fact the gestures are still true and present, but the feelings have since become a submissive expression that you feel is needed to express.

You start expecting them to happen. When you were a hopeless romantic, you didn't expect all of these emotion-filled gestures because you knew your thoughts were irrational to have. But now that you have found someone who meets all of your dreams and they always go the extra mile for your face to light up and you to be surprised, it changes you. After day in and out of lighting up because they have dinner waiting you begin to stop appreciating them for continuously recreating your imaginations.

Your reactions grow poor. As you stop appreciating and start expecting the more and more actions or reactions, the less grand your reactions will become when it's time for you to express the emotion they long for at the end of each gesture they do for you.

You are always hopeful. When being a hopeless romantic in recovery, this can act as a good or bad situation. Some may never grasp that the continued gestures they receive are a sign of everlasting love. Or they may learn to realize that because they do not cling to a list of improvements, gestures and others of the sort, they are now able to just enjoy the relationship as a whole and they learn to not let their expectations get in the way.