First of all, I would like to thank you for putting up with me and my constant need for you to reaffirm that you actually like me as much as I like you. Second of all, I would like to congratulate myself for putting up with someone as easygoing and carefree as you, because as a perfectionist and a worrier, your way of life kills me.

I didn’t expect to fall for a guy like you, one that is so carefree yet so conscious of the people around him. I’m very used to being the observant one and the one who’s always right, but you came into my life and completely changed that. I was used to being in control and making all the decisions, so I feel like life sent you to me and laughed in my face when I started to fall for you.

You’ve made me abandon all my rules on love and dating. I went from feeling like I knew everything about relationships to being humbled by a boy who doesn’t put up with my need to play by a nonexistent rulebook. I believed there was a method and system for everything but you prefer to just wing everything and go with the flow; you believe life will work itself out and we should just “see where things go.”

You taught me that people love differently. You’ve forced me to accept that people will not voice their feelings for you over and over and will not reaffirm their love for you every hour of the day. I’ve learned that you can love someone but you don’t have to spend hours on end trying to prove that to them. And although it is sometimes hard to accept, it makes me appreciate the smaller things even more. I don’t want someone who constantly fawns over me, I want someone who makes me trust in our relationship enough to not need the affirmation every night.

You’ve reminded me that there is a life outside of my relationship with you. You push me to hang out with all my friends and to go out with the girls, and you let me know when you need time with the boys. Before I can get unreasonably upset, you laugh and remind me that you’re not going anywhere and we’ll see each other later that night. I laugh and remind myself that I need time away from you because you drive me absolutely crazy.

You taught me about things foreign to me. You’ve tried so hard to explain sports to me -- I never knew there were so many technicalities in football. You’ve attempted to explain calculus and physics to me and lost me within the first 10 seconds. You taught me that people change, sometimes for the better, but sometimes not. You’ve taught me that life gets tough sometimes, and people struggle sometimes, but there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel. You taught me that it’s OK to not always be OK, but the best people will stay even during the bad days. You’ve taught me that it’s OK to put all your trust in another person and that being vulnerable isn’t a weakness but a strength. You taught me that the past is meant to stay in the past and that it doesn’t ever define someone.

Most importantly, you taught me that everyone is different. Every boy is different, every relationship is different and every love is different. And as much as I love routine and rules, I am so grateful for how different you are.