Life after Love
Before I say what I'm about to say, please refrain from telling me that I can't possibly have loved before or that 19 year olds shouldn't be using that word. I love my mom, I love my friends, and I have loved a guy before. It's not uncommon. Also, at the end of this post is a really sweet and inexpensive gift for any loved one.
This is not the story of what happened to me after losing a boyfriend or being dumped...that is for another day LOL.
Life after love comes with a lot of ups and downs. Life hits you with unexpected positives AND negatives every day, especially in relationships. For the sake of this post, life in your relationships will be compared to a rollercoaster (duh).
When a rollercoaster starts, it's going very slow and it's not as terrifying and turbulent. In relationships, this is called the 'honeymoon phase." The honeymoon phase consists of back to back "I love you" "I love you too" "I love you more" texts. The honeymoon phase is all good.
The rest of the rollercoaster is just a series of ups, downs, upside downs, screams, and sometimes a lot of profanity.
Although you are worried about your own life and you tend to only focus on not throwing up on a rollercoaster, a relationship requires selflessness and you have to care for the person next to you. You have to understand the other person's fears, what excites them, and what sends them over the edge. Rollercoasters are temporary, thank God. Relationships, however, are not meant to be temporary. They are meant to build a lifelong bond between you and your person. That can't be done if you don't keep their needs in mind. I mean, if you're going to throw up, then yeah, making them breakfast in bed can wait, but it's not always about you.
I hate rollercoasters with a passion, but love, in my opinion, is worthwhile. It is beautiful when it is genuine, unconditional, and everlasting. Even if the rollercoaster ends a little early because someone couldn't handle it, it still teaches us about ourselves and others, and there is a lot to learn from them.
Life after Love is not life after relationships but it is the lessons and the memories that come during the relationship. You are not in a relationship to be in love. You are in a relationship to build with your best friend, both separately and as a unit. you make each other realize the better versions of yourselves. The love between you is just a bonus. Life after love is not bitter. It is nonexistent. Once you have loved before, that feeling doesn't die. You may not "love" one person anymore, but you never stop loving. And that is why love is the only rollercoaster that I don't mind being a passenger of, no matter how scary and nerve racking.
As we get closer to Valentine's Day, make a vow to yourself and to the people you love that you will never cease to love them. This goes for relationships, family, friends, pets,yourself, etc. Because undying love is the best kind of love.
So now for the really sweet and inexpensive Valentine's Day gift I promised you:
Buy this book and fill in the blanks for each sentence. It's super cute and I did it one year (I wrote it for a friend because I still believed boys were aliens) and I might do it again this year for a roommate.