1. “I went through a really, really stressful time at work. I was coming home every night just so deflated and exhausted and feeling like I was worthless. And I realized she was always the person I wanted to talk to about it and always the person who made me feel better. I basically just stopped being an idiot and realized I needed her.”

–Geoff, 28

2. “She was the first person who actually called me out on my shit and that’s never happened before. I fell really damn fast.”

–Kurt, 25

3. “I realized every time I needed advice or needed to talk to somebody about something, I was instinctively turning to her and I didn’t wanna lose something like that.”

–Shane, 24

4. “I was getting freaked out about commitment (I hadn’t been in a serious relationship before, just casual things) but every single one of my friends told me I was – and I quote – a ‘complete moron’ if I let her walk away.”

–Clint, 26

5. “I dunno, I just got to this point where I usually had more fun hanging out with her doing nothing than I did going out with my buddies and getting drunk. It’s not that I don’t like hanging out with my friends anymore, but getting blacked out every single night just gets old after a while. I’m a lot happier  having her in my life now to balance things out.”

–Jon, 28

6. “I got tired of Tinder and meeting girls at bars at one in the morning and waking up in the morning feeling guilty and stuff. Guys always talk about how that kind of life is ‘the dream’ but talk to anybody who’s been doing it for a while, and it gets really old and depressing.”

–Kevin, 27

7. “She didn’t give me an ultimatum or anything. Her attitude was more like ‘I wanna be exclusive. You don’t? Cool. I’m not interested then.’ And just her utter sense of confidence and self-assurance was something I was so attracted to and it made me realize I was being super stupid if I wanted to ‘keep my options open’ after I had already found such a great girl.”

–Marcus, 28

8. “She basically made every aspect of my life better and people were actually noticing and commenting on how much happier I was. So I got tired of dancing around the subject and just told her I wanted to be dating her for real.”

–Gary, 24

9. “I fell in love and I’m not an idiot. That’s what.”

–Saul, 29

10. “I kept saying I didn’t want anything serious or exclusive so she said ‘okay’ and then I saw her at a bar with this dude who I knew was super into her and I realized this thing worked both ways. And that I couldn’t expect her not to be with other guys if I wasn’t willing to do the same with girls. Seeing her with him drove me nuts. So we became exclusive.”

–Aaron, 25

11. “We both started it out just wanting something fun and casual and I wasn’t planning on it ever turning serious. But we both started to feel more for each other and she brought it up first, but I freaked out and got weird about it so she walked away. And it made me realize how much I missed her and that I was throwing away something really great.”

–Shaun, 24

12. “She charmed the pants off of every single one of my friends without even trying. And I realized I had so much more fun with her there too than with trying to keep it as this weird thing that she and I had on the side. So I told her I wanted to be with her for real and she felt the same way and we’ve been together for two years now.”

–Gabe, 27

13. “She was the funniest girl I had ever met. At first I thought it was just a bonus thing about this person I was having fun with, but ultimately I never had as much fun around anyone else as I did with her and that’s what made me want to be more.”

–Lance, 23

14. “Her family came into town and she invited me to go out for dinner with them and at first I thought it was weird because we weren’t technically together or whatever but I went anyway. And I had some of the most fun that I had in a long time. They were so welcoming and hilarious and warm and it made me realize like – why wouldn’t I want to be able to experience this stuff with someone?”

–Christian, 25

15. “She got a new job and told me she was moving, and within two seconds of her telling me, my brain just knew I didn’t wanna lose her. So we did long-distance for a year, and now I’m moving to Dallas in a month to be with her.”

–Terry, 28

16. “Her ability to make me smile and cheer me up no matter how much of a crap day I had. I found that with her and didn’t feel like anyone else was worth losing that.”

–Damon, 26