Sometimes Love Won’t Look The Way You Thought It Would—And That’s What Makes It Better

Every love is extraordinary and deserves to be treated as such, which is why this Valentine’s Day, Thought Catalog is partnering with Papyrus to share stories and products that will make the special people in your life feel just that—special. Celebrate the love in your life this February with a gift from Papyrus.

This is your reminder that love isn’t going to always look the way you think it’s supposed to. Sometimes, it will be the fireworks you were always promised or the fairytales you read as a kid, but other times, you might be surprised to realize how different it feels.

Because sometimes, love is a snowy midnight, when the world has gone quiet. When everything inside you feels so still that you can hear your heartbeat thrumming through every inch of you. It’s the feeling of a heavy coat around your shoulders, protecting you from the sting of frigid air; it’s a sense of peace when everything around you feels too chaotic. Even while you’re shivering, you can’t help but watch the snowflakes fall, mesmerized by the beauty of it all.

Sometimes, love is your favorite stuffed animal—soft, familiar, worn from the years but somehow always just as beautiful as the first day you found it. It is the first thing you reach for when you need comfort, when you had a bad day and know just one hug is enough to make you feel better. You always know, deep down, that you could find a thousand other stuffed animals, but none of them would ever make you feel quite the same.

Sometimes, love is a library book. If you pay close attention, you might be able to find traces of the readers who loved it first—the dog-eared pages, the pencil marks underlining words that were never quite able to be erased—but it’ll only make you appreciate the story more. You may spend hours lost among the pages, wanting nothing more to reread every sentence, always reluctant to have to return to the rest of the world when it’s time to put it down.

Sometimes, love is those first few moments when the airplane takes off—it’s uncertain, and it’s a little uncomfortable, but it’s also full of promise and adventure. Sometimes, you won’t even be sure what direction you’re headed, even when you know where you intend to land. It’s having faith that you’ll get there anyway.

So if love doesn’t look the way you once thought it should, don’t worry—it isn’t supposed to always look the same. It’s not one-size-fit-all. Every love holds its own shape, and you can try to compare it to the others, but it won’t do you any good. Because at the end of the day, there’s only one constant, and it’s this: Love is the person you want to come back to every day. The one who makes you feel the most yourself. The one who doesn’t make you feel like it should be a certain way, because they also realize love might look different with you, but that doesn’t make it less real. It doesn’t make it any less wonderful.

Love is the house you get to decorate together, and no one else gets to tell you what to hang on the walls or where to put your shoes. Because at the end of the day, love is home.

Find the perfect Valentine’s Day card from Papyrus.