I Always Thought That Love Would Mean Losing My Independence, Until I Met You

I was supposed to be alone right now.

I am young and full of life, ready to embrace my future as it comes. I am surrounded by friends, new and old, supported by a network of intimacy developed by my emotional identity. This is the definition of “young, independent woman” and I had intended on expanding to assume each hidden corner of this independent lifestyle, ready to cope with its hardships and celebrate its victories.

But then I met you.

Dare I call you perfect, but you blur the line dividing the practical and poetic. The longer I’ve gotten to know you, the more unexpected each serendipitous moment of comfortable coexistence. Call it “waiting for the other shoe to drop,” but I feel fraudulent enjoying paradise with you when I didn’t believe it could exist.

It’s more than the honey exterior that disarms me when I look at you. If I were to peel back each layer of your identity, that same sweetness that draws me in would escape from every aspect of your being. Your kindness rings genuine, your perspective demonstrates goodness that I may only strive to achieve. You manage to uncomplicate the ideas that make my head spin. I have never experienced a person in such equilibrium. Simply feeling your thoughts spill around me sends me into a calm state of my own, recognizing the possibility that my own errant musings may fall into coherent organization.

Above all, I am struck most by what formidable benefits I attribute to your added presence, and the absence of sacrifice expected in reaping these benefits. Though young, I am motivated. My dreams are on the horizon and my efforts to achieve them are in constant transaction.

Your eager ambition and dedication to success mirrors my drive in a way that supports my efforts, fans my flame.

Shared strides in this direction don’t result in compromises, but shared successes. It is true liberation to feel unhindered by my connection with you, completely myself yet cohesive with my complement.

Love is both delicate and powerful; if a love is like a fire, it will burn out like a flame. My fortune in love is when my desire to be with someone can peacefully and passionately coexist with my personal ambitions.

You illustrate this balance in a way I’ve never realized, painting me as a person of two functional dimensions, rather than two separate entities pulling tensions.

Though only for the moment, I am living the best of both worlds. I experience equilibrium with you, and it’s a fortunate love that I dare to enjoy as it lasts.