This Is The Part When I Finally Let You Go

I always thought you were “the one that got away.” People used to tell me that your first real heartbreak is the one you never get over: I believed them.

No matter who I dated, you were always there, constantly in the back of my mind. No one could compare to you or at least compare to this perfect image I had painted of you in my head. I couldn’t date anyone without holding back my heart because my heart still belonged to you.

I honestly thought you would be my shadow for the rest of my life, following me into every day and every relationship I found myself in. I thought I was doomed to compare every person to you. I was misled into thinking what we had could even be called love; I thought I needed you.

But all of that changed when I finally met love and welcomed Him with open arms. When He spoiled me with kindness and affection; He treated me gently and with grace; He opened my eyes to a whole different reality. He wiped you from my heart slowly, memory by memory. Every day with Him wiped away yet another one of your freckles until I couldn’t even remember why I fell in love with you in the first place.

So here I sit writing this tale for any brokenhearted girl or guy who is under the firm belief that they will carry this shadow with them into every relationship that comes next: you are wrong.

The right person will come along and wipe the slate clean with every passing day. You will be set free of your shadow one day because the truth is that love really does overcome it all. And “Perfect Love casts out all fear.”

And to the one I once called love, I rarely think of you anymore. I can’t remember the sound of your voice or the color of your eyes; you’re a faded memory behind a locked which He holds the key. 

This is the part when I finally let you go.