The Secret No One Tells You About Love

You know what nobody ever tells you about love? The big dark secret no one ever talks about? Love doesn’t have to be romantic. The love you share with family and friends is far greater than anything that boy with the blue eyes or that girl with the beautiful smile could ever give you. You don’t need another ‘half’ to be whole, you already have every piece you could ever need of yourself within you, and you have the support and loved ones around you needed to nurture this.

They’ll stand by you regardless of how many boys and girls may break your heart, over and over again, shattering it to a million pieces. They’re the ones who’ll help pick you up, restart your life anew and without those. They’re the ones who’ll make you realise you are worth loving, even if they themselves may only show it through platonic love. They will teach you to love again and show you how much more there is to life than whichever asshole broke your heart.

They will bring out the best in you, show to the world just how beautiful and intelligent and incredible you are.

This is the kind of love nobody talks about, the kind of love we far too often take for granted and the type of love that is so much more painful when it ends.

It’s the type of love there are no songs about, no movies or novels. It’s mentioned, or at least alluded to, but nobody focuses on it. For some reason we raise our kids to believe that romantic love is the only type that exists, the only type we should care about or think about. We forget the parents, the siblings, the relatives, the friends who surround us, who stand by us regardless of how many times we’re knocked to the ground. Lovers may come and go but your family, your friends, those who truly love you are the ones who’ll stick it out for the long run.

So don’t spend your life looking for that one person, the one who’ll make you feel dizzy and set off butterflies in your stomach and whose eyes will make you feel like you’re drowning, only in the best way possible. Chances are, you’re more than likely to meet them someday, but why waste away your life searching for them, or, perhaps just as bad, waiting for them to ride in on a white horse, cloaked in shining silver armour.

Get over the fairytale, baby girl, there isn’t just one love of your life.

There’s at least twenty and not all of them will be knights in armour, some will be friends others parents and siblings. Focus on the love you have, not the love you’re raised to want. And that is the secret nobody tells you.