Lauren Jarvis-Gibson

Falling in love can be scary for anyone, especially falling in love for the first time. But when you have anxiety, the fears can grow. The uneasiness can take over. And your worries can sometimes overpower the feeling of love.

“I would’ve told my younger self to say ‘I love you’ more to everyone you care about. You never know when they will leave.”

You enjoy hanging out with your close friends and people that you love, but there is nothing like a quiet Friday evening spent doing your favorite things with nowhere to go and with no one to see.

Make mistakes. And then learn from them instead of beating yourself up about it.

If you ever get the chance to find a soulmate out there somewhere, treasure it. Treasure them. Love them and let them love you back. But don’t let yourself grow bitter if it ends. Don’t let yourself give up on bigger loves or better loves.

Being lost, is in fact, a privilege. Being lost gives you endless opportunities to find what you are looking for. Being lost gives you endless sights to see and endless jobs to take. And being lost gives you the ultimate freedom to discover yourself.

If you feel like this someone isn’t right for you, you can’t stay out of guilt. You can’t stay for their sake. No matter how much it hurts you, you need to do the right thing for yourself, even if it breaks another person’s heart.

When I say ‘I love you’, it means that I trust you with my whole soul. It means that you being happy, makes me happy. And it means that I would never ever want to do anything to hurt you. So, when I say, ‘I love you’, please do not take it lightly.

You deserve a man who you see a future with, and who sees you walking down the aisle towards him. You deserve a forever man. A man who won’t ever leave no matter how hard the wind blows and no matter how big the storm can get.

Trust me when I say, you do not need a boy to make your smile grow bigger. You do not a boy to make your heart happier. You do not a boy in December when the cold comes in. And you don’t need a boy to heal your broken parts. You just need you.

The truth is, I’m not really happy for you. I’m not over the moon you fell in love with a girl and see a future with her now. I’m not happy. Even though that’s what I told you.

The loss is just too heavy. Because in losing your significant other and in losing your partner, you also lost your best friend. And that kind of loss is just too painful for one human being to endure.

The truth is, if they truly loved you, their eyes would be set on you, not on anything else. So, don’t run after them. Don’t try to catch them. Because the one who got away is someone who doesn’t want to be caught.

To the people who have seen me try to forget my worries with too much wine or too many kisses that didn’t mean a thing, thank you for telling me to stop. And thank you for loving me anyway.

Feel everything. Remember everything. This is the only way you are going to heal. This is the only way you are going to get past this dark cloud. This is the only way you will eventually reach the light.

You do your best to post smiling and cute pictures on your social media channels and you do whatever it takes to not have to be asked, ‘are you depressed?’

Don’t fall victim to this idea of getting closure. It’s not going to help you. It’s not going to make anything easier. It’s not going to make the hurt go away. That’s for you to do.

When you are with your significant other, and when you talk about them, your eyes should light up when you mention their name. You should be feeling like the luckiest person in the world that you found one another.