What The Best Loves Are Like

The best love is the kind that sneaks up behind you and pushes you forward, strengthens you, makes you become the best version of yourself you’ve ever been. It creeps into your life, slowly consuming you, like spilled ink across an empty page. You notice it in little ways at first, like how you always want to talk to him, no matter how busy you are. Or how you can’t wait for your friends to meet him.

You share your first kiss, then many more kisses after that, laying on a blanket, entwined in each other’s arms, staring at the stars, thinking to yourself that this is what you’ve wanted. As you’re staring at the dots of brightness which appear like candles in the sky, you don’t feel small. The sky used to seem of the biggest magnitude, something that was all encompassing, scary, even. But now it just seems full of possibilities.

You notice it when you realize you have an entire folder on your laptop full of poems about him. And that every character you write in your stories seems to have a faint glimmer of him. You feel your connection like a shiver throughout your body when you share with him things you’ve never ventured to tell anyone, when you reveal your nightmares, fears, and weaknesses. He becomes like a dream catcher, catching all of the bad things in your life, and helping you to embrace the good things when you forget they exist.

You love him more and more, but you don’t think of it as “falling for him.” You think it’s more like you were just a tiny, insignificant pond, and since you’ve been with him, he’s made you feel more like an ocean. You notice that despite the 12 hour difference in location, you feel closer to him than anyone in your town. But more than that, the distance is worth it for that first moment when you run to him and he covers your face with kisses after three months of being apart.

It’s more than the way he always wants to hold your hand, opens doors, and always offers to pay for dates even when you’ve promised that this one’s on you. You’ve shown him every side of you, the good, bad, beautiful, crazed, and ugly. You’ve been insecure, clingy, emotional, and stressed beyond measure. But through it all, he has been there to comfort you and pull you back to yourself.

You realize you’ve imagined a future with him. In fact, he’s become a part of the plans you’ve always had. He promises to get you out of Michigan and move south like you’ve always dreamed. He promises you many years of happiness and always taking your needs and wants into consideration. And for the first time, you believe it.

So even though he hates Starbucks and you’ll never fully understand his obsession with Batman, you love him so much that nothing else matters. Because love has brought you to where you are today and will continue to guide you down the path you are slowly treading with him.