If there is anything I have learned from meeting someone you love, it is that love becomes a choice. You voluntarily choose them every second, every hour of the day.

Fairytales and storybooks have got it all wrong. We are often taught that love is a feeling, but feelings are fleeting and unreliable. Feelings are not a true source of support for you or your partner. A relationship cannot be defined by something as unpredictable as your feelings or your emotions in the moment.

Therefore, love is a choice and I am choosing to be with you. I am choosing to love you despite how afraid my heart is. I am choosing to let you in regardless of what my past has taught me. I am choosing to place my heart in your hands and hoping you will not break it. I am choosing to trust that you will remain loyal and that you will not intentionally hurt me. No matter what skeletons are in your closet — worst fears, insecurities, or doubts — I am still going to choose you. I am choosing to choose you because my heart knows I got lucky with this one.

I am choosing to be vulnerable and to let someone into my guarded, taped-up heart. I am choosing to heal my jaded edges and the damage that has been left by others because I want to be able to choose you full-heartedly. I am choosing to heal so that you do not have to carry my baggage — my doubts and fears. 

I am choosing to wake up every day at 4 a.m. to watch the sunrise because I want to know why you like sunrises so much. I am choosing to accompany you on every adventure because I know you sometimes feel lonely and I do not ever want you to feel alone. I am choosing to explore your favorite restaurants with you because I know your love language is quality time. I am choosing to support you through every endeavour and reassure your insecurities and worries because you chose to do the same for me.

You are everything to me, and you do not deserve to be half loved due to ever-changing feelings. It is pretty simple: I am choosing to be with you. Because love is a choice.