I had been broken, left alone and was ice cold toward any type of relationship. You know that post-long term relationship wall that builds up? Mine was not made of bricks, but of a dense cement. I was independent; convinced I was never going to be married, never have a family of my own and was going to spend my life alone traveling the globe for business. I thought that being independent was better then any kind of relationship I could ever be in, so independent I was going to be. All of my friends who were in relationships annoyed me, and I was bitter. I was the friend who would say, “It’s not worth it,” or, “I told you so,” when one of my friends would get hurt emotionally by their significant other. I believed that lust was always temporary and that love wasn’t something I wanted to find again. Then you walked into my life.

We started out as friends, but you were different. You were respectful towards all of our friends. It wasn’t long until I started doubting my plan of never falling in love again. I have some things I'm not proud of, but you were there more than anyone had ever been before and we were “just friends." You made me change my mind, you made me want to give a relationship a chance.

We started dating, and you were so different, a gentleman. Something I hadn’t known. But you couldn’t get past those walls, and I wouldn’t let you. You would try to climb over, but as soon as you’d get to the top i’d push you back down. That didn’t stop you from trying. Eventually, the little surprises like bringing me Starbucks, remembering every detail about a story I told you, making me laugh until my stomach hurt made me start to tear down the wall myself. I fell in love with you, something I didn’t think I would ever do.

Before I depended on no one but myself, but when I’m having a bad day, I won’t be “bothering” you by venting about it. When I want to hangout, you drop everything and you never cancel plans. When we disagree we discuss things, there’s no yelling, there’s only happy tears.

I want to take a second to thank all of the boys who taught me what a relationship should not be, so when I found one worth fighting for I could point it out. If I’m crying every other day, getting ditched and constantly being lied to, I know it’s not going to end well. But you aren’t those things.

I want to thank you for teaching me that it is OK to depend on someone else, to have someone other than yourself create happiness in your life. That I deserve to be brought Ben & Jerry’s in bed while watching "Gossip Girl." That you want to spend the majority of your time with me. For staying through everything and always seeing the best in me. BUT most of all I want to thank your showing me that falling in love with you was OK because not all boys are the same.