Most of us have been in a relationship at some time or another, and if you've ever been in love, you've probably thought to yourself, "I love this person. No matter what happens, no matter what they do, I am undeniably in love with them."

Now, unless you are still in love with this person and this is also the first person you've ever loved, you've probably already realized that this is just not true, and that the world doesn't always work the way we want it to. That person who had your whole world probably, at some point, dropped it and left you feeling crushed and heartbroken, or your feelings may have just dissipated at some point in time.

The important lesson here isn't that you should become jaded and lose all hope of ever falling in love permanently or always be worried that the people in your life who you love will hurt you or leave you. The lesson here is that you should learn to love yourself first, love yourself the most, and most importantly, that you're the only one in this world, until you have children, that deserves your unconditional love.

When we "unconditionally" love someone, when we tell them that there is nothing in the world that they could do to possibly cause you to leave them or stop loving them, then you're allowing someone to have more power over you than you yourself. No one deserves that kind of power over you, and you shouldn't be willing to give it to anyone other than yourself.

I love my boyfriend, I really do, and I love my best friends. I would do almost anything for them because they mean the world to me. But at the end of the day, my boyfriend and my best friends have to continue to show their affections for me in order for our relationships to thrive and continue. If, tomorrow, my boyfriend wakes up and decides he will ignore me for the next few days, go hang out with some ex-girlfriends, or even if he just chooses to be a jerk tomorrow for no reason, I am not required to love him despite all of those things.

If my best friend takes the next few weeks to tell everyone about how upset she is with me for something I did several nights ago, and she gets in meaningless fights with me without ever telling me what I did wrong, that'd be enough grounds to almost end a friendship, right? I'm not required to love my best friend because she's always been a huge part of my life and I would miss her. I'm not required to love her at all if she acts like this, and no one would blame me.

It is our responsibility as righteous human beings to show the people we love that we love them—and then we have to continue to do so for every day that we want those people to be a part of our lives. Don't let your love be something for someone to use to take advantage of you or be something that makes you feel jaded and hate the world. You are allowed to pick and choose who you love, and who you love unconditionally. Let the latter be yourself, and let the former be everyone who deserves it.