Dear You,

Before I met you, I did not think myself capable of love. I thought love was giving and giving and giving to everyone, but never getting anything in return. I thought love was supposed to be toxic.

But then I met you. And you turned my world upside down in the best way possible. From the moment I laid eyes on you, I knew that you were different. You weren’t trying to impress anyone, you weren’t trying to be anyone but yourself. You were just genuinely happy to be alive. I didn’t care if we dated or not, I just wanted to be around you. You gave off this aura of pure joy.

A year and a half later, here we are--still so filled with love for life and for each other. I think a big part of that is because you are the single most romantic person I have ever met. You say it’s because I am deserving; you say I deserve the world. But all I know is that I am the luckiest girl alive to be able to spend every day with you by my side.

Sometimes I’ll come out to my car after a long day and there will be flowers scattered on my windshield with a note attached. Sometimes you’ll burst through the door with flowers in tow and smile as you say, “For my beautiful girl.” Every summer you take me on an adventure to another state, or sometimes country, because when we first met I told you I’d take memories over material items any day. But it isn’t these huge gestures that made me fall in love with you, no, not in the slightest.

It was the little things.

It’s they way that every time we visit my family you treat them like your own. You play with my younger cousins. You and my sister sing out loud together and squabble like brother and sister. You listen to my parents tell stories about when they first started dating and genuinely care about what they say. You accept them, even though you don’t have to.

It’s the way you make all of my mornings worth waking up to. You see, I am not a morning person. In fact, I am the opposite of a morning person. But you, you wake up smiling and ready to start the day. You make me a cup of coffee and kiss my forehead while you make me avocado toast…while I am still resembling the Grinch.

It’s the way you give me a back massage until I fall asleep. It’s the way you always offer to drive because you know I get bad anxiety when I do. It’s the way you surprise me with breakfast in bed. It’s the way you write poetry for me. It’s the way you open yourself up to me about things in your life that you don’t talk to other people about. It’s they way you are willing to talk with me about taboo subjects. It’s the way you look at me; it’s a different way than you look at everyone else. It’s the way you willingly give me your shoulder to cry on. It's the way you buy me books because you know they feed my soul.

It’s not the big things, although those things make my heart want to burst with love; it’s the fact that day after day you continue to do the little things.

Love,
Me