I don’t know if it was my parent’s divorce or my seemingly tragic pattern of only falling for guys who treated me like shit, but love has always been my dream.

I’m not talking about doodle all over your notebook and hug in the hallway kind of love, I’m talking about heart-racing, butterflies flying, life-altering kind of love.

Since I can remember, I dreamt of this kind of love. I imagined meeting someone who loved me for me, even given my controlling tendencies and my wild emotions. I told myself that no matter what may happen to me – no matter how shitty my life may seem or low my confidence is, one day I am going to meet someone who changes all of that. I am going to meet someone who laughs when I laugh, cries when I cry, knows what I’m thinking and feeling without asking, and loves me unconditionally no matter what.

After years of what seemed like nothing but failed relationships, heartache, struggle, loneliness, and honestly being treated like crap, you’d think I would have given up on the dream of finding what they call true love. But I didn’t.

I didn’t give up, but I did stop looking. For some miraculous reason, I could trust that whatever was meant to happen, would happen and love would find me. It wasn’t my job to look, it was my job to trust my dream and hold onto, but trust that it was being taken care of by something bigger than myself. That’s when I met you.

From the moment I met you, my life was changed. You are everything that I scribbled down in my notebook the fall of junior year that even my wildest fantasies dreamt of my dream guy as having. Even the characteristics that I thought I would never find in someone, you have.

You are more than kind, you are thoughtful. You are more than caring, you are selfless. You are more than understanding, you are truly sympathetic. You have this amazing ability to take how other people are feeling into account. When we talk, you listen to me, even when I’m ranting for the millionth time or having a crisis because I can’t decide which planner I want to use. You laugh when I laugh, you hold me when I cry. And you, despite my roller-coaster of a personality and my dumpster full of problems, love me unconditionally for who I am.

Without even realizing it, you changed what I thought my dream of love would look like. You took that dream, and you not only made it come true, you made it even bigger and more amazing than I could have ever imagined.

Even after a year, I am still getting used to being your priority, to being treated the way I am supposed to be treated, and to being loved the way that you love me.

You showed me that there is someone who deserves the kind of love I have always been meant to give. You have taught me the value of not only loving you, but loving myself. You have and will continue to show me how to live a life full of true joy, true partnership, and true love.

To you, I sincerely thank you. Thank you for finding me. Thank you for accepting me. Thank you for sharing your life with me. Thank you for loving me.

To those who have yet to find the person who will show you what love is supposed to look like, don’t give up. He or she is out there for you, I promise. When you want to give up on your dream because things seem too shitty and a waste of time, don’t. Be patient. Be kind to yourself. And never forget that there is someone out there who is looking for someone just like you to love.