Thank You for Setting Me Free

I never believed in "Right person wrong time", I thought it was a myth until I met him. From the moment that I met him there was an instant connection. I fell in love with him the second that his boisterous laugh filled my ears. I made a list of qualities that I wanted my first boyfriend to have.

Funnily enough, he was the complete opposite of everything I wanted, but I soon learned that he was everything that I needed. You were the perfect gentleman. You never let me touch a door handle. Showered me with unconditional love. Made me apart of your amazing family. Most of you still tell me you are just a phone call away.

This is not a cheesy love story about two people falling out of love or suffering a tragic break up. This is a thank you to the handsome young man that stole my heart. A thank you to the young man that loved me while I struggled to love myself. The young man that set me free on a journey to discover self-love.

I just want to start off by saying thank you. Thank you for understanding and allowing me to put myself first. You have given me so much love and taught me so much in the past four years.

You are the most supportive person I have ever met. You listened to my dreams and pushed me to chase after them. You encourage me to continue to write and here I am writing for the Odyssey. You were at every home basketball game supporting me and always took me for Tacos after.

You reminded me that I am strong although I felt weak. I was silent for so long and you reminded me that I have a voice. You helped me realize that I am capable of more than I allow myself to believe.

You are so hardworking, let you always made more than enough time for me. Every weekend you would drive over three hundred and twenty miles to allow me to come home to you.

You weren't "perfect" but you were definitely perfect for me. I could not be more grateful to have been loved by you. You have set the standards for how I should love myself. I never thought my greatest love would be my first love, and I never imagined myself letting you go.

This was the hardest thing I have ever done. Yet you reassured me that this would be the best for me. I know that this was hard for you as well, yet you were so care and understanding. You are so selfless and full of love.

Any girl would truly be lucky to have you. However, you better believe that if you are still single once my journey of self-love is complete, I am coming for you.

I am not asking you to wait for me because that would be unfair to you. I want you to enjoy life and be happy. I want you to continue to work hard and achieve everything that you have ever hoped for. I believe in you.

"We rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope" Romans 5:3-5. Thank you for being you J.

Ten years from now when I looking through an old box of memories and I stumble across a picture of us, I will cry, for you were the one that got away.